Editorial

EuChemS Magazine

Over the years, the name of our society has evolved from Federation of European Chemical Societies (FECS), to European Association for Chemical and Molecular Sciences (EuCheMS) to European Chemical Society (EuChemS). The name changes reflect the continuously changing political and chemical landscapes, but I am confident that we will keep our current name for quite some time.

To increase our visibility, we have started to consistently use EuChemS as a brand and to label many of our activities accordingly. As an example, in the past year we have renamed all our awards such that the name includes ‘EuChemS’: for instance, the European Chemistry Gold Medal has become the EuChemS Gold Medal. Along the same line, we decided to change the name and format of our newsletters such that they will be automatically associated with EuChemS. Up until now, we have two newsletters: the monthly Brussels News Updates (BNU), and the quarterly Chemistry in Europe (CiE). We felt that producing two newsletters that are seemingly not directly associated with the European Chemical Society is a suboptimal situation. Hence, we choose to change to a single newsletter that is visually more attractive and is directly associated with our society. Thus, I am pleased to announce that this is the last Chemistry in Europe issue, BNU will also cease to exist, and that both will be continued under a new name starting in 2023.

The restyled newsletter will be called ‘EuChemS Magazine’ and it will appear 12 times per year. Most of the issues will reflect the contents of BNU, while three of them will be somewhat more extensive, containing the types of contributions that are typically published in Chemistry in Europe newsletter. To readily distinguish between both types of issues, the latter ones will be named ‘EuChemS Magazine+’ as they will contain more content. Not unimportantly, we will start using state-of-the-art publishing software to make EuChemS Magazine look more professional and more accessible than the current newsletters.

It requires quite some work to change to a new newsletter. Designing and implementing a new format, working with new software, double checking that everything works well, merging address lists, and probably many other things, takes a lot of work and dedication and I am very grateful to the staff of the EuChemS Secretariat  – for Claudia who provides administrative assistance, for Marton who is responsible for the technical foundations and content, and for Nineta, who oversees and steers the operation of the Secretariat –  for making this possible. I am looking forward to see the new EuChemS Magazine and I hope you are as well!

Floris Rutjes
President, European Chemical Society

Focus

Lithuanian Chemical Society to become a member of EuChemS

The European Chemical Society welcomes its 50th member: the Lithuanian Chemical Society (LChS).

The membership application of the LChS, re-established in 2017, was unequivocally approved at the most recent EuChemS General Assembly in August this year.

LChS will formally become a member of EuChemS from 1 January 2023. Including Lithuania, EuChemS will represent chemists from 34 countries.

EuChemS intervention at the 3rd Zero Pollution Stakeholder Platform meeting

Secretary General Nineta Hrastelj and Executive Board Member Ioannis Katsoyiannis attended on behalf of EuChemS the 3rd meeting of the Zero Pollution Stakeholder Platform held on 11 October 2022 in Brussels.

During the meeting, Ioannis Katsoyiannis emphasized EuChemS’ willingness to make proactive contributions relying on its international network of chemists.

EuChemS Executive Board Meeting

The Executive Board of the European Chemical Society met online on 19 October 2022. President Floris Rutjes summarised key strategic issues regarding EuChemS, discussed at the General Assembly meeting in Lisbon earlier this year, while Secretary General Nineta Hrastelj presented current status of EuChemS affairs. The Executive Board voted on a number of important matters, and discussed financial and strategic approaches regarding the future of EuChemS.