Therapeutic strategies for preventing Parkinson's Disease

On the evening of Monday 22 May RSC Belgium welcomed Professor David Dexter, Director of Research at Parkinson’s UK to talk to us about ‘Therapeutic strategies for preventing Parkinson's Disease’. The event was held at the British School of Brussels in Tervuren.

Parkinson's disease is the fastest growing neurodegenerative condition with some 10 million people affected worldwide. Classically, Parkinson's is defined by the presence of motor symptoms such as tremor, limb stiffness and slowness of movement but there are many other non-motor symptoms, such as depression, anxiety, cognitive decline which greatly impact on quality of life. Whilst there are drugs which treat the motor features of Parkinson's, these drugs lose effectiveness with time, are associated with significant side effects and importantly they cannot slow the progression of the condition. 

Over the last 20 years there has been a revolution in our understanding of what causes Parkinson's and this has translated into a growing pipeline of novel therapeutic approaches to slow/stop the condition. In addition, biomarkers have recently been discovered that can accurately predict who will develop Parkinson's and prevention trials are on the horizon.

Professor Dexter's talk covered the role of biomarkers for early detection and what treatment strategies are being trialled in Parkinson's.

Biography

Professor Dexter joined Parkinson’s UK as Associate Research Director, overseeing scientific programmes, in March 2017. In April 2023 David was promoted to Director of Research at Parkinson’s UK. As Director, he is responsible for the charities grants programmes, strategic partnerships, research communications and patient involvement programmes. He is also the biology lead for Parkinson’s Virtual Biotech, the drug discovery arm of Parkinson’s UK. David has 38 years research experience in Parkinson’s disease research, 23 years of which was spent at Imperial College London where he was Professor of Neuropharmacology and Deputy Head of The Division of Brain Sciences.

YouTube Video

Professor Dexter's talk was recorded and can be found on our dedicated Youtube channel or as an embedded video below. Enjoy!

Current Chemistry investigates the Movies

On 28 and 29 September RSC Belgium welcomed Dr John O'Donoghue of Trinity College Dublin and colleagues to Brussels to deliver some Current Chemistry Investigators school workshops and give a reprise of his 'Chemistry in the Movies' talk at our 2023 Chemistry Challenge prize giving event on the evening of  28 September.

The idea of a workshop tour with John had been in the RSC Belgium planning for a few years now, but various interruptions - not least due to the COVID pandemic - had got in the way. However, despite the last minute intervention of Storm Agnes, we eventually were able get him, along with colleagues Dr Fiona McArdle of the Atlantic Technological University Sligo and Dr Natalia Garcia Domenech from Trinity, to Brussels in 2023.

Current Chemistry Investigators 

John (pictured below) and the team conducted four workshops during their time in Belgium: two at the British School of Brussels (BSB) in Tervuren on 28 September and two at St. Johns International School in Waterloo on 29 September.

The workshops provided the students with hands-on activities based on simple electrochemistry and electroanalytical concepts through tangible scientific role models. It also provides researchers with valuable and beneficial experience in science communication, to help them develop skills to share their research to wider audiences. The project looks to create an appreciation for the role of chemistry research in everyday life, increasing interest in this vital area for the benefit of everyone’s future.

The Current Chemistry Investigators initiative is an informal education and public engagement project developed by Trinity College Dublin and the Atlantic Technological University Sligo to spark conversations with schools and community groups about the science of energy storage and chemical analysis. The project was developed through funding provided by the Science Foundation Ireland.

Cinematic science

On the evening of 28 September John gave us an updated and in-person version of his 'Chemistry in the Movies' lecture in the Brel Theatre at BSB.

This mixed media talk will took a scientific and filmographic look at how chemists and chemistry have been portrayed in the movies and on TV. Short clips and graphics were used to talk about the topic in an engaging and light-hearted format. The movies chosen for this discussion are based around a number of themes like problem solving, plot devices, chemical companies and people. Details about where and how to access the relevant movies were  also be provided (Netflix, Disney, Amazon, Youtube, Apple etc).

About John

John is the RSC Education Coordinator in the School of Chemistry at Trinity College Dublin. He coordinates the education and public engagement course for PhD researchers and teaches a “chemistry in society” module for undergraduate students. On behalf of the Royal Society of Chemistry he also supports trainee and established science teachers through the provision of continuous professional development workshops and the development of new teaching resources.

Chemistry Challenge 2023 results announced

The results of the RSC Belgium Chemistry Challenge 2023 were announced at our event on 28 September with Dr John O’Donoghue at the British School of Brussels (BSB) in Tervuren. This year the Challenge resumed its usual ‘in-schools’ format after two years as a virtual event due to the COVID pandemic and BSB students claimed the majority of the prizes!

For the 2023 Challenge, seven schools took part (four European Schools and three International Schools) with a total of 74 students participating. This was a most encouraging number, but still under pre-COVID levels. We look forward to increased numbers for the 2024 edition of the Challenge.

