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.

RSC Belgium 2022 AGM

The 2022 Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Royal Society of Chemistry's Belgium International section (RSC Belgium) took place on the evening of  Friday 14 January 2022 via webinar meeting on Microsoft Teams.

The meeting commenced at 19:35. Tweleve section members attended the meeting online: Bob Crichton (Chair), Tim Reynolds (Secretary), Julie Tuppeny (Treasurer), David Terrell, Fabio Lucaccioni, Rita Woodward, Susan Schamp, Dharmjeet Madhav, Ricky Payen, Ari Koskinen, Geoffrey Knight and Richard Green.

Also in attendance were co-opted Committee members: Bo Dahlqvist and Jonathan Norris.

Twelve 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: Deepak Pant, Brian Sutcliffe, Filip du Prez, Steven De Feyter, Lance Smallshaw, Albert Dijkstra, Marie-Beatrice Madec, Eveline Volcke, Joshua Holloway, Catherine Cazin, Tracey Ehiwe and Colin McCarney.

1. Apologies for absence

There no further apologies were noted.

2. Approval of Minutes of 2021 AGM

No corrections were suggested, and the meeting moved (Rita Woodward), seconded (Susan Schamp) and hence unanimously adopted the minutes.

4. Committee Report on the Section’s 2021 Activities (Tim Reynolds – Secretary)

The Secretary presented the 2021 report.

“As in 2020 the activities of the section have been significantly impacted by the continuing COVID crisis. However, building on our success in 2020 in initiating webinar-based activities RSC Belgium was able to run a comprehensive programme of activities. During 2021 RSC Belgium managed to organise seven public lecture webinars, our AGM, a fund raising social, and our two annual school outreach events: the Chemistry Challenge and the Top of the Bench ‘European Eliminator’. We also welcomed our eighth Norman Lloyd scholarship recipient at Cardiff University.

Our 2021 AGM was run as a webinar event on Microsoft Teams on the evening of 29 January and we were fortunate to be joined over the ether by RSC President Professor Tom Welton of Imperial College London and RSC CEO Dr Helen Pain. The AGM was recorded and is now available, along with many of our webinar events, on our own dedicated YouTube channel. Please note that our first lecture event of 2022 will be given by Prof Welton on 24 February 2022 on the topic of 'Sustainable Chemistry'.

We kicked our lecture programme in 2021 on 11 February with Prof James Durrant also from Imperial College on developments in Sustainable Solar Fuels. This was followed on 18 March with a fascinating talk from Professor Annemie Bogaerts of the University of Antwerp on plasma-based catalysis and processes in particular for CO2 conversion.

On 22 April members and friends of the section enjoyed a talk on ‘Edible Oils and Fats’ from long-time section member Dr Albert Dijkstra a well-known expert in this field and on 27 May we welcomed back Professor Nick Lane from University College London to explore the question: How does chemistry come alive?

During the summer, while COVID restrictions were more relaxed, the section was once again able to hold an appropriately socially distanced fundraising event for our Norman Lloyd Scholarships at Setsuko Lloyd’s house in Lasne. A very sunny and enjoyable afternoon raised a total of €860 for the fund.

During the year, our seventh recipient of a Norman Lloyd scholarship at Cardiff University, Cara Watkins, worked hard and enjoyed the 1^st year of her chemistry degree and at the end of the year we received news of eighth recipient, MartimGouveia Pereira, who started his degree course in the Autumn term. After the deduction of £1,000 for Martim’s award and including the funds raised in 2021 the Norman C Lloyd Scholarship Fund currently stands at £1,278.62.

September saw the results of our 2021 Chemistry Challenge announced. As for the previous year we had to organise a virtual event but received entries from the majority of our group of international and European schools in the Brussels area and beyond. The prize-winners from the Challenge, including this year’s overall winner and recipient of the coveted Keith Price Award, were announced at a very entertaining and informative webinar event with Dr John O'Donoghue of Trinity College Dublin on 'Chemistry in the Movies' on the evening of 23 September.

On the evening of  21 October RSC Belgium members and friends were treated to an inspiring webinar talk from regular Chemistry World columnist and author Dr Philip Ball on The Beauty of Chemistry.

Our final lecture event of the year was on 25 November with Professor Jean-François Gohy from the Université Catholique de Louvain on advances and opportunities for future battery technologies.

Our Top of the Bench (TOTB)regional heat was also, again, a virtual affair taking place in late November and early December. In 2021 only four teams from two schools had been able to complete and return results in our first attempt at a COVID-proof TOTB, but this year 13 teams from seven schools were involved – returning participation to pre-COVID levels – and including for the first-time teams from the European Schools in Luxembourg. For 2021 online written and hands-on practical exercises were set by RSC Belgium committee members Rita Woodward and Susan Schamp. As ever the competition was very close with some notable individual performances and excellent teamwork, but the overall winner was the Titanium team from St Georges International School – that school’s third win a row - who will be representing RSC Belgium at the TOTB finals in March 2022.

