Networks

16th Delegate Assembly – Virtual Meeting

The European Young Chemists’ Network (EYCN) continues to bring together young chemists and promote their vision despite the challenges set by the Covid-19 pandemic. Following the spirit of time, the 16th Delegate Assembly (DA) was held virtually on 12 – 13 March, and the original plan to meet in Fribourg, Switzerland was postponed to 2022. The DA was organised through Zoom, Wonder, and Slack, gathering delegates and guests from over 20 countries to discuss the future of the network. Although organised online, the DA was an engaging event with fruitful brainstorming sessions and enjoyable networking.

The DA began with welcome words and brief reports from Dr. Antonio M. Rodríguez García (EYCN Chair), Maximilian Menche (EYCN Secretary), and Dr. Carina Crucho (EYCN Treasurer). The first day of the DA continued with presentation of the teams and ended with a fun chemistry-related pub quiz that will be launched to a wider audience later this year. The second day of the DA opened with a recorded welcome message from the President of the European Chemical Society (EuChemS), Prof. Floris Rutjes, who wished the EYCN a lot of success for the years to come. Joining the DA live, Prof. Pilar Goya (EuChemS Vice-President) gave a comprehensive overview of the EuChemS activities during the past year, highlighting the Global Women’s Breakfast, the ceremony for the 2018 EuChemS lecture awardee, the workshop titled The value is on circularity with the European parliament, and the 50th anniversary of EuChemS. A separate session was also dedicated to the EU policy landscape and EuChemS policy initiatives presented by Dr. Nineta Hrastelj, Secretary-General of EuChemS.

Impressions from the 16th Virtual Delegate Assembly

This year, the national societies were presented in an engaging poster session followed by small group brainstorming sessions on Sponsorships, the EYCN Podcast, and Outreach initiatives. The last session, moderated by Jelena Lazić and Laura Jousset from EuChemS, highlighted the importance of social media, interaction with the public, and cooperation with national societies. The 3rd edition of the Chemistry Rediscovered EYCN video competition on the theme “Safety in Chemistry” was also launched on 13 March with the support of the Wilkinson Charitable Foundation.

Part of the DA was the election of the new EYCN Board for 2021–2023. Maximilian Menche will continue the work of Dr. Antonio M. Rodríguez García as the next EYCN Chair. Dr. Liva Dzene was elected as the new Secretary and Lieke van Gijzel filled the spot of Treasurer. Additionally, the new Team Leaders were elected including Dr. Denisa Vargová (Membership), Dr. Claudia Bonfio (Networks), Patrick Fritz (Communications), Shona Richardson (Global Connections), and Sebastian Balser (Science).

The 17th DA will be held in January 2022 by the Swiss Chemical Society in Fribourg, Switzerland, and the 18th DA was decided to take place in the Hague, Netherlands, coordinated by the Royal Netherlands Chemical Society (KNCV) on 18 – 20 August 2023.

Katja Väyrynen, Dimitra Pournara,
Communication Team Members

Patrick Fritz,
Communication Team Leader

Maximilian Menche,
EYCN Chair

Chemistry Rediscovered

During the 16th Delegate Assembly of the European Young Chemists’ Network (EYCN), the call for participation for the 3rd edition of the video competition “Chemistry Rediscovered – Sir Geoffrey Wilkinson EYCN video competition” was launched. Participants must highlight an aspect of the subject “Safety in Chemistry” based on a 90-second video. The competition is divided in two groups: under and above 18 years old in order to have fair chances for everyone. The goal of the video competition is to motivate young students for chemistry in general. Chemistry Rediscovered takes place every two years and each time a different aspect of chemistry is highlighted. In the last edition, which took place in the year of the periodic table, the participants had to be creative in order to incorporate the elements of the periodic table. This time, the often-underrated topic of safety in chemistry is the theme and we are very excited to see what the participants will come up with. The deadline for submitting video is 30 September 2021.

For more information visit bit.ly/ChemistryRediscovered2021.

The main prize is a trip to the 8th EuChemS European Chemistry Congress (ECC8) in Lisbon in 2022.

Sebastian Balser,
EYCN Science Team Leader