As ever, the Challenge was designed to test students’ chemical knowledge and initiative. This year most students found Section A questions particularly taxing apart from some True/False questions.

The RSC Belgium Chemical Challenge has three sections:

- A chemistry multiple choice paper (Section A)

- A structured questions on chemistry (Section B), and

- A 'Thinking Matters' paper that is not chemistry based (Section C)

The top results were as follows:

Section A - Multiple choice

First prize for this section was won by Andrei Vascan from BSB who received a €50 award.

In joint second place were Hanseo Lee (far left below) and Annette Liflander (right below) also from BSB who each won €25 and, making a clean sweep for BSB, the third prize of €10 went to Kerem Teker (left below) from BSB.

Section B - Structured questions

In this section the first prize of €50 was awarded also won by Andrei Vascan of BSB with Laura Bartelloni (pictured right below) and Marianne Moody from BSB both picking up second prizes of €25. A third prize of €10 were awarded to Fanziska Vogel (left below) also of BSB.

Section C - Thinking Matters

Breaking the trend in this section, the top prize of €50 went to Melinda Koch of European School 1 in Luxembourg (ESL1) with Marianne Moody also claiming a €50 prize for BSB.

In second place was Alec Muller (pictured left above) of BSB winning him €25 and two third prizes worth €10 each were awarded to Annette Liflander and Aimee Willey (right above) both from BSB.

The Keith Price Prize

With a first prize in both Section A and Section B, this year's Keith Price Prize was claimed by Andrei Vascan (pictured below with RSC Belgium chair Prof Bob Crichton), who received an additional €100.

Well done to everyone who took part in this year's Chemistry Challenge! Every student that entered the competition receives a certificate of participation. And, of course, we will be running the Challenge again in 2024 and look forward to further widening participation!

A Wonderful Walking Tour of Ghent

On Saturday 9 September, RSC Belgium members and friends took part in a wonderful walking tour in the late summer sunshine around the Belgian city of Ghent. Our guide, Dr Paul Snell, helped illuminate the history and scientific and industrial heritage of the city often described as the 'Venice of the North'. And we also visited the relocated RSC Chemical Landmark for August Kekulé.

Our tour group met up at 10am for coffee and an introductory briefing from Paul at the Limerick Bookshop close to Ghent St Pieters station. Then it was 'all aboard' a tram to the centre of Ghent.

Our first port of call was to visit the Kekule Landmark that was presented to Ghent University by then RSC President David Phillips in November 2011. The landmark recognises Kekule's pioneering work on structural and organic aromatic chemistry whilst at Ghent and was originally placed close to the site of his laboratory. The Landmark had been re-sited to be more accessible to the public during weekdays. At the weekend, however, the old town centre campus is not open to the public, but RSC Belgium member Prof. Bruno Linclau from Ghent University was able to get us access.

The photo above shows the plaque with, from left to right, Dr Denis Comeyne of the Royal Flemish Chemical Society (KVCV) and Chair of the KVCV/ Antwerp University Kekule Cycle seminar series, our section chair Prof Bob Crichton, and Prof. Bruno Linclau.

Of mustard and machines

Having viewed the plaque Paul then led us around the town centre pointing out buildings of interest and many aspects of the city's past and present glories including the famous Tierenteyn Mustard shop. Some of the party bought a pot of this revered Flemish condiment that has a heat point somewhere between French and English mustard.

Our tour eventually brought us to Ghent's Industrie Museum where we learned about an audacious piece of industrial espionage that helped build Ghent's economy in the Industrial Revolution. In 1801, Lieven Bauwens smuggled a spinning mule and steam engine out of the UK to help set up the textile industry in Flanders. At the time such a crime was punishable by death. Bauwens was later elected Mayor of Ghent. The spinning mule that was brought to Ghent is in the Industrial Museum, which also boasts a very fine view over central Ghent.

After the industry museum, the tour moved onto a leisurely lunch at Meme Gusta where home-cooked Flemish fare was on offer including a very fine Stoofvlees (Flemish meat stew) with, of course, frites.  

GUM

After a brief pit stop at one of Ghent's many excellent chocolatiers - Hilde Devolder - we boarded another tram to head for the new Ghent University Museum (GUM) situated in the Botanical Gardens in Citadel Park.

GUM displays an eclectic selection of items from all the University's departmental collections including Kekule's stick and ball models of benzene (see below). GUM is well worth a visit, as is the Botanical Gardens close by.

After a highly entertaining and informative day, our party took a farewell 'apero' in the early evening sunshine close to St Pieters station before heading on our various ways home.

Many thanks to Paul Snell for organising the itinerary - a great time was had by all!

New Horizons in synthesis: click chemistry and beyond

On the evening of Thursday 20 April from 19h30 RSC Belgium welcomed Professor Ari Koskinen, Emeritus Professor of Organic Chemistry at Aalto University, Finland to talk to us about ‘New Horizons in synthesis: click chemistry and beyond’. The event was held at the British School of Brussels in Tervuren and was followed by an opportunity for RSC members and friends to network and ask informal questions of the speaker over drinks and snacks.

