Working for a World Free of Chemical Weapons

RSC Belgium was honoured to welcome the Director-General of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) Ambassador Ahmet Üzümcü on the evening of 15 March. The Ambassador addressed a large audience of members and friends of the section at the Royal African Museum in Tervuren.

His Excellency Ahmet Üzümcü (pictured left, above with RSC Belgium chairman Prof. Bob Crichton) was appointed Director-General of OPCW in December 2009. Immediately prior to this appointment he served as the Permanent Representative of the Republic of Turkey to the United Nations Office at Geneva.

Ambassador Üzümcü is a career diplomat with vast experience in multilateral diplomacy. He has represented Turkey at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Council, the Conference on Disarmament, the United Nations and other international organisations in Geneva. He has considerable experience in disarmament-related diplomacy, political-military affairs, disarmament and proliferation issues. He held the post of Ambassador of Turkey to Israel from 1999 to 2002.

Chemistry for peace
Ambassador Üzümcü described the rationale for and operation of OPCW and the Convention on Chemical Weapons. Tremendous progress has been made in the destruction of the vast majority of chemical weapon stockpiles around the world. However vigilence is still required to finally eliminate this threat and ensure such weapons do not reappear in the hands of terrorists or new nation states.

"A total ban on chemical weapons is no small achievement for the international community," concluded Ambassador Üzümcü. "We will continue to endeavour to strengthen this norm in order to keep our future generations safe from this scourge which has in the past brought death and untold suffering to those that became victims."

"My message to you is to join this endeavour; to spread the word. To use your considerable expertise, influence and good will to ensure that the norms and values that we share are more widely known and supported. To guarantee through your work with students and apprentices that the chemist will always work for the betterment of the community and never use his knowledge and skills to bring harm to fellow human beings."

OPCW is working with the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry to promote the services of chemistry to society, international peace and security.

The full text of the Ambassador's speech can be found here.

Following the Ambassador's talk an extended question and answer ranged over the nature of chemical weapons, current threats to peace and environmental legacy issues.

IYC Experiment at G4G Two

On Saturday, 26 November 2011, RSC Belgium was part of a very successful second annual GreenlightforGirls event at the International School of Brussels (ISB) . The RSC Belgium team held four lab workshops in three languages featuring two parts of the International Year of Chemistry (IYC 2011) Global Water experiment.

Over 250 schoolgirls from Brussels descended on the ISB for the second annual Greenlight@Brussels Day: an event that promotes science, technology engineering and mathematics ("STEM") to 11-15 year old girls. The RSC Belgium workshop was one of over over 100 hands-on workshops run by role-model scientists, engineers and technology experts, and a Fun Lab full of the latest high-tech gadgetry and science experiments, attendees were exposed to a wide array of exciting activities to inspire them to pursue technical studies and careers. The event was and official part of EU Robotics Week and the International Year of Chemistry 2011.


The RSC Belgium's four hour-long workshops involved the girls getting to grips with the IYC 2011 experiments on the 'pH of water' and how bugs and bacteria are eliminated from our drinking water. The results were added to the IYC 2011 global database of results.

Excellent impact
A follow-up survey to the event showed that it had a very positive impact with 94% of girls who attended saying that the event had encouraged them to pursue science subjects - including some who are not currently enrolled in science studies.

The RSC Belgum workshop global experiment was highlighted as a "favorite part of the day" by participants in their feedback.

The RSC Belgium team was led by Rita Woodward with fellow executive members Ian Carson, Elaine Francke and Tim Reynolds. Our special thanks to students Armourie Prentice and Katrien Laurier who completed the team.

IYC Event: Just the Beginning?

A strong contingent of RSC Belgium members and friends were at the inspiring closing conference for the IUPAC/UNESCO International Year of Chemistry 2011 at the new Square Brussels Meeting Centre on 1 December. Leading figures from the international chemistry community gave their views on the importance of chemistry to solving major global issues, but perhaps the most inspiring visions came from a group of younger people.

