A Little Light Relief in Woluwe

On the evening of Thursday 27 October, RSC Belgium was delighted to welcome Prof. David Phillips, the President of the RSC, to give his reknowned lecture "A little light relief". The venue for this lecture was the Lecture theatre Roi Baudouin B in the Rosalind Franklin building on the Universite Catholique Louvain (UCL) campus in Woluwe Saint Lambert, Brussels.

As well as being RSC president, David Phillips is Emeritus Professor of Chemistry and former Dean of Sciences at Imperial College London. He also has something of a reputation as a magician, which bacome apparent during his talk.

Prof. Phillips' theme was photomedicine, an area which currently encompasses the effects of light upon the skin, diagnostic uses of light, therapies using non-laser light and the use of lasers.

He described the production of Vitamin D, tanning, how skin ages, and the various types of skin cancers. Photoluminescence is used for immunoassay, the identification of antigens that may be precursors to disease. The technique is used in testing for pregnancy at early stages by seeking the hormone human chorionic gonadotrophin, or testing for HIV.

Baby Bobbit
In terms of the therapeutic uses of light, Prof. Phillips described how light is used to treat ailments such as vitiligo, psoriasis, and jaundice.


The effect of photo luminescence to treat jaundice in young babies was demonstrated with aid of Prof. Phillips' long-time demonstration lecture side-kick: Bobbit - the glass baby (pictured above with RSC Belgium section Chairman Prof. Bob Crichton (left) and Prof. David Phillips (right)).

The main future for photomedicine lies in the development of photodynamic therapy (PDT), which is a minimally invasive procedure used in treating a range of infections and forms of cancer. A number of applications of PDT were described by Prof. Phillips.

A Healthy, Wealthy, Sustainable World

The world stands at a crossroads. What route to the future should we take? Dr John Emsley is a well-known champion of chemistry and works to help people get a better appreciation of the role of chemistry in daily life and its essential contribution to a future sustainable world.

John will be in Brussels on the evening of 19 September to talk about his latest book – ‘A Healthy, Wealthy, Sustainable World’. His latest work was specifically written for International Year of Chemistry 2011 and describes the importance of chemistry in everyday life, the benefits that chemical science currently brings to society, and how this can continue on a truly sustainable basis.

The route to a sustainable city beckons, but what effect will this have on chemistry, which seems to be so dependant on fossil resources? Its products are part of everyday life, and without them we could regress to the world of earlier generations when lives were blighted by disease, famine, dirt and pain.

What?
Dr. John Emsley on "A Healthy, Wealthy, Sustainable World"

When?
Monday September 19th at 19:45 for 20:00

Where?
The Brel Theatre at the British School of Brussels, Leuvensesteenweg 19, 3080 Tervuren.

Drinks and nibbles will be available after the lecture and there will be an opportunity to meet and talk with John.

Entrance: Adults €5, bona fide students free, payable at the door. Registration is not essential but if you do intend to come please email RSC Belgium with the number in your party, so we can make sure we have an adequate stock of refreshments on hand.

Dr. Emsley's talk will be based on his latest book ‘A Healthy, Wealthy Sustainable World’, which is published by the RSC.

About John
Dr John Emsley is the author of a series of highly readable best-selling popular science books about everyday chemistry. He has also published in national newspapers and magazines, and he has written chemistry text books and booklets for industry. Following his PhD research at Manchester University, John pursued an academic career in the University of London, before becoming science writer in residence at Imperial College London and then the University of Cambridge where he was science writer in residence. In addition to his popular books and articles he has also authored over 110 original research papers.

Chemical moments - times two!

RSC Belgium members were involved in two of the IYC 2011 Breakfast events held on 18 January under the theme: "Women Sharing a Chemical Moment in Time" . This global celebration brought together around 50 individual events across some 37 countries linking them together via social networking media including Skype and Twitter.

Catherine Feore, EuCheMS Policy Development Manager, hosted a breakfast roundtable at the European Parliament in Strasbourg. Joining Catherine were three women MEPs from the European Parliament’s committee for Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE).

Edit Herczog is a Hungarian MEP who trained as a food conservation engineer and was a research fellow with the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

Prof. Maria da Graça Carvalho MEP obtained a PhD in Mechanical Engineering at Imperial College London, was Portugal’s Minister of Science, Innovation and Higher Education and Principal adviser of the President of the European Commission, José Barroso.

Britta Thomsen MEP from Dennmark has extensive experience as a teacher and organiser of adult education. Mrs Thomsen is also the author of a European Parliament report identifying and suggesting solutions for the social, cultural and other barriers that account for the under-representation of women in science, entitled 'Women and Science’.

The breakfast conversation was recorded on video and you can watch it below or on the Chemistry Europe website.

Chemistry Europe from Chemistry Europe on Vimeo.

Breakfast at Dow
At the same time Carolyn Ribes (below) of Dow Benelux was involved in organising a breakfast meeting at Dow's Terneuzen site in the Netherlands.


"The event was a a huge success," says Carolyn. "We had about 100 women and men in the audience and an excellent keynote address was given by Michelle Mes of Femco on Networking. She covered the benefits of building a network, tips on how to network, and differences between how men and women build networks. The breakout group discussions were lively and there was a lot of energy in the room."


The event at Dow was clearly popular (see above) and this was refelected across the Netherlands. A report on actvities across the country can be found on the Dutch IYC website.

"Women Sharing a Chemical Moment in Time" was created to bring women in chemistry together to network, to celebrate the pivotal role of Marie Curie in chemistry, and to reflect on the current landscape for women chemists. By using modern communication tools a special moment of chemical time together was created enabling a global chemical handshake.

A great IYC blog
Talking of great communication tools one women Australian chemist, Magdeline Lum, has vowed to write a blog an interesting piece of chemistry every day throughout International Year of Chemistry. She is keeping up so far! Support her efforts at the chemistry 365 blog.