A central feature of chemistry is to produce novel connections between atoms, in other words chemical synthesis. The state of the art of organic chemical synthesis is defined by the complexity of the target structures one can produce in an efficient manner. Especially during the past two decades, different economies of synthesis have taken a central role in the development of synthetic chemical strategies. Thus atom economy, step economy, redox economy are valid targets for synthesis research.

‘Click chemistry’ and biorthogonal chemistry are timely subjects and Ari took us through a brief history of organic synthesis and introduced us to the latest trends in this important part of chemistry. 

The 2022 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Carolyn Bertozzi, Morten Meldal, and Barry Sharpless for the development of click chemistry and bioorthogonal chemistry.

As usual, the session was recorded and you can access it direct via the RSC YouTube channel here or via the embedded video below.

Our speaker

Professor Ari Koskinen (pictured below) received his M.Sc. (Chem. Eng.) in 1979, his Licentiate in Technology in 1982 and his Doctor of Technology in 1983 from the Helsinki University of Technology.

After postdoctoral studies at the University of California, Berkeley he accepted an appointment as a Project Leader in New Drug Development at Orion Corporation – Fermion, Finland where his research group was among the first in Scandinavia to adopt computer aided drug design as well as computerized database handling protocols in new lead identification. Returning to academia, he joined the University of Surrey as a lecturer in 1989 and was then appointed as Professor of Chemistry (especially Synthetic Organic Chemistry) at the University of Oulu, Finland in 1992, and transferred to the Helsinki University of Technology in 1999 (Aalto University since 2010) as Professor of Organic Chemistry.

Prof. Koskinen is a member of the Finnish Academy of Sciences and Letters since 2003. He is the author or co-author of some 190 publications, 15 patents and three books. He retired from active academic work in October 2021, but as emeritus professor, he keeps his finger on the pulse of organic chemistry through activities in IUPAC (Division of Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry) and EuChemS (secretary, Division of Organic Chemistry).

Catalyzing the road to sustainable e-fuels

On the evening of Thursday 23 March 2023 RSC Belgium welcomed Professor Damien Debecker from UCLouvain to the British School of Brussels in Tervuren to talk about ’CO2 and H2: catalyzing the road to sustainable e-fuels?’ Professor Damien Debecker is a professor within the Faculty of bio-science engineering at UCLouvain and is currently holder of a Francqui Research Professor chair.

As we all know the mitigation of net CO2 emissions is currently an absolute priority challenge for society for which various strategies must be implemented in parallel. One useful technology, which falls under the umbrella of the Carbon Capture and Utilization (CCU) concept relies on the catalytic hydrogenation of CO2 to methane, methanol, or higher hydrocarbons.

When methane is targeted, this process is called methanation or the Sabatier reaction. Prof Debecker took us through recent developments in the design of highly active methanation catalysts and then placed these developments in a more general context, questioning the sourcing of both CO2 and H2 and highlighting the fundamental role of renewable electricity in so-called sustainable processes.

The talk covered a number of issues relating to sustainable chemical processes, future energy production and the sense (or non sense) of certain proposed solutions. A lively Q&A session follwoed teh talk and continued during moe informal networking afterwards.

The session was recorded and you can access it direct via the RSC YouTube channel here or via the embedded video below.

BSB at Top of the Bench Final

Our 2022 Belgium Top of the Bench champs – Team Sodium from the British School of Brussels (BSB) – competed in the Royal Society of Chemistry’s 2023 Top of the Bench national final on 25 March at the University of East London (UEL). The BSB team were the only non-UK team in the 31 competitors. The competition tests the chemistry knowledge of 14–16 year-old students through written and practical exercises.

Students had to complete a 40-minute chemistry knowledge exam in pairs, followed by a 90 minute hour practical team exercise in UEL’s labs. The theme of the final was sustainability with a practical challenge on sustainable energy that included a calorimetry task, density determination and finally an analysis of some possible “future fuels”. 

The teams also had a talk from Tony Raynham, the course leader for the University of East London Chemistry department, about the course (a new course only just set-up), his life history and journey about how he got to where he is now and then a talk on apprenticeships from an RSC speaker. 

Tony Raynham said that UEL was delighted to host the talented young chemists in the Bioscience department.

Unfortunately, BSB did not win; Winchester College (winning team pictured above) took top place. The winning team received a trophy and Amazon gift vouchers, and will be sent £500 for their school to spend on science equipment. The first runners-up, four students from Colchester County High School for Girls, received Amazon vouchers. Hannah Addiscott from The Grange School was awarded the Jacqui Clee Award for the most outstanding individual contribution.

BSB chemistry teacher and RSC Belgium committee member Jonathan Norris escorted the BSB party and commented: “The students really enjoyed themselves, despite a long day.” The BSB team made the trip to and from London in a day.

