2024 EuChemS Historical Landmarks Award celebrates Europe’s scientific heritage

EuChemS is proud to announce the recipients of the 2024 EuChemS Historical Landmarks Award, recognising sites of historical significance in the chemical sciences. This year’s award highlights Banská Štiavnica (Selmecbánya) in Slovakia at the European level and the Maria Skłodowska-Curie Museum in Warsaw, Poland at the regional level.

Founded in 1763 by decree of Empress Maria Theresa, the Mining Academy of Banská Štiavnica became the world’s first technical university, bringing international prestige to the city as a centre of mining, metallurgy, and chemical sciences. Its pioneering departments in chemistry, mineralogy, metallurgy, mathematics, hydraulics, and mining law trained generations of specialists and introduced experimental methods based on measurement and weighing.

Renowned professors such as Mikuláš Jozef Jacquin, Giovanni Antonio Scopoli, and Anton Leopold Ruprecht advanced research that helped defeat the phlogiston theory and promote Lavoisier’s oxidation principles. Although the Academy ceased to exist in 1918, both the city and its institution are remembered for their lasting impact on European science.

At the regional level, EuChemS honours the Maria Skłodowska-Curie Museum in Warsaw, located in the scientist’s birthplace at 16 Freta Street. Established by the Polish Chemical Society in 1967 on the centenary of her birth, the museum preserves an unparalleled collection of personal items, correspondence, photographs, and scientific instruments belonging to the Nobel laureate and her family.

From its origins in pre-war collections safeguarded by Maria’s sisters to later donations by her daughter Irène Joliot-Curie, the museum remains a vibrant space for celebrating Maria Skłodowska-Curie’s scientific achievements and enduring inspiration to future generations.

Recognising chemistry’s heritage

Through the Historical Landmarks programme, EuChemS seeks to celebrate places of importance in the history of chemistry across Europe, ensuring that their legacy is recognised and preserved for the future. The 2024 awardees highlight both the roots of modern scientific education and the personal legacy of one of the world’s most influential scientists.