Members Perspectives

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National Chemistry Conference of the Hungarian Chemical Society 2019

In line with its integrative role in the national chemical community, the Hungarian Chemical Society (HCS) is committed to organising a recurring conference to inform a wide range of professionals about the diverse knowledge and application practices of Hungarian chemists. The National Chemistry Conference with the special motto ‘Chemistry between us’ was held between 24-26 June this year at Eszterházy Károly University in Eger (Hungary). On the opening day, Péter Szalay (Chairman of the Scientific Organising Committee, Deputy Secretary-General of HCS), Csaba Szántay (Member of the Scientific Organising Committee, Vice-President of HCS) and Zoltán Murányi (Executive Committee Member of HCS) on behalf of the host Institution welcomed more than 150 participants, one third of which were undergraduate students, PhD students and young scientists. The event provided opportunities for participants from various research fields (synthetic chemistry, environmental analytics/food chemistry, material sciences, plastic and coating chemistry, chemical sensors, oil industry and drug research) to gain insight into each other’s disciplines. The thematic sections involving 20-25-min keynote lectures were followed each day by longer panel discussions or educational roundtables, and, as a novelty, the two poster sessions with 68 posters on different topics were introduced by flash presentations. The best poster awards were announced and handed over at the banquet by the Members of the Poster Evaluating Committee on the second day. The conference ended with a closing ceremony where Csaba Szántay briefly evaluated the 3-day programme and István Pálinkó (Secretary-General of HCS) closed the meeting, which created an excellent platform for young researchers, academics, industrial participants and students to share their research outcomes, to enrich their personal, professional and social relationships and develop new and fruitful collaborations.

Éva Frank
Correspondent, Hungarian Chemical Society

100 years of Romanian Chemistry

As for many other chemical societies around Europe, 2019 is a special year, as we celebrate the 100-years of the Romanian Chemical Society. A century ago a group of Romanian chemists decided to create the Romanian Chemical Society (SChR) starting from an existing active branch of a Romanian Society for Sciences, which dated back to 1890.  The decision was mainly based on the IUPAC requirement to have the word ‘’chemistry” within the name of the society in order to be able to affiliate to the international organism. The newly created Romanian Chemical Society was very active, was affiliated to IUPAC in 1921 and was organising the 6th IUPAC Congress in Bucharest by 1925. Many of its members (St. Minovici, C.D. Nenitescu, E. Angelescu and many others) played active roles in IUPAC scientific sections and had large international collaboration networks.

The celebration of the Romanian Chemical Society’s Centenary officially started in 2018. Seven chemical conferences were organised by the SChR in various cities of Romanian on this special occasion. Starting with the 10eme Colloque Franco-Roumain de Chimie Appliquée (COFrRoCA 2018) in Bacau, the 5th International Congress on Chemistry for Cultural Heritage in Bucharest, the 10th National Chemical Conference for Teachers in Targoviste, the Analytical Chemistry Conference RO-ICAC in Bucharest, the XXXVth Romanian Chemistry Conference in Calimanesti Caciulata, the 9th International Conference of the Chemical Societies of the South-Eastern European Countries (ICOSEC9) in Targoviste and ending with the one that will take place in October this year: the 21st Romanian International Conference on Chemistry and Chemical Engineering (RICCCE) in Mamaia-Constanța. Several other meetings, sessions, workshops took place honouring the 100 years of chemistry.

SChR decided to celebrate its anniversary by honouring its former members. As such, three books containing short bibliographic descriptions were published. One of the books collects the ten important bibliographical presentations of the “Romanian Chemical School Creators”, the second one presents “Portraits of remarkable women from the history of Romanian chemistry” and the third one presents 42 “Personalities of Romanian chemistry from research and education”.

In the middle of June 2019, members of SChR from all corners of Romania, gathered in Bucharest, for the SChR Centenary Festive Assembly. The emotions spread into the room when Prof. Rosca (president of SChR) guided the audience through the life of the society from its conception until today. The celebration was followed by the Award Ceremony of SChR when many active members were awarded alongside institutional and industrial partners of SChR. On this occasion the Centenary Medal of SChR was awarded for the first time. Depicting five important portraits of Romanian chemists, the medal is a reminder of our roots and a guiding star of our future progress.

Cristina Todasca
Executive Board Member of SChR