Despite not winning all the students came away with a free t-shirt and a periodic table and the accompanying teachers got a thermochromic mug, a RSC lanyard, and a fetching RSC tote bag.

Next year’s final will be in Edinburgh and RSC Belgium will be planning to send a team as usual.

How to make Urban Transport more Sustainable?

On the evening of Thursday 9 February 2023 the section kicked off its 2023 programme of events with a Café Chimique on 'Sustainable Transport' at the British School of Brussels in Tervuren. 

For our society,  one of the greatest challenges is to plan and invest wisely for sustainable transport. Transport plays a crucial role in economic development by providing access for people to education, markets, employment, recreation, health care and other key services not to mention enabling the movement of goods. Enhancing mobility for all parts of society is one of the most important preconditions for achieving economic, environmental and social goals.

In reality, transportation systems in most urban areas are far from ideal. Motorised modes still dominate and traffic congestion is ubiquitous making a significant impact on local and national GDP, degrading the urban environment and affecting citizens’ health and quality of life.

What are the solutions? What does a sustainable transport system look like? How can it be achieved? How will it be fuelled? What new or existing technologies are needed to make such systems happen? Where can the chemical sciences help? And what else is needed in terms of cultural or behavioural change by citizens?

For the debate RSC Belgium members and friends were joined by two speakers to (hopefully) find some answers to these questions and more. Section chair Prof Bob Crichton introduced the two speakers.

Prof Samuel Furfari is a recognized authority on energy policy based in Brussels. Following a 36 year career with the European Commission's DG Energy, he was appointed as a professor of geopolitics of energy at various universities including at the Université Libre de Bruxelles. He is President of the European Society of Engineers and Industrialists.

After 21 years at the UK Transport Research Laboratory, Paul Kompfner moved onto the European stage in 1992, to help set up Europe's first multi-sector partnership for deployment of intelligent mobility. Now independent following 25 years at ERTICO-ITS Europe, he is working with various projects to promote sustainable mobility of people and goods in cities

Our two speakers provided short introductory talks that was followed by an audience led Q&A discussion. As with our previous Cafe Chimiques the audience will be seated in a relaxed café-style format and a gratis bar and snacks were throughout  the evening. 

The presentations and debate were recorded is now available via our YouTube channel or below. Enjoy!

2023 Section AGM and Annual Dinner

On Friday 20 January 2023 the 2023 Annual General Meeting (AGM) and Annual Dinner of the Royal Society of Chemistry's Belgium International Section 023 was held at Les Amis Dinent Restaurant, Chaussee de Malines/ Mechelsesteenweg 113, 1970 Wezembeek-Oppem.

The meeting commenced at 19h35. Seven section members were present: Bob Crichton, Tim Reynolds, Julie Tuppeny, Fabio Lucaccioni, Rita Woodward, Susan Schamp, and Ricky Payen. Also in attendance were co-opted Committee members: Bo Dahlqvist and Jonathan Norris. Seven section members who were unable to attend the AGM sent their apologies and had asked the Chair to act as their proxy for the meeting if a vote was required. These members were: David Terrell, Dharmjeet Madhav, Deepak Pant, Filip du Prez, Steven De Feyter, Richard Green and Catherine Cazin.

1. Apologies for absence

Stefaniya Velichkova.

2. Approval of Minutes of 2022 AGM

No corrections were suggested, and the meeting moved (Rita Woodward), seconded (Fabio Lucaccioni) and unanimously adopted the minutes.

4. Committee Report on the Section’s 2022 Activities (Tim Reynolds – Secretary)

The Secretary presented the 2022 report.

“2022 saw the section’s activities return to (relatively) normal operation as the impact of COVID reduced and restrictions were lifted. During 2022 RSC Belgium managed to organise seven public lectures (either as webinars or hybrid events), a virtual AGM, a summer social event in Brussels, a fund raising social for our Norman Lloyd Scholarships, and our two annual school outreach events: the Chemistry Challenge and the Top of the Bench ‘Eliminator’, which was an in-person event. Our eighth Norman Lloyd scholarship recipient enjoyed his first year at Cardiff University and we have just got the name of the next recipient.

Our 2022 AGM was once again run as a webinar event on the evening of 14 January and was subsequently made available on our dedicated @RoySocChemBelgium YouTube channel. Two members were elected to the section committee for a two-year term: David Terrell and Dharmjeet Madhav. During the year your section committee met five times on 18 January (virtual), 29 March (hybrid), 19 May (virtual), 13 September (hybrid) and 22 November (hybrid).

Our 2022 programme of talks kicked off on 24 February with a webinar from RSC President Professor Tom Welton OBE on Green and Sustainable Chemistry. This was followed on 31 March with a webinar event on Chemical recycling of plastic wastes with Henk Pool of Cefic – the European Chemical Industries Association.

The outlook for nuclear energy in Europe was the subject of our third webinar on 28 April with Andrei Goicea from FORATOM, while on 19 May our members and friends tuned in for a webinar describing a major breakthrough for the prevention of breast cancer recurrences and metastases with Professor Pierre Sonveaux of the Universite Catholique de Louvain.

