Call for nominations: 2020 IUPAC-Solvay International Young Chemist award

The IUPAC-SOLVAY International Award for Young Chemists is intended to encourage outstanding young research scientists at the beginning of their careers. The awards are given for the most outstanding Ph.D. theses in the general area of the chemical sciences, as described in a 1000-word essay. The award is generously sponsored by Solvay.

In 2020 IUPAC will award up to five prizes. Each prize will consist of USD 1000 cash and travel expenses to the 2021 IUPAC Congress in Montréal (13-20 Aug 2021; see iupac2021.org). In keeping with IUPAC’s status as a global organization, efforts will be made to ensure fair geographic distribution of prizes.

The awards will be presented at the 2021 IUPAC Congress. Each awardee will be invited to present a poster on his/her research and to participate in a plenary award session, and is expected to submit a review article for publication in Pure and Applied Chemistry.

More information: https://iupac.org/2020-iupac-solvay-international-award-for-young-chemists/

Accessed the application form HERE

Deadline: February 1st, 2020

David Spichiger, SCS
22.10.2019

Invitation to the General Assembly of the SYCA

The board of the Swiss Young Chemists' Association invites all SCS member up to the age of 36 years to join the 2019 General Assembly that takes place as follows:

SYCA General Assembly 2019
Friday, September 6, 2019, 13.30-14.15h
University of Zürich, Irchel Campus, lecture hall G95

Agenda

13:30  Welcoming word
13:35  Presentation of SYCA aims and activities, treasurer report
13:45  Introduction of EYCN
13:50  Election of the new board of SYCA
14:00  Scheduling the future interactions, closure of the assembly 

The SYCA Board is looking forward to welcoming you next Friday,

Dmitry Vasilyev, SYCA President
dmitry.vasilyev@epfl.ch

David Spichiger, SCS
02.09.2019

Report: Visit Each Other at ETH Zurich

On the 15^th June 2019, the second edition of the “Visit Each Other” initiative took place at the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH) of Zürich. Organized by the Swiss Young Chemists’ Association (SYCA) and sponsored by the Swiss Chemical Society (SCS), this event is an excellent opportunity for the groups of the host institution to showcase their work and for the visitors to network and become aware of the cutting-edge research that is performed in the laboratory next door. 

The visit started at the ETH campus Hönggerberg from the Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences (D-CHAB), where the Laboratory of Prof. Christophe Copéret was represented by Ms. Margherita Pucino (Figure 1a,b). Her amazing results in the field of organometallic catalysts-mediated C=C metathesis demonstrated once more that it is at the meeting point between basic and applied research where technological breakthroughs can arise. 

Moving to the Department of Materials (D-MATL) and to the Multifunctional Materials Laboratory, led by Prof. Markus Niederberger, Dr. Walter Remo Caseri unraveled the chemical secrets of roman concrete (Figure 1c), Ms. Murielle Schreck discussed the production of photocatalytic aerogels (Figure 1d), while the use of lipid vesicles as nanoreactors and the development of wearable batteries were the topics respectively of Mr. Cvjetan Nemanjaand Ms. Linda Wehner. 

Figure 1. Moments of the visit to (a,b) Prof. Copéret Laboratory, (c,d) Prof. Niederberger Laboratory.

The variegated activities of the Laboratory of Soft and Living Materials (Prof. Eric R. Dufresne) were then presented by Ms. Tianqi Sai (structural colors by colloidal assembly), Mr. Alexandre Torzynsky (mechanical properties of lipid vesicles and bilayers) and Dr. Guido Panzarasa (complex chemical dynamics for the development of transient, self-regulating materials).

The permanent exhibition on the history of chemistry, with its collection of chemicals, instruments and other laboratory paraphernalia from the 19th century, gave the opportunity to consider that modern chemists really stand on the shoulders of past giants such as Werner, Ruzicka, Staudinger and many others which also contributed to make the chemical research performed at ETH a worldwide model. 

After so much food for thought, it became time to consider actual food too! The lunch took place on the terrasse of the restaurant “Die Waid”, from which the eye could also rejoice from the beautiful view over Oerlikon and Zürich (Figure 2). 

Figure 2. Lunch at the restaurant “Die Waid”.

The event was concluded after a brief tour of the historical building of ETH Zentrum, which gave also the possibility to enjoy the view from the Polyterrasse, and a stroll in Zürich around the Limmat.  

In total, 14 people attended the event, of which two were post-doctoral researchers and the others PhD students. The visitors came from EPFL (Lausanne), PSI (Villigen) as well as from ETH. The first “Visit Each Other” took place in EPFL last year; the next will be hosted at the University of Bern, soon after the summer break.

Dr. Guido Panzarasa, ETHZ and SYCA
17.06.2019

Swiss Young Chemists' Association: 'Visit Each Other' @ETH, June 15, 2019

While performing your research in Switzerland, what do you know about other Swiss research institutes and their locations? If the answer is “not a lot”, then we are happy to invite you to another 'visit each other' event, organized by the Swiss Young Chemists’ Association (SYCA):

SYCA's "Visit Each Other"@ ETH - Saturday 15 June 2019

Program

Contact

Guido Panzarasa, ETH Zurich and Member of the SYCA board
guido.panzarasa@mat.ethz.ch

Registration

The places are limited! If you are interested, please register (deadline June 10^th) by sending an e-mail to: guido.panzarasa@mat.ethz.ch 

David Spichiger, SCS
27.05.2019