Review Swiss Chemistry Science Night 2021 - A Celebration of Chemical Research

On September 9, 2021 the first Swiss Chemistry Science Night took place at Casino Bern! More than eighty award winners and invited guests followed the invitation and enjoyed the first real on-site event of the SCS since March 2020. Leslie Fendt, F. Hoffmann-La Roche, and Martin Vollmer, Clariant, guided through the evening as moderators and presented the guests and awardees in dialogue with the SCS president, Alain De Mesmaeker, in a competent and highly entertaining manner. Andrea Gmür, Die Mitte (LU), and Stephan Mumenthaler, director of scienceindustries, opened the evening with their welcome messages before no less than 32 winners for 17 prizes were honored.

The event honored the winners of the 2020 and 2021 Swiss Chemical Society Awards in front of distinguished leaders from industry and academia as well as representatives from politics and was a celebration of discovery and innovation in the chemical sciences. The gala was very much appreciated by the community and provided a networking platform for industry and academic members. 

Some of the award winners gave their award lecture at the online SCS Fall Meeting the following day. 

After six years of service, Alain De Mesmaeker will step down as SCS President at the end of 2021 and was honored for his impact and achievements. Next year Prof. Christian Bochet will take over the mandate and will be the host of the 2^nd Swiss Chemistry Science Night. Also Hans Peter Lüthi was honored for his service of nine years as SCS treasurer. He already handed over the mandate to Maud Reiter in August 2021.

Links

• News message SCS Award Winners 2020 and SCS Industrials Science Award Winners 2020
• News message SCS Award Winners 2021
• SCS Partnership Program
• SCS Fall Meeting 2021

Céline Wittwer, SCS
13.09.2021 

SCS Fall Meeting 2021: Again a successful online event with more than 400 participants

The SCS Fall Meeting 2021, one of the largest annual research conferences was held in Switzerland. For generations of young chemists educated in Switzerland, the Fall Meeting has been a great platform to present their research – often for the first time ever at a major conference - and to be inspired by the people one gets to meet. After a successful event last year, we were using the same platform again for this edition due to the uncertain situation with the ongoing pandemic. For the second time the Fall Meeting took place as an online conference to fulfill the regulations of the government and to facilitate safe exchange of scientific information. 

SCS Fall Meeting 2021
Online Conference
Friday, 10. September 2021, 09:15 – 18:30
fm21.scg.ch

Despite the special circumstances we received about 422 contributions from all over the globe for a talk or poster presentation in one of the 9 parallel sessions:

Analytical Sciences 40
Catalysis Science & Engineering 56
Chemistry and the Environment 31
Computational Chemistry 40
Inorganic & Coordination Chemistry 56
Medicinal Chemistry & Chemical Biology 44
Organic Chemistry 67
Physical Chemistry 44
Polymers, Colloids & Interfaces 44

Instead of displaying a (static) image of a classical poster, we decided to grant the presenters a three-minute slot to showcase their research in the form of a video. These videos were on display for the entire week. For the Commercial Exhibition we also created a virtual room through which the participants could enter and view the online booths of the exhibitors. Interactivity, i.e. the exchange between presenter and viewer, was granted through Gather.Town, a virtual platform where you could move around with your avatar and get in 1:1 interaction with other conference participants, the speakers and exhibitors.

The attendance, in terms of sessions established, was very good. Peak attendance was reached with more than 400 participants. The actual number of participants will be higher (estimated over 500 participants)  as some shared the screen with their research group or institute, . 

Program Highlights:

• Two plenary sessions with lectures of SCS price winners 2021
• Virtual Poster Session during the whole week
• Nine thematic parallel sessions with key note lectures and 15min PhD presentations
• Best oral and best virtual poster presentation award ceremony

Topics of the parallel sessions were

• Analytical Sciences
• Catalysis Science & Engineering
• Computational Chemistry
• Inorganic & Coordination Chemistry
• Medicinal Chemistry & Chemical Biology
• Organic Chemistry
• Physical Chemistry
• Polymers, Colloids & Interfaces
• Chemistry and the Environment 

Céline Wittwer, SCS
13.09.2021

Winners of the Best Poster Presentation Awards at the SCS Fall Meeting 2021

In collaboration with DSM Nutritional Products, SCS offered again the very attractive and prestigious Fall Meeting Best Poster Award program. Combined with the Best Oral Presentation Awards program this is probably the most highly remunerated award program in the field, and we are very proud and happy to cooperate with our sponsoring partners. We wish to express our sincere gratitude to DSM Nutritional Products Ltd for their generous support and congratulate all winners for their fantastic contributions.

Roman Imhof awarded a total of 23 winners at the end of the SCS Fall Meeting online on September, 2021.

Winners of the Best Poster Presentation Awards 2021

Céline Wittwer, SCS
11.09.2021

Winners of the Best Oral Presentation Awards at the SCS Fall Meeting 2021

In collaboration with Metrohm, SCS offered again the very attractive and prestigious Fall Meeting Best Oral Presentation Award program. Combined with the Best Poster Presentation Awards program this is probably the most highly remunerated award program in the field, and we are very proud and happy to cooperate with our sponsoring partners. We wish to express our sincere gratitude to Metrohm for their generous support and congratulate all winners for their fantastic contributions.

Markus Steinke, representative of Metrohm, awarded a total of 17 winners at the end of the SCS Fall Meeting online on September 10, 2021.

Winners of the Best Oral Presentation Awards 2021

Analytical Sciences
Winner: Robin Nussbaum, University of Geneva
Runner-up: Thomas Vonderach, ETH Zurich

Catalysis Sciences & Engineering
Winner: Emanuele Moioli, PSI
Runner-up: Arik Beck, ETH Zurich

Computational Chemistry
Winner: Amol Thakkar, University of Bern
Runner-up: Eric Heller, ETH Zurich

Chemistry and the Environment
Winner: Neeru Mittal, ETH Zurich
Runner-up: Mattia Cerri, ETH Zurich

Inorganic Chemistry
Winner: Dieuwertje Modder, EPFL Lausanne
Runner-up: Liam Grunwald, ETH Zurich

Medicinal Chemistry
Winner: Jade Nguyen, EPFL Lausanne

Organic Chemistry
Winner: Stephanie Amos, EPFL Lausanne
Runner-up: Marius Lutz, ETH Zurich

Physical Chemistry
Winner: Valentina Zhelyazkova, ETH Zurich
Runner-up: Gonzague Rebetez, University of Bern

Polymers, Colloids & Interfaces
Winner: Richard Whitfield, ETH Zurich
Runner-up: Hanna Traeger, AMI

Céline Wittwer, SCS
11.09.2021