Fortunately during the long summer, we were able to restart in-person events with two social events. On Saturday 2 July, we were treated to a fascinating guided walk exploring ‘Foreign Bodies’ in the centre of Brussels led by Dr Paul Snell who  specialises in art and architectural tours. Raising funds for our Norman Lloyd Scholarships was the main aim of a social event on 20 August hosted by Rita and Peter Woodward in their beautiful garden in Duisberg. The sunny event raised Eur 920.

On 29 September we welcomed back both a ‘live’ audience and our good friend Professor Vincent Lemaitre from Universite Catholique de Louvain to discuss the latest thinking in high energy and astrophysics. The event was held the British School of Brussels and we also attempted to livestream the event – unfortunately the webinar feed cut out early on. This event was also the prize-giving ceremony for our 2022 Chemistry Challenge initiative undertaken as a virtual event over the early summer with the students working remotely at their schools. For the 2022 Challenge, we received entries from most of our group of international and European schools with 65 students participating.

On 20 October we reverted to a webinar format launching into deepest space with an entertaining and informative talk on 'Exoplanets or the quest for other worlds beyond our solar system' from Prof Michaël Gillon of the University of Liege. Our final talk of the year was on 24 November when we welcomed another old friend, Professor David Leigh from University of Manchester, to talk about ‘Making the tiniest Machines’ with some extraordinary chemistry and also some marvellous magic! This was a ‘live’ event, but we suffered with poor sound quality on the webinar recording. 

On Saturday 17 December we were able to hold our first in-person Top of the Bench (TOTB) regional heat for a while. The heat was held later in the year than normal and just two schools were able to field two teams each to compete on the day. However, the competition was extremely keen and a very tight contest was eventually won by Team Sodium from the British School of Brussels who will represent Belgium section at the London finals in March. Thanks as ever to Rita and Susan for developing the written and practical tasks for Top of the Bench and the teams for their enthusiasm.

During the year, our eighth recipient of a Norman Lloyd scholarship at Cardiff University, Martim Gouveia Pereira, worked hard despite the issues around studying during Covid. He says that he has used the scholarship to invest in his soft skills which has led him to be shortlisted by Oxford Medical School to read Medicine in 2024. And we have just received news of ninth recipient, Benjamin Condon, who started his MChem degree course in the Autumn term.

As mentioned earlier we now have a YouTube channel where you can find our videoed webinars. Some of our @RoySocChemBelgium ‘content’ has proved to be very popular. Our Top Three videos (as of 17 January 2023) are at #3 Philip Ball with 659 views, second spot goes to Plasma-based CO2 conversion with 3,122 views, while Nick Lane is top of the pops with a remarkable 8,272 views.

We hope to again run a full programme of in-person events during 2023, the majority of which we hope to record and then post on YouTube. We look forward to seeing many more members and friends face-to-face during the year. Details of forthcoming events can always be found on the RSC Belgium blog.

We aim to kick off our 2023 programme with a Café Chimique at BSB on 9 February 2023 on the topic of 'Sustainable Urban Transport'. Further details on this and future events will be announced soon.”

There were no questions on the report, and the meeting moved (Susan Schamp), seconded (Julie Tuppeny) and unanimously approved adoption of it.

5. Financial Report of 2022 (Julie Tuppeny – Treasurer)

The treasurer presented the 2022 financial report and accounts.

“At the beginning of 2022 continued restrictions due to Covid-19 pandemic meant that the first four lectures of the year were online. However, both Tom Welton and Henk Pool had large registrations of 70 and 108 participants, respectively.

Our first in person event was the walking tour of Brussels on 2 July with sixteen participants. Our first live event was the lecture at BSB with Vincent Lemaitre with forty people attending in person and ten online.

Our two annual competitions for schools, the Chemistry Challenge Competition had sixty-five students taking part from seven schools and the Top of the Bench (TOTB) Eliminator Round was in person for the first time in two years with two schools and four teams taking part.

On 1 January 2022, the net assets of RSC Belgium Section were €11,665.28 The Annual Grant for 2022 was received in June 2022 from RSC UK of € 4,000.

Major items of expenditure are listed below:

• Chemistry Challenge of which €395 was prize money.
• David Leigh lecture due to hotel costs.

For the Year ending 31 December 2022, the net assets of RSC Belgium Section amount to €11,710.04 in the current account and €2,103.26 in the Savings account giving a total of €13,813.30.

This balance will enable the RSC Belgium Section to offer a broad selection of public lectures from visiting speakers this coming year.

However, bearing in mind that Belgian Law, the status of the RSC Belgium Section holds the three Officers personally liable for debts arising from the activities of the Belgium Section we will ensure that the bank balance always remains in good standing.”

The meeting unanimously adopted the Treasurer’s report.

6. Chair’s Remarks (Bob Crichton)

The Chair thanked all members of the committee for their continuing hard work and support and looked forward to continuing success in this new year.

