IYPT19 Final Report is now available

Nov 10, 2020

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The International Year of the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements 2019 (IYPT19)

The United Nations proclaimed 2019 the International Year of the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements (IYPT2019). The year-long celebration marked 150th anniversary of Russian scientist Dmitri Mendeleev’s 1869 breakthrough in recognising the predictive properties of elements and their compounds. Hence, a thousand events and festivities were held throughout the year, in over 130 countries worldwide.

The European Chemical Society, EuChemS, was one of 5 supporters of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) initiative. EuChemS actively promoted IYPT19 through articles, social media, games and various activities. Furthermore, EuChemS organised many events at national, European and international level.

IYPT19 was launched at the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, France, on 29 January 2019. EuChemS participated in the Closing ceremony in Tokyo, Japan (read more about it here).

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Final Report of IYPT19

The Final Report of the International Year of the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements 2019 is now available. It gathers the planning and initiatives organised throughout the year-long celebration.

As an active IYPT19 supporter, a summary of EuChemS initiatives and activities are provided in this report, including the development of EuChemS Periodic Table of Elements Scarcity. According to the Final Report of IYPT19, EuChemS and its Member Societies coordinated hundreds of activities and events in 2019, and these actions have reached millions of people through media coverage.

Do we still need to present you EuChemS Periodic Table? As indicated in the Final Report of IYP19, it was probably EuChemS most successful initiative for the IYPT19. This Periodic Table was widely disseminated: in European school rooms, on television, online news-channels, radios, in the European Parliament… and of course, during other IYPT19 events organised by other organisations. Today, EuChemS Periodic Table is available in 32 different languages. EuChemS wanted to raise awareness on Elements Scarcity: mission accomplished.

EuChemS Periodic Table of Elements Scarcity

It is a living document which will be updated as and when new information becomes available. Its legacy must be that people will change their behavior. To increase the time between updgrades of electronic goods, to repair them when something goes wrong, to give them to others to use after they have finisged with them and finally to hand them in for ethical recycling. It is simply not acceptable to keep these valuable ressources in the drawer. In short, we must develop circular economy for electronic goods.

– IYPT19 Final Report, European Chemical Society, Periodic Table of Scarcity, p. 74
Source: https://bit.ly/3jCQmQA

Besides, the IYPT19 Final Report emphasises EuChemS initiatives to promote Women in Science. In 2019, the remarkable book Women in their Element was published. This publication aims to make historical women chemists more visible, as well as to outline their work on the chemical elements and their periodic relationships. Brigitte Van Tiggelen Chair of the EuChemS Working Party on the History of Chemistry (WPHC) and Annette Lykknes, Vice-Chair of the EuChemS WPHC, have edited Women in their Element. EuChemS President, Pilar Goya, has written one of the two prefaces to the book. The IYPT19 report also looks back on other events organised to highlight the role of Women concerning the Periodic Table of Elements, including the two-day international symposium on ‘Setting their Table: Women and the Periodic Table of Elements’, held in Murcia, Spain.

The Final Report of IYPT19 does not overlook the numerous activities conducted by the young chemists of EuChemS. The European Young Chemists’ Network (EYCN) organised the video contest ‘In Your Element‘, which met a massive success: more than 250 videos were submitted for the second edition of Chemistry Rediscovered. The EYCN also promoted EuChemS video game, Elemental Escapades – A Periodic Table adventure, released in January 2019 and coordinated various events, including Pint of Chemistry 2019.

You can find the IYPT19 Final report HERE.

Discover more about EuChemS initiatives and events linked to IYPT19!