We hope to be running a full programme of events during 2022 – either virtual or physical depending on the evolving COVID situation – and look forward to seeing many members and friends on screen or face-to-face during the year. Details of forthcoming events can always be found on the RSC Belgium blog.

As mentioned, our next programmed event is with Professor Tom Welton on 24 February 2022 on the topic of 'Sustainable Chemistry'. Further events will be announced.”

There were no questions on the report, and it was unanimously approved.

5. Financial Report of 2020 (Julie Tuppeny – Treasurer)

The treasurer presented the 2021 financial report and accounts.

“Like previous years 2021 was planned to be another busy year, until restrictions due to the Covid-19 pandemic saw cancellations and lectures moved online for RSC Belgium Section (RSCB) and its committee.

Our two annual competitions for schools, the Chemistry Challenge Competition were well attended with 68 students taking part, and the Top of the Bench (TOTB) Eliminator Round.

On 1^st January 2021, the net assets of RSC Belgium Section were €10,709. 91 The Annual Grant for 2021 was received in July 2021 from RSC UK of € 2,626.25 which was less than the 4,952.50 that was asked for.

Major items of expenditure during the year are listed below.

• € 706 to organise the Chemistry Challenge of which €620 was prize money.
• € 236.97  to organise the TOTB eliminator round.

For the Year ending 31 December 2021, the net assets of RSC Belgium Section amount to €9,563.98 in the current account and €2,101.30 in the Savings account giving a total of €11,665.28.

Bearing in mind 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. A grant of €2,000 will be requested from RSC UK to cover all the activities planned for 2022.”

The meeting unanimously adopted the Treasurer’s report.

6. Chair’s Remarks (Bob Crichton)

The Chair thanked all members of the committee for their hard work and support during another difficult year. In particular he thanked Fabio for his technical support in running our successful webinars.

Bob hoped that the section would be able to run more face-to-face events in 2022, however the section needed to follow guidelines from RSC HQ as well as the local rules and we awaited their instructions.

7. Election of committee members and section officers

Two nominations had been received for election to the committee as ordinary members.

• David Terrell
• Dharmjeet Madhav

As the number of nominations equalled the number of vacant positions, both candidates were elected to the committee for a period of two years.

At the first committee meeting of 2022 Bo Dahlqvist and Jonathan Norris were co-opted onto the committee. Full details of the 2022 committee membership are available here.

8. Auditing arrangements for 2022

Julie confirmed that accounts must be prepared and submitted to RSC HQ by 7 February 2022. 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 2022 programme will be on Thursday 24 February 2022 via Teams with Prof. Tom Welton of Imperial College London on 24 February 2022 on the topic of 'Green and Sustainable Chemistry'.

A question on the funding of the section by HQ was asked by Geoffrey Knight. Bob and Julie confirmed that the funding was through an annual grant and that this was not a loan, and the section did not have any debts.

The meeting Adjourned at 19:50. The first meeting of the 2022 committee took place on Tuesday 18 January 2022.

RSC Belgium 2021 AGM goes online

On the evening of 29 January 2021 the RSC Belgium section held its Annual General Meeting (AGM) as a webinar event via Microsoft Teams. The meeting commenced at 19:35 with nine section members present: Bob Crichton, David Terrell, Hendrik Emons, Julie Tuppeny, Fabio Lucaccioni, Rita Blakeborough Woodward, Susan Schamp, Tim Reynolds and Tracy Ehiwe. Also in attendance was co-opted Committee member: Bo Dahlqvist. And in addition, we were pleased to welcome our guests RSC President Professor Tom Welton and RSC interim CEO Dr Helen Pain.

Eleven section members who were unable to attend the AGM had asked the Chair to act as their proxy for the meeting if a vote was required. These members were: Prof. Dr Arthur Van Aerschot, Brian Sutcliffe, Christopher K. Kariuki, Eveline Volcke, Giacomo Canciani, James Franklin, Joshua Holloway, Richard Green, Steven De Feyter, Thomas Vranken, William Darnley and Marie-Beatrice Madec.

You can watch the AGM proceedings below or via our dedicated YouTube channel and the draft minutes of the meeting are pasted below. The full formal draft minutes can be downloaded here and will be presented to the AGM of the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Belgium Section in 2022 for approval. 

1. Welcome and introductory remarks from RSC President Professor Tom Welton and RSC interim Chief Executive Dr Helen Pain

Section Chair Bob Crichton opened the AGM and welcomed Tom and Helen to the meeting.

