A week-long event combined the 47th IUPAC Congress, the IUPAC General Assembly, and the celebrations of its 100-year anniversary. Taking place in the Paris Congress Centre, the conference mixed plenary talks, a large number of varied parallel sessions, awards, and featured a poster area and stand exhibition – where Nobel laureates and aspiring chemists were able to discuss and share their ideas.
A EuChemS exhibition stand enabled participants to come and talk to our team, better understand the goals and activities of EuChemS and to find out more about upcoming events and projects. On display was of course the EuChemS Periodic Table depicting element scarcity, which sparked discussions and debates over the meaning of our use of elements in our smartphones and everyday technologies. We were also pleased to see some Nobel prize winners visit the booth, who were later invited by our young chemists’ network, the EYCN, for interviews.
The centenary celebrations looked at the rich history of IUPAC’s beginnings and later development, and invited attendees to think about the future, and what chemistry can do to provide solutions to the myriad challenges our world faces. More about the event here, or check out the #IUPAC2019Paris hashtag on Twitter for a taster of all the event had to offer!
During the congress, Presidents and representatives of Chemical Societies from across the globe signed a Joint Framework Agreement on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). Pilar Goya, EuChemS President signed the document on behalf of the European Chemical Society. The agreement, in recognition of the role the chemical sciences can play in addressing global challenges, aims to encourage and commit chemical societies around the world to
cooperate in identifying solutions, locally and globally, using the SDGs as a guide, to such challenges. Solving such complex and multidimensional issues will indeed require the collaboration and joint effort between governments, industry, academia and non-governmental organisations. You can read more about it here.
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