A truly international chemistry community
Our president, Professor Sir John Holman, speaks to our news and media manager, Edwin Silvester, about building and learning from international partnerships, and how the Royal Society of Chemistry community plays a crucial role in bringing together and inspiring chemical scientists from all over the world.
ES: How was your recent visit to China?
JH: It was just perfect really – a packed programme, which I like, and a mixture of business of various sorts and a bit of pleasure too. We had dinner discussions, we hosted symposia, I visited three schools and taught some chemistry, I met science and innovation specialists at the British Embassy, I presented Martyn Poliakoff with the Lord Lewis Prize and even had a day on the Great Wall.
One thing that struck me was on the bullet train from Beijing to Shanghai. Apart from it being a fantastic train that took just four hours to travel a thousand kilometres, when you looked out of the window it was almost a procession of cranes, construction, and high-rises being built all the way along.
There’s such a feeling of economic dynamism – that train journey brought it home to me – but the other thing is the sheer statistics for the importance of Chinese research in our chemistry. Nearly 40% of our authors are Chinese and that’s increasing at a blistering speed.
And how was the experience in the schools you visited?
One of the schools I went to was a fairly traditional Chinese school, mostly taught in Chinese, with quite large classes – 40 in a class – and very motivated students.
Another school I went to was an experimental one, where they were trying out new kinds of curricula, encouraging students to be more creative, and a little bit more individualistic, which was very interesting.
Finally, I went to visit Dulwich College in Beijing – it’s an English foundation, all the curriculum is conducted in English and it feels quite like an English independent school – again with hugely motivated students. I had the opportunity to teach a little bit of chemistry in three very different schools. The motivation there is just wonderful – hard-working, very keen students, like sponges absorbing everything you tell them.
I taught English in a Chinese school some years ago and the length of the Chinese school day always struck me…
Yes, and I think China realises at the official level that soaking up knowledge is not enough – they need to encourage creativity and they need to think about inspirational learning. They are open to new ideas – it’s not as if the people who run the schools are blinkered in any way, they were really open to new ideas and want to learn from us.
I spent half a day in the Beijing Commission for Education, the government education department for Beijing – and gave them a seminar on some of the things we’re doing in the UK in science education – which they were very interested in.
Before your travels in China you spent a day welcoming the GDCh to a 150th anniversary event with the German ambassador, at Burlington House. What is the importance to you of celebrating our ongoing friendship?
It was such a feel-good sort of a day, all about celebrating a relationship amongst two of the greatest chemistry nations in the world.
In my speech I referred to a statement, sent in 1892 from Alexander Crum Brown, then President of the Chemical Society, to the GDCh to celebrate its 25th anniversary. He said that the GDCh journal provided chemists of all nations with “a meeting ground where international jealousies disappear and the spirit of utmost toleration prevails.”
We find ourselves in a very different world from that of 1892, with many issues discussed in terms of borders, and staying within them. But this is not how we scientists talk about science. I strongly echo the sentiment of my predecessor: chemistry has no nationality. We work as one community and we will continue to do so.
We recognise that there are some areas where we compete – selling top quality chemistry journals for example – but a strong recognition that there’s far more that we can and must collaborate on than we compete on. I think hanging over all of this is Brexit and the recognition that it may be harder for us to collaborate in the future.
I hope not, I hope that the government will listen to what we’re saying about mobility of researchers. It may get harder but if we’re motivated by friendly relationships, then even if it is a little bit harder to be mobile between one another’s countries, we’ll be motivated to do it because, to put it simplistically, we’re going to see our friends, not just our collaborators.
Where is next on your international itinerary?
I go to New Orleans in March, to the American Chemical Society convention. I’m going to do two things – the first being a presidents’ symposium, jointly with Allison Campbell (who will by then be the ACS past president) and Thisbe Lindhorst, the president of GDCh. The theme is trust in the chemical sciences and the importance of it.
This, of course, has great relevance to a world where it seems trust and truth don’t necessarily have the value that we would like them to. There was a lovely quote in Chemistry World from Ben Feringa – “the biggest threat to science is those who think science is only an opinion”, which I think is a perfect way of putting it.
I’m also doing a session for American science teachers. They have a “teachers’ day”, and I’m contributing to that, telling them about some of the international comparative studies I’ve done. They’re interested to know what it’s like teaching in other countries.
The EuCheMS congress comes here in 2018. How good an opportunity is that to connect to people, particularly from all over Europe but also beyond?
It’s perfect timing because the subliminal messages that people will have from the general media is that the UK is turning its back on Europe, closing the doors, and here we are – in science at least – throwing them open to people from all over Europe. There’s a big symbolic point there, as well as a real one.
How is our message being received at governmental level?
In the forum I’m in – Science Minister Jo Johnson’s high level group advising on Brexit – most of the time we, quite rightly, deal in data and facts. But every now and then someone says something that hits home emotionally and I think we need to do that. We need to tell stories about individuals, about how it feels to be a European national who’s devoted their career to the United Kingdom and no longer feels welcome.
We’re scientists so we tend to deal in facts, but there is an emotional side to this as well. We can all contribute to making people feel welcome, and to making the UK feel like a country whose doors are open. If we all do that, as institutions like the Royal Society of Chemistry as well as us as individuals, then we can make a difference. And that’s important, because science is an innately human activity. The best scientific ideas come as a result of individuals – often from different countries – meeting to collaborate and spark ideas off one another.
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