Tom (below) said it was a great pleasure to join the AGM and described the RSC as still, despite recent political developments, very much a European Chemical society.

He said that his presidency had been quite different to his expectations due to the restrictions of COVID. He hoped the portfolio of vaccines that have been developed would herald at least the end of this phase of the pandemic. He noted how we have all adapted to this new normal and how we have all learned new ways of working virtually. He thought that the use of virtual connections would likely continue when normality, or near normality, was restored.

His president’s themes for 2021 focused on sustainability – he has been a professor of sustainable chemistry for over 15 years – and this was especially important to him both in terms of how we do chemistry and for society as well. 2021 will see the COP26 meeting in Glasgow and the RSC was determined to take an active role in it. This was the right moment to be laying out the RSC’s plans for strategy in this area, which will be presented to members over the next few months.

Helen Pain (right) also thanked the section for the invite to the AGM. During 2020 she and Tom had attended nine regional meetings in the UK, and it was important to continue to meet and talk to members, especially in these difficult times. The RSC is thinking how it can connect better with its members and be more inclusive. The RSC wants to hear more from its members to ensure that the society remains relevant. It must retain its vision and ambition and work to make a difference in the world.  Helen looked forward to continuing cooperation and collaboration around the world and especially in Europe with its involvement with EUChems and IUPAC. In that context she noted the appointment of previous CEO Robert Parker as RSC Ambassador to Europe and the Commonwealth – he would be the RSC’s voice in Europe.

Both Tom and Helen wished the section well and looked forward to returning to be able to work in Burlington House as soon as possible. Tom noted he had yet to touch the Presidents medal!

Bob Crichton thanked Tom and Helen for their contributions and hoped to be able to welcome them both to Belgium once COVID has been vanquished.

2. Apologies for absence

There were no further apologies were noted.

3. Approval of Minutes of 2020 AGM

No corrections were suggested, and the meeting moved (David Terrell), seconded (Bo Dahlqvist) and hence unanimously adopted the minutes.

4. Committee Report on the Section’s 2020 Activities (Tim Reynolds – Secretary)

The Secretary presented the 2020 report.

As with most other aspects of our lives, the COVID crisis in 2020 had a major impact on RSC Belgium’s programme of activities. Yet despite the challenges raised by the various lockdowns, travel bans and social distancing restrictions, during 2020, RSC Belgium managed to organise three public lectures (one physical and two virtual), held its AGM and a fund raising social, and our two annual school outreach events - the Chemistry Challenge and the Top of the Bench ‘European Eliminator’ – were successfully undertaken. We also welcomed our seventh Norman Lloyd scholar at Cardiff University.

Following our 2020 AGM and Annual Dinner on 17 January, we kicked the year off with a lecture from Prof Joris Proost from the Universite Catholique de Louvain on the evening of 11 February entitled 'Towards the Hydrogen Economy: Challenges and Pitfalls'.

Our next planned event would have been with Prof James Durrant of Imperial College on 31 March talking about ‘Solar driven synthesis of sustainable fuels: photochemistry meets catalysis’, but the first pandemic lockdown intervened. We hope to rearrange this event, either physically or virtually, in February 2021.

Despite the lockdown we managed to organise our 2020 Chemistry Challenge competition for senior high school students over the summer term.

On Saturday 12 September, with COVID restrictions eased momentarily in Belgium we were able to hold an appropriately socially-distanced fundraising event for our Norman Lloyd Scholarships at our section treasurer Julie Tuppeny’s abode that raised some EUR 870 raised for the fund.

Later in the year we welcomed our seventh recipient of a Norman Lloyd scholarship at Cardiff University: Cara Watkins. Cara is in the 1^st year of her chemistry degree at Cardiff.

September also saw our first attempt at a virtual evening lecture event. On the evening of 24 September Professor David Cole-Hamilton, Past President of the European Chemical Society and Irvine Professor of Chemistry at the University of St. Andrews talked about ‘Elements in Danger’ from his home in St. Andrews. The webinar was also the occasion for the announcement of our prize winners in our 2020 Chemistry Challenge including this year’s overall winner and recipient of the coveted Keith Price Award.

Our final lecture event of the year was on 12 November when Dr Brigitte van Tiggelen gave a virtual talk to the section on 'Women in Science' and in particular their contribution to the chemical sciences and the periodic table.

Our Top of the Bench regional heat was also a virtual affair taking place in late November and early December. Due to the various restrictions only four teams from two schools (St Georges in Luxembourg and ISF Waterloo) were able to take part in the written and practice exercises set, as ever, by Rita Woodward. But, also as ever, all the teams performed well with the overall winner being Team Phosphorus from St. Georges school who will be representing Belgium section at the virtual TOTB finals in March 2021.