In particular he looked forward to a complete return to live events during 2023. The committee had recently decided to focus on live, in-person events rather than hybrid. However, the majority of our events would be recorded for viewing or presentation via our YouTube Channel. The only thing that could stand in the way of this was a return of COVID, but that was something that was out of our hands.

The section’s 2023 programme was shaping up and in addition to the Cafe Chimique on Transport in February, the section hoped to be welcoming back Hal Sosabowski for demonstration lectures, inviting a talk from researchers at the John Innes Centre on genetically modified crops and investigating the role of mRNA in new cancer treatment and other medical developments.

7. Election of committee members and section officers

The following nominations had been received for election to the committee.

Chair:              Prof Bob Crichton

Secretary:        Mr Tim Reynolds

Treasurer:        Mr Fabio Lucaccioni

Committee:     Mrs Rita Woodward, Dr Susan Schamp, Ms Julie Tuppeny

All positions are for a two-year term. As the number of nominations equalled the number of vacant positions, all candidates were duly elected.

Two committee members are in mid-term: Dr David Terrell and Dr Dharmjeet Madhav.

At the first committee meeting of 2023 Bo Dahlqvist and Jonathan Norris will also be co-opted onto the committee.

8. Auditing arrangements for 2023

Julie confirmed that accounts must be prepared and submitted to RSC HQ by 27 January  2023. These accounts did not require a formal audit prior to submission. If a review/ audit was required section member Lance Smallshaw had agreed to assist.

9. Any Other Business

As noted previously the first event of the 2023 programme will be on the evening of Thursday 9 February 2023 with a Café Chimique on Sustainable Urban Transport at the British School of Brussels.

The meeting Adjourned at 20h10. The first meeting of the 2023 committee has been provisionally scheduled for Tuesday 14 March 2023 from 19h15.

The meeting was followed by the sections Annual Dinner.

Top of the Bench back in-person for 2022

On Saturday 17 December, RSC Belgium was able to hold our first in-person Top of the Bench (TOTB) regional heat for a few years. The heat was held later in the year than normal, which meant that just two schools were able to take part. But both the British School of Brussels (BSB) and St. Georges International School from Luxembourg were able to field two teams each to compete on the day for a very tight competition.

BSB were on home 'turf' as the event was held in the chemistry laboratories at the school in Tervuren. St. Georges travelled up from Luxembourg on the day arriving in good time for 'kick off' at 13h30.

This year the first part of the competition was an 'Escape Room Challenge' quiz devised by RSC Belgium Committee member Susan Schamp. This was a bit of an icebreaker and definitely a teambuilding effort. Each team had to solve a chain of clues with the first team to ‘escape’ deemed the winner.

After refreshments the second element of the day was the Practical Activity Challenge in which team members needed to make some strategic choices, carry out experiments, process observations and relate their findings to a potential application of recycling a metal. The practical element was, as ever, devised by RSC Committee member Rita Woodward.

Joining Rita and Susan in observing and judging the event were Tim Reynolds and Olivier Schamp (pictured above). RSC teaching staff was represented by Jonathan Norris and St. Georges teachers present throughout the day were Kayleigh van Dongen and Marco Macedo Foz.

A close result

The competition was extremely keen and a very tight contest was eventually won by Team Sodium from the British School of Brussels. In second place was Team Fluorine from St Georges with their Copper team taking 'bronze' position. Team Iodine from BSB was not far behind in fourth.

BSB's Team Sodium won the coveted Keith Price Cup (see above) and will now represent Belgium section at the National finals of TOTB that will be held on Saturday 25 March 2023 at the University of East London. The theme of this event will be Sustainable Energy.

Our thanks as ever to Rita and Susan for developing the written and practical tasks for our Top of the Bench event and all the teams for their enthusiasm and hard work. Congratulation to the winners and everyone who took part.

Eighth Norman Lloyd Scholar report is in!

Martim Rodrigo (pictured below), the eighth recipient of a Dr Norman C. Lloyd Scholarship at Cardiff University has completed the first year of his MCheM degree in Chemistry at the university and he has submitted an end of year report. The Norman Lloyd Scholarship is given to a new student in the Cardiff School of Chemistry who is of high academic standing and resident in Wales. The ninth recipient of the Scholarship at Cardiff has also just been announced.

 What degree are you undertaking and why did you choose the course here?

I am studying BSc Chemistry at Cardiff University. I chose this course due to the excellent reputation of the university, the lecture and laboratory facilities and the opportunities that would be afforded to me once I have completed my degree.

What is the best thing about studying at Cardiff and how have you found your experience so far?

The best thing about studying at Cardiff was being able to leave the sixth form bubble. In high school, you are exposed to people living in the same part of town. In college, you are exposed to students from around the city. In university, you have the chance to meet other students from around the country and even abroad! I have had the most fantastic time at university, and I am certain that I am now ready for the next steps after graduation.

Do you have a career in mind after you graduate/what are your plans after you graduate?

