On the afternoon of 1 September, Floris Rutjes, President of the European Chemical Society, and Artur Silva, President of the Portuguese Chemical Society, formally closed the 8th EuChemS Chemistry Congress. We were glad to see that the closing ceremony followed a successful, large scale, international congress – finally in person, after a delay of two years.
Activities related to EuChemS played an important role from the beginning. The European Chemistry Gold Medal Awardees from 2020 and 2022, Michele Parrinello, and Dame Carol Robinson respectively, were receiving their awards at the opening ceremony of the congress, on 28 August. After the ceremony, the exhibition grounds opened, where participants could visit the impressive EuChemS booth to learn more about our activities.
Our booth was visited by high profile, international stakeholders from the chemistry world including, but not limited to representatives of ACS, RSC, GDC, EFMC and IUPAC, with whom we discussed agreements, avenues for future international cooperation and other strategic objectives. Apart from strategic meetings, many visitors were just interested in EuChemS – amongst them, activities such as the demonstration of the EuChemS Periodic Table and the EuChemS Quiz were especially successful.
Apart from our awards and booth, EuChemS also organised two successful sessions. During the Panel Discussion titled Chemists’ contributions to the global approach for tackling pollution, numerous high-profile speakers discussed the science policy implications of the 5th UN Environment Assembly, with a focus on chemistry. In the session Culture and Policy in Science, speakers from social science backgrounds used their unique lenses to examine the scientific process, which led to a lively discussion with the audience.
We were happy to welcome all participants, and we are looking forward meeting you all again at the ECC9, which will be held in Dublin, Ireland, in 2024. Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and YouTube to stay up to date!