We hope to be organising more events in 2021 – either virtual or physical depending on the situation – and look forward to seeing many members and friends on screen or face-to-face during the year. Details of forthcoming events can always be found on the RSC Belgium blog but our first two events will be on 11 February with Prof James Durrant of Imperial College on Solar Fuels and 18 March with Prof Annemie Bogaerts of Antwerp University on plasma chemistry for CO2 conversion.

There were no questions on the report, and it was unanimously approved.

5. Financial Report of 2020 (Julie Tuppeny – Treasurer)

The treasurer presented the 2020 financial report and accounts.

Like previous years 2020 was planned to be another busy year, until restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic saw cancellations and lectures moved online for the Section and its committee.

The main highlights of the year were our two online lectures from Brigitte van Tiggelen and David Cole-Hamilton and a live lecture from Joris Proost. Our two annual competitions for schools were organised to comply with COVID restrictions. Our Chemistry Challenge Competition  was well attended and was performed online, and the Top of the Bench (TOTB) Eliminator Round was organised in schools with four teams from two Schools taking part.

On 1 January 2020, the net assets of RSC Belgium Section were €5 929.46. The Annual Grant for 2020 received in June 2020 from RSC UK was € 6 589.00 which was less than the € 10 307.50 that was asked for.

The major item of expenditure for the year was € 865 to organise the Chemistry Challenge, of which €675 was prize money.

For the Year ending 31 December 2020, the net assets of RSC Belgium Section amount to €10,709.91.

Bearing in mind that under 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, a grant request of € 2 000 will be requested from RSC UK to cover all the activities planned for 2021.

The meeting unanimously adopted the Treasurer’s report.

6. Chairman’s Remarks (Bob Crichton)

The Chairman thanked all members of the committee for their hard work and support during a difficult year. It had been satisfying to have organised several events despite the COVID situation.

He hoped that all section members were managing well under the lockdown regime and looked forward to a more active year in 2021 with a fuller programme – either virtual or physical or a bit of both.

7. Election of committee members and section officers

The following nominations had been received:

Section Chair:             Robert Crichton

Section Treasurer:       Julie Tuppeny

Section Secretary:       Tim Reynolds

Ordinary members of the committee: Fabio Lucaccioni, Susan Schamp, Rita Woodward

Election to the committee is for a two-year term.

There being no further nominations and the number of nominations being less than the number of vacancies (A maximum of five ordinary members are allowed and David Terrell is mid-way through his current term as an ordinary member of the committee) the nominees were duly elected to the committee for 2021.

At the first committee meeting of 2021 Bo Dahlqvist will be co-opted onto the committee.

8. Auditing arrangements for 2021

Having reviewed the section rules (which state the section auditor could be any member of the section who was not a current member of the committee) and the financial audit requirements for the section reports to RSC HQ (no formal audit required) at the first committee meeting in 2020 it had been decided to approach a section member (Lance Smallshaw) to review/ audit the section accounts, rather than seek to continue an external audit by an accountant.

9. Any Other Business

It was noted that the first event of the 2021 programme will be on Thursday 11 February 2021 via Teams with Prof. James Durrant of Imperial College talking about Solar Fuels.

The meeting Adjourned at 19:55. The first meeting of the 2021 committee will take place on Tuesday 16 March 2021 via Teams from 19h15.

RSC Belgium 2020 AGM and Annual Dinner

The 2020 Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the RSC Belgium International section took place on the evening of 17 January 2020 at Les Amis Dinent restaurant in Wezembeek-Oppem from 19h30. This was followed by the section's Annual Dinner.

The meeting kicked off with the approval of the Minutes of 2019 AGM which were moved (Matt Andrews), seconded (David Terrell) and unanimously adopted. The meeting then recieved the secretary's report on the section's activities in 2019.

2019 activities

Tim Reynolds presented the report saying that 2019 was another very good year for the section with seven public lectures organised, including a Café Chimique, plus a major schools’ tour, a fund raising social and our two annual school outreach events: the Chemistry Challenge and annual Top of the Bench Eliminator. In addition, we supported a Memorial Symposium for our good friend Prof Istvan Marko. To complete the year RSC Belgium was represented once again at RSC Kent’s curling day. According to HQ, section membership currently stands at 115, a decrease of some 15 over the year.

The report was unanimously approved (proposed by David Terrell and seconded by Julie Tuppeny).