After graduation, I will be reading Medicine at the University of Oxford. My goal is to pursue a career in Medicine and Education.

Achievements/what you enjoyed most and what have you found most challenging?

The transition from post-lockdown Year 13 to university proved to be difficult at first. I needed to develop healthy, yet effective study habits lost during lockdown and university has enabled me to achieve this. I have also been able to attend enrichment conferences in London which helped me to network with much more experienced professionals from all around the country.

Do you do anything extracurricular in your spare time/alongside your degree?

I tried many societies out during my degree ranging from sports, politics, debating, to religious societies. I was also able to try new sports out and broaden my horizons! I am also attempting to scale up both my business and my outreach work to the whole country.

What difference has this scholarship made to you? Has it enabled you to achieve anything that you would not have been able to before?

This scholarship was an opportunity that allowed me grow academically and as an individual. I have used the scholarship to invest in my soft skills which has led me to being shortlisted by Oxford Medical School to read Medicine in 2024. I have also contributed to widening access initiatives by running workshops which help students to polish their university applications. In addition to this, I have been able to spend more time studying for my degree as I was fortunate enough to not need to get a part-time job during my studies which I could not be more grateful for.

If you could say something to the donor who gave you this gift, what would it be?

I want to thank the donor for their generosity. It is so rewarding to be acknowledged for our hard work. The impact of the scholarship will be everlasting. When I started my course, I was less mature and had many goals. I can say that I look forward confidently and that being a scholar has played a major role in my achievements. I wish the donor a Merry Christmas and I would like to thank them for allowing students living in Wales to invest in their future and making the world a better place. I am proud to say that I have contributed to improving social mobility in this country and said volunteering work was done thanks to this scholarship.

We wish Martim every success for the future!

The scholarship

The Norman Lloyd scholarship was set up by RSC Belgium in collaboration with Norman’s family and Cardiff University in memory of our old friend and supporter Norman Lloyd. Norman was himself a student at an institution that is now part of the university. The funds raised provide an annual scholarship of £1,000 for an undergraduate student, usually in their first year of study, at the Cardiff School of Chemistry.

Ninth Norman Lloyd Scholar announced!

Benjamin Condon (pictured below) is the latest recipient of the Dr. Norman Lloyd RSC Belgium scholarship at Cardiff University. Benjamin is in his first year at Cardiff on a MCheM degree course. The Norman Lloyd Scholarship is given to a new student in the Cardiff School of Chemistry who is of high academic standing and resident in Wales.

Benjamin wrote to the section following his award:

"I am writing to express my heartfelt gratitude to the Royal Society of Chemistry Belgium and the family of Dr Norman Lloyd for the Chemistry scholarship award which I have received. This generous award has not only provided me with much-needed financial support, but has also given me the confidence and motivation to excel in my studies as a first year MChem student at Cardiff School of Chemistry.

The money provided will allow me to further my chemistry skills by attending workshops and placement opportunities over the summer break period along with additional support for purchasing reading material and technology.

I have always considered studying chemistry after gaining a CREST gold award for the Welsh engineering education scheme whilst partaking in a chemical engineering project for Vale Nickel company. When redesigning a hydrogen heater for this company I gathered an interest in chemistry over my other science subjects. Since then, I have become a finalist in the South Wales Chemical Olympiad competition and also received a Seren Award for a project focussed on using hydrogen to produce energy.

Receiving this award has certainly inspired me to work even harder to achieve my goals in this field. I am committed to making the most of this opportunity to help me complete my chemistry degree at Cardiff. After university, I hope to pursue a career in medicine allowing me to help tackle some of the most pressing health challenges using my chemical knowledge.

Thank you again for your support and belief in me. I am truly honoured to be a recipient of this scholarship."

The scholarship

The Norman Lloyd scholarship was set up by RSC Belgium in collaboration with Norman’s family and Cardiff University in memory of our old friend and supporter Norman Lloyd. Norman was himself a student at an institution that is now part of the university. The funds raised provide an annual scholarship of £1,000 for an undergraduate student, usually in their first year of study, at the Cardiff School of Chemistry.

The Magic of Miniature Molecular Machines

On the evening of Thursday 24 November RSC Belgium welcomed back Professor David Leigh from University of Manchester to talk about ‘Making the tiniest Machines’ with some extraordinary chemistry and also a few marvellous magic tricks! David is not only a skilled research leader and presenter but also a member of his local Magic Circle so we were treated to a highly informative and entertaining evening. The talk was hosted at the British School of Brussels in Tervuren and was also online.

According to the 2016 Nobel Prize in Chemistry Committee “We are at the dawn of a new industrial revolution of the twenty-first century, and the future will show how molecular machinery can become an integral part of our lives. The advances made have also led to the first steps towards creating truly programmable machines, and it can be envisaged that molecular robotics will be one of the next major scientific areas.”