2019 finances

Julie Tuppeny presented the 2019 financial report and accounts. On 1 January 2019, the net assets of RSC Belgium Section were €10 311.51. The Annual Grant for 2019 received in June 2019 from RSC UK was €1 900.00 with an additional instalment for the Outreach Grant received on 25 October of €210, somewhat less than the requested €7 668.

Major items of expenditure are listed below. 

• € 1 906.70 hotel cost for the Istvan Marko Symposium
• € 905.00 to organise the Chemistry Challenge of which € 400 was prize money
• € 1 578.00 to organise and run the Kitchen Chemistry tour
• € 1 051.00 for the Café Chimique

For the Year ending 31 December 2019, the net assets of RSC Belgium International Section amount to €5 929.46.

The meeting moved (Tim Reynolds), seconded (Bob Crichton) and unanimously adopted the presented accounts and the Treasurer’s report.

Chairman’s Remarks (Bob Crichton)

The Chairman thanked the committee for their hard work and support during a very successful year. He gave specific thanks to Tim Reynolds for his work in making the Kitchen Chemistry tour a particular success.

Bob looked forward to working with the new committee in 2020.

Committee election

Two ordinary members were elected to the committee: David Terrell and Jane Downing.

Election to the committee is for a two-year term. Bob Crichton (Chair), Tim Reynolds (Secretary), Julie Tuppeny (Treasurer) and committee members Rita Woodward and Matt Andrews are mid-way through their current term on the committee.

At the first committee meeting of 2020 Bo Dahlqvist and Fabio Lucaccioni will be co-opted onto the committee. The membership of the 2020 committee can be found here.

Auditor 

Having reviewed the section rules (which state the section auditor could be any member of the section who was not a current member of the committee) and the financial audit requirements for the section reports to RSC HQ (no formal audit required) it was decided to review the need to appoint an auditor to the section at the first committee meeting of 2020.

With no further business to discuss the meeting adjourned at 19h55. The first meeting of the 2020 committee took place on 4 February 2020.

You can access the full draft minutes of the 2020 AGM here.

Annual dinner

The AGM was followed by the 2020 Annual Diner of the section, which was a resounding success.

Chemistry and the Future of Life on Earth

On Thursday 20 September RSC Belgium welcomed Prof David Cole-Hamilton of St Andrews University and current vice-president of EuChemS, the European Chemical Society, to the British School of Brussels to give us his view on 'Chemistry and the Future of Life on Earth'. David also helped had out the prizes for our 2018 Chemistry Challenge competition and gave the audience one of the first public views of EuChemS new version of the periodic table of the elements. Next year, 2019, will be the United Nations / IUPAC Year of the Periodic Table.

David (pictured below) described some of the major problems facing the world and what Chemistry can do and is doing to alleviate them.

The future of life on earth is threatened by a whole range of potential problems, many of them man-made. They range from ones that have been around since biblical times such as famine, pestilence, disease and war to the more modern ones of pollution of the land seas and sky, depletion of natural resources and the population explosion. In his lecture David examined the role of chemistry in combating all of these problems.

New periodic table

2019 will be the UN/ IUPAC Year of the  Periodic Table (IYPT2019) and EuChemS has devised a unique Periodic Table (see below) that highlights the issue of element scarcity and was officially launched on 19 September. The new Periodic Table is available for free download now and a video game based on it will be available from 22 January 2019.

Scholarships

During a networking reception after the awards and lecture, a collection for our Norman Lloyd Scholarship Fund was taken that yielded over EUR 110. This will enable us to top up the fund to just over £ 2 000 and ensured that we can fund two more scholars in academic years 2018-2019 and 2019-2020. The fund will have supported six first year chemistry students at Cardiff University by the end of the 2019-2020 academic year.

RSC Belgium 2016 AGM report

The section's Annual General Meeting (AGM) and Annual Dinner took place at Les Amis Dinent restaurant in Wezembeek-Oppem on the evening of Friday 15 January 2016. The meeting opened at 19:35 with 10 members and 1 co-opted committee member. In addition sixteen members who were unable to attend the AGM had asked the Chairman to act as their proxy for the meeting if a vote was required. This enabled a working quorum for the meeting to be obtained under our section rules.

Following approval of the minutes of the previous AGM that took place on 16 January 2015 section Secretary Becki Scott presented the Committee Report on the Section’s 2015 Activities.

2015 Highlights 
During the year the section organised five public events, two Saturday social excursions, and a visit from the RSC's CEO: Robert Parker. Total section membership stood at 132 – a net increase of six over the year.

Among highlights of the year were the Café Chimique on Climate Change, Prof Avril MacDonald’s series of demonstration lectures for schools and the public in February, a lively demonstration lecture by Prof Sir John Holman and two guided tours: one of the Waterloo Battlefield in May and the other of the WWI front lines in September. The 2015 Chemistry Challenge competition had attracted increased participation with the prizes given out at Peter Atkins’ event in October.