In his highly entertaining talk David took us through much of the research that led to that statement and the award of the Chemistry Nobel Prize in 2016 to Jean-Pierre Sauvage, Sir Fraser Stoddart and Ben Feringa "for the design and synthesis of molecular machines". 

Molecular motion

In recent years, some of the first examples of synthetic molecular level machines and motors—all be they primitive by biological standards—have been developed. These molecules are often best designed to work through statistical mechanisms, rectifying random thermal motion through ratchet mechanisms in a manner reminiscent of Maxwell’s Demon. The first programmable systems have been introduced: the forerunners of a new technological era of molecular robotics.

Perhaps the best way to appreciate the technological potential of controlled molecular-level motion is to recognise that nanomotors and molecular-level machines lie at the heart of every significant biological process. Over billions of years of evolution Nature has not repeatedly chosen this solution for achieving complex task performance without good reason. In stark contrast to biology, none of mankind’s fantastic myriad of present day technologies exploit controlled molecular-level motion in any way at all: every catalyst, every material, every plastic, every pharmaceutical, every chemical reagent, all function exclusively through their static or equilibrium dynamic properties. When we learn how to build artificial structures that can control and exploit molecular level motion, and interface their effects directly with other molecular-level substructures and the outside world, it will potentially impact on every aspect of functional molecule and materials design. An improved understanding of physics and biology will surely follow.

You can find out much more about David’s research group and their work (including the recent ‘Tape reading rachet’ paper in Nature and numerous informative video) on their dedicated website. And you can also view a pdf version of David's presentation here.

Exoplanets: the quest for other worlds beyond our solar system

On 20 October 2022 RSC Belgium launched into deepest space with an entertaining and informative talk on 'Exoplanets or the quest for other worlds beyond our solar system' from Prof Michaël Gillon of the University of Liege. Michaël led the team that stunned the world with the discovery of seven potentially inhabitable planets orbiting the Trappist-1 star, some 40 light years from Earth.

In the talk he described some of the experiments and missions that have discovered new worlds far, far away – some with potentially Earth like characteristics. In 2017 Prof Gillon led the TRAPPIST (TRAnsiting Planets and PlanetesImals Small Telescope) project that was the first to detect an extrasolar multi-planetary system and this work continues in the SPECULOOS (Search for habitable Planets EClipsing ULtra-cOOl Stars) project.

Since the dawn of the Copernican revolution, the existence of exoplanets, i.e., planets in orbit around other stars than our Sun, has remained suspected but unconfirmed until very recently. It is only in the last decade of the 20th century that the first of these extrasolar worlds were found. These seminal discoveries initiated the development of more and more ambitious projects that led eventually to the detection of thousands of exoplanets, including a few dozen potentially habitable ones, i.e., Earth-like exoplanets that could harbour large amounts of liquid water -and maybe life- on their surfaces. Our most powerful telescopes will soon be able to probe the atmospheric compositions of some of these extrasolar worlds, performing maybe in the process the historical detection of the chemical signs of life many light-years away. Such a discovery would change our view of the Cosmos forever.

Gillon described our own solar system and Earth's unique place in it: in the 'habitable zone' where liquid water can exist on the planet's surface. He mentioned that the search for exoplanets has existed almost since the start of modern astronomy with Huygens making computations on the possibility to see planets orbiting other stars.

However it was not until the early 80s that the first imaging of circumstellar protoplanetary disks using the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) was possible (see above).

The first exoplanet detection was in 1992 with the first detection of a planet around a Sun-like system in 1995. This was of a Jupiter-like planet orbiting very close to its 'Sun'. These pioneering observations led to a burst of research and now over 5000 exoplanets have been catalogued.

It is probable that planets are everywhere with nearly all stars in our galaxy surrounded by a system of planets. In fact it is likely that planets are a natural byproduct of the formation of all solar systems but there is huge diversity of systems (see above). Our system format seems to be very rare and in addition to planets in solar systems a few hundred ‘free floating’ planets have been discovered; presumably ejected from their 'mother' system at some point in the distant past.

Despite the rarity of Sun-like solar systems plenty of habitable zone planets have been found (see above) and imaging is possible, which also means that spectroscopy of these exoplanets is possible (see below). Life on a planet will alter the composition of the atmosphere on a planet and therefore its spectroscopic signal.

The new James Webb Space Telescope has an infrared detector and so could detect this potential signal of life on distant exoplanets. Gillon is involved with two networks of ground-based robotic telescopes - TOSS (Transient Optical Sky Survey) and SPECULOOS - that are looking for best targets for Webb to further investigate. The TRAPPIST experiment was the prototype for the SPECULOOS robotic telescopes.

Further giant telescopes are planned to aid the search for exoplanets. After James Webb, an Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) should be operational from 2030 equipped with a 40 metre mirror that adapts to compensate for varying atmospheric conditions should be capable of directly imaging exoplanets. And then further, larger and smarter space-based systems.

Gillon believes that an answer to our search for life beyond our solar system could be close! 

Watch again

You can re-watch the webinar on our YouTube Channel or via the video embedded below.