Feedback had been received from Cardiff University that Ms Dale Lyons (the first recipient of our Norman Lloyd scholarship) had performed exceptionally well in her first year and the next recipient had been selected: Rhodri Evans.

Financial aspects
Rita Woodward presented the 2015 financial report and accounts. In general, 2015 had been a good year for schools events. The section made a net deficit of just over 1200 euros with a remaining balance of c. 6000 euros. The committee aims to keep the account at around 7000 euros due to Belgian regulations meaning that the section officers are responsible for any deficit. A future grant of 9000 euros will be requested from HQ. The accounts had been signed off by the auditor Ralph Palim. Ralph had also a greed to continue as auditor for the section.

Our Chairman, Tim Reynolds, thanked the committee for their hard work and support during the year. He highlighted the “Fantastic Plastic” events that had been taken to the schools, rather than all the schools visiting a set location. This had proven extremely successful and was something the section is hoping to repeat with Andrew Hanson’s “Colour is Fun” events in March 2016. The Chairman thanked Ian Carson for his input, hard work, and organisation with these events. Ian also thanked UCL, Fabio, and BSB for their help with the chemicals etc used in the “Fantastic Plastic” talks. Tim went on to report that John Holman’s talk had also proved to be a very popular event. He also acknowledged that the section had a disappointing end to the year, with the cancellation of two events due to the security situation in Brussels. He went on to say that a good programme was coming together for 2016 and he thanked all members for their continued support of the section.

Election
Following elections the RSC Belgium Executive Committee for 2016 has the following membership: Mr Tim Reynolds (Chairman), Mrs Rita Woodward (Treasurer), Dr Becki Scott (Secretary), Prof Bob Crichton (elected committee member), Prof Brian Sutcliffe (elected committee member), Dr David Terrell (elected committee member), Mr John Swift (elected committee member, and Dr Ian Carson (elected committee member).

The first meeting of the new Executive will be on 17 February 2016 where co-opted members will be confirmed.

International issues
Bob Crichton brought to the attention of members the proposed regulations of the RSC's Outreach Working Group (OWG) which will affect the way international sections operate. Prof David Evans of the Beijing section who sits on the OWG had approached the Belgium section committee for their opinion and feedback on the proposed regulation changes. The section felt that the move to restrict the amount of the budget spent on outreach to 50% could be very limiting to the range of activities which we undertook. The discussions at the OWG indicated that all local section representatives were opposed to the changes. It is felt that these changes will undermine the work of the individual sections. We have also been asked to clarify the numbers of members and non-members attending events. This is a worrying precedent because many of our events have a large non-member attendance. Many local sections rely on the support of volunteers.

Tim, as the Chair of the International Steering Group, will communicate directly with HQ and the networks over this issue.

There being no other business, the meeting closed at 19:58. The AGM was followed by the 2016 Annual Dinner (see above) of the RSC Belgium section.

Silver Jubilee AGM Report

Les Amis Dînent restaurant in Wezembeek-Oppem was once again the location for the section's Annual General Meeting (AGM) and Annual Dinner on 16 January 2015. The 2015 Committee was elected and reports on the activities of the section in 2014 and the state of the section's finances were received. Tim Reynolds was elected as the new section chairman and Becki Scott becomes the new section secretary. Outgoing chairman Bob Crichton received a vote of thanks for his excellent leadership over the past six years. And we discovered that 2015 is the section's silver jubilee year!

Following the announcement of apologies and noting of those section members who had asked the chairman to act as their proxy during the meeting, the minutes of the previous AGM held on 17 January 2014 were reviewed and approved.

Tim Reynolds then gave the 2014 secretary's report on section activities. "2014 had been another successful and busy year for the section," he said. "During year the section had organised seven public events, a Saturday social excursion and participated in a number of other activities fulfilling our charitable objectives to provide popular (chemical) science lectures for our members and the public and raise the profile of the chemical sciences  schools."

2014 Highlights

Among highlights of the year were the Café Chimique on Energyon 27 January, Dr Hal Sosabowski’s series of demonstration lectures for schools and the public at the beginning of April, our guided walk discovering a range of former famous residents of Brussels led by Sarah Strange, Nick Lane’slecture on the origins of life and our International Year of Crystallography event with Gordon Leonard of the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility. The section had run another ‘mega’ Top of the Bench qualifier in November with 12 teams from six school. And the winning team was from a new entrant: the European School Brussels IV in Laeken. This year’s Chemical Challengecompetition also attracted increased participation with prizes given out at Nick Lane’s event in October.

Tim also noted that the first Norman Lloyd scholarship atCardiff University had been awarded in November to Ms Dale Lyons.

Financial Report

Rita Woodward presented the 2014 financial report and accounts. Rita estimated that the sections activities in 2014 has been supported by 450 adults and over 500 young people. At the beginning of the year the net assets of the society had been at an all-time high (€18600 but this included over €6300 in the Norman Lloyd fund). During 2014 the section made a net deficit of €4700 leaving us with total net assets of €7564 as of 31 December 2014. An amount much more in line with our historical level of assets.

Chairman’s Remarks

The Chairman thanked Rita and Tim for their reports and all members of the executive committee during 2014 for their hard work and support during this year and the previous five years of his chairmanship. He felt that the section now was more dynamic, had much greater reach and was doing more activities with younger audiences than ever before. He highlighted the contribution of Rita and Peter Woodward in providing the drinks and nibbles for many of the events during the year that added so much to the evening meetings.

A formal vote of thanks was made to Bob for his work and inspiration as Chairman over the past six years.

Elections

The elections for the new RSC Belgium Executive Committee saw some changes as well as continuity. Mr. Tim Reynolds was elected as Chairman, Mrs. Rita Woodward was re-elected as Treasurer, and Dr Becki Scott was elected as Secretary. Elected as members of the committees were Prof Bob Crichton, Prof Brian Sutcliffe, Dr David Terrell and Mr. John Swift. Dr Ian Carson is also an elected member of the committee in the middle of his two-year term. 

The full composition of the 2015 Executive committee can be found here. The first meeting of the new Executive will be on 19 February where co-opted members for 2015 will be confirmed.

The Treasurer expressed her gratitude to our auditor, Ralph Palim, and announced that he had agreed to be appointed as auditor for the section accounts for 2015.

David Terrell moved a vote of thanks to Tim Reynolds for his work as section secretary over the past five years.

Jubilee year!

During discussion under any other business it was realised that 2015 would be the section’s Silver Jubilee year. So we will need to think if some special events to celebrate!

Following the close of the meeting at 19:43, the 2015 Annual Dinner of the RSC Belgium section (see pictures above - courtesy of Ian Backhouse - and below - courtesy of Helen Lee) took place. The draft minutes of the 2015 AGM can be found here.

2014 AGM Report

Les Amis Dînent restaurant in Wezembeek-Oppem was the location for the section's Annual General Meeting (AGM) and Annual Dinner on 17 January. The 2014 Committee was elected and reports on the activities of the section in 2013 and the state of the section's finances received. In addition to members, committee representatives and friends, the section was pleased to welcome Dr. Hanny Nover director of the European Chemical Regions Network (ECRN) as an observer.

Following notification of apologies the minutes of the previous AGM held on January 25 2013 were reviewed and approved before section secretary Tim Reynolds gave his report. "During 2013 the section organised seven public evening events, a day social excursion and participated in a number of other educational outreach activities," he said.

Highlights
Among highlights of the year were the Café Chimique on Stem Cells that followed our 2013 AGM in January, the visit of RSC President Prof. Lesley Yellowlees in March and the section’s royal guided tour of Mechelen in June. The section had also participated in its fourth Greenlight for Girls annual event in November and had also run its largest ever Top of the Bench qualifier in that month: a truly international affair with eight schools involved including three new entrants: the SHAPE school, St Georges form Luxembourg and the International School of Flanders.

He also noted the sad loss in March of our friend and supporter Dr Norman Lloyd. However with the help of Norman’s family, friends and colleagues a fund had been established to support a scholarship in his name at Cardiff University for first degree chemistry students.

Small surplus
Our Treasurer Rita Woodward then presented her 2013 report and the sections audited accounts. Rita noted that the section had made a surplus of €537 for 2013. In fact, despite an active year, net expenditure was considerably less than forecast due to the cancellation of a joint meeting with Kent and Chilterns sections; the postponement of the Cafe Chimique on Energy until January 2014 and the anticipated expenditure relating to a second RSC Historical Landmark plaque not happening.

Considering the very healthy state of section assets (€18600 – including the Norman Lloyd fund) and anticipated activities and new initiatives in 2014 a request for a grant equivalent to €5000 would be made to RSC HQ, which was €2000 less than in 2013 Rita stated.

Rita said: "To date over €6300 had been donated to the RSC Norman Lloyd fund." This fund was held in a separate account and during 2014, following the recent completion of a Gift Agreement with Cardiff University, a sum of €6500 would be transferred to fund an annual scholarship starting in 2014 of £1000. The proposed section budget for 2014 was also discussed.

Chairman's remarks
Prof Bob Crichton thanked Rita and Tim for their reports and all members of the executive committee during 2013 for their hard work and support during the year. He highlighted the contributions of Rita and Peter Woodward in providing the drinks and nibbles for many of the events during the year that added so much to the evening meetings. He also thanked everyone who had participated in events such as the Greenlight for Girls and Top of the Bench events for their time and effort in these important activities.

Two posts were up for election to the executive committee this year and Tim Reynolds was re-elected as Secretary, while Ian Carson was elected as a committee member. The full composition of the 2014 Executive committee can be found here. Rita also expressed her gratitude to our auditor, Ralph Palim, and announced that he was willing to be re-appointed as auditor for 2014.

The draft minutes of the 2014 AGM can be found here.

Following the close of the meeting Members and friends enjoyed the Annual Dinner (see picture above).

Stem Cell Therapy: A Potential Cure-all?

RSC Belgium held its first public event of the year on 25 January. Our latest Café Chimique tackled the issues around research into Stem Cell Therapy with two expert speakers, a patient viewpoint and many questions from an audience of over 60 RSC members and friends.

Stem cell therapy has been the source of both Nobel Prizes and much controversy over the past few years. It is the basis for a many new fields of medicine – most notably regenerative medicine – that offer hope for the alleviation and reversal of many critical degenerative conditions. It is also an area in which Europe leads the world in research, but in which regulatory issues abound.

A capacity crowd of over 60 RSC Belgium members and friends made their way on a snowy Friday evening to AutoWorld in Cinquantenaire Park, Brussels to hear from two expert speakers introduced by our chairman Bob Crichton (below, centre).

Our first speaker was Prof. Catherine Verfaillie (below, left) who is Director of the Stem Cell Institute at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KUL). She was followed by Dr. Denis Dufrane (below, right) who works at the Faculty of Medicine, Universite Catholique de Louvain (UCL) at Woluwe.

In addition a patient’s viewpoint was presented via a five minute video interview with someone participating in a clinical trial. This was particularly poignant as it highlighted the physical and emotional demands of the stem cell harvesting process.

Potential cure-all?
There has been much coverage of the potential of stem cell therapy – but how much is hype and how much hope? Our two speakers took us through the ‘what and how’ of stem cells and the areas where they may have potential medical applications. These areas include insights into human development, drug discovery, the study of drug toxicity, the study of human diseases, cell therapy and tissue engineering.

Initial enthusiasm for stem cell therapy was focused on use of embryonic stem cells which do not age and have the potential to differentiate into all cell types and therefore could potentially heal all diseases. However there were and are many scientific and ethical questions around the use of such cells.

For these reasons research is now concentrated on adult stem cells which do age and did not have such a great potential for differentiation but through an intense global research effort it is possible to create cells that are nearly the equivalent of embryonic stem cells from any human cell. This work as opened the possibility of creating designer stem cells suitable for transplantation, tissue engineering and use in pharmaceuticals.

The Cafe Chimique format allows for an extended, informal question and answer session with the audience seated in small groups at tables. A gratis bar for wine, beer and soft drinks was open for participants throughout the evening and a variety of ‘nibbles and chips’ were also available on the tables.

2013 AGM
Just prior to the Café Chimique the section held its Annual General Meeting where the formal business of approving reports and accounts were undertaken and elections held for the executive committee that guides the section’s activities.

Section secretary Tim Reynolds presented a report on RSC Belgium’s during 2012 and highlighted two particularly enjoyable and well-attended events: the June visit to the Royal African Museum and Tom Frantzen’s sculpture garden in Tervuren and the Higgs boson event in November with Prof. Vincent Lemaitre.

A vote of thanks was made to long time co-opted committee member Elaine Francke who had stepped down during the year and to Chris Phanopoulos and Laura Yonge who had both decided to not seek re-election this year. All three were thanked for their efforts for the section.

Our treasurer, Rita Woodward presented the financial situation of the section. During 2012 the section had made a surplus of over €4300, but it was pointed out that this included grants paid in advance for a delayed joint event with two UK sections (Kent and Chilterns & Middlesex). The section auditor, Ralph Palim, noted that he had found the accounts systematically prepared and in excellent order as usual.

Chairman Prof. Bob Crichton thanked all members of the executive committee during 2012 for their hard work and support during the year. He highlighted the contributions of Rita and Peter Woodward in providing the drinks and nibbles for many of the events during the year that added so much to the evening meetings.

Elections
A number of posts were up for election as the incumbents had completed their two year term of office. The results of the election and the full membership of the 2013 Executive Committee can found on our Executive Committee page.

If you would like to receive a copy of the draft minutes of the 2013 AGM and/ or any of the reports and other paperwork submitted to the meeting, please contact the section secretary Tim Reynolds via email.