The ceremony was opened by HRH Prince Philippe of Belgium and insprational messages were given by Christian Jourquin, CEO of Solvay, European Commissioner for Research Maire Geoghegan-Quinn and IUPAC President Prof. Nicole Moreau.

There then followed a presentation from 13 young leaders drawn from academia and industry around the world. They described their vision of the world in 2050 and how the chemical sciences will make it a better place by addressing the challenges that confront society today.

The vision was presented via three imagined scenarios that were very well thought out and delivered in a thought provoking manner.

A response to these visions was provided by Ada Yonath, 2009 Nobel laureate for chemistry and Jean-Luc Bredas, 1997 Francqui prize winner. Representatives from UNESCO, the OECD, and the Polish Minister Deputy Minister of Economy Hanna Trojanowska also took part in the event along with chief executives representing global chemicals and pharmaceuticals companies.

Outside the main auditorium a small exhibition area featured the life of Maria Sklodowska-Curie, the IYC Global Water Experiment, the Global Stamp Competition, Climate Change, 'Life without Chemistry' and the video 'Chemistry: All about you'.

A great success
The closing ceremony of the International Year of Chemistry was a great success. It was wonderful to see such interest in the creativity and the potential of chemistry to address the challenges facing our societies. High level speakers and young leaders explored and debated how chemistry is vital for solving our most critical global problems including food, water, health, energy, habitat, and more.

However IYC 2011 doesn’t want to stop and the chemistry community is looking to build on the ideas and momentum generated during 2011. More information on the 2050 vision can be found here and a Facebook page has been set up to continue the interaction.

GMO Debate at AutoWorld

The section's second Cafe Chimique of IYC 2011 focused on the Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) debate. Speakers from EuropaBio (Carel du Marchie Sarvaas) and Friends of the Earth Europe (Adrian Bebb) made short presentations on GMOs and policy developments in the green biotechnology area before entering into a spirited debate with an informed audience.

The debate took place on 24 November in a convivial cafe-style environment at AutoWorld, Parc Cinquantenaire in Brussels. Before and after the debate the audience had the chance to mix and discuss the GMO issue with drinks and light refreshment available.

To help us understand the issues, possibilities and policy pros and cons two distinguished speakers led the debate.

GMO speakers
Adrian Bebb of Friends of the Earth (FoE) Europe (right) and Carel du Marchie Sarvaas from EuropaBio (left) are pictured with section Chairman Prof. Bob Crichton.


Adrian is a long-time FoE campaigner. He is now based in FoE Europe’s Munich office and is Food, Agriculture and Biodiversity Programme Coordinator. Previously he worked with FoE Europe as Agrofuels Campaign Coordinator and GMO Campaigner. Prior to joining the FoE Europe office he was co-ordinator for the Real Food Campaign for FoE UK.

Carel was appointed as Director for Agricultural Biotechnology at EuropaBio in April 2010. He is a Dutch national and has many years experience as a senior public affairs and communications advisor working in Brussels, The Hague and Washington DC. Prior to joining EuropaBio, Carel was Managing Director Public Affairs for Hill & Knowlton International in Brussels.

Hot debate
The two speakers both focused on the huge challenge facing humanity: how to feed 9 billion people and preserve the environment and biodiversity? Debate was heated on occassion with little common ground between the speakers and a wide diversity of opinion coming from the audience.

Before and after the debate, the audience will be polled on a question relating to GM crops to see if their views have been changed by proceedings. Both before and after there was a clear majority in favour of 'GMO' technology, but there was a lower pro-GMO vote following the debate.

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.

Chemistry and Culture at EESC

October was a very hectic month for the RSC Belgium section with a variety of events in which the section either participated or organised. Kicking off the month was the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) week-long celebration of IYC 2011.

From Monday October 3 to Friday October 7 a series of events were organised at the EESC HQ at Rue Belliard 99, Brussels that the section supported and many members and friends attended. We include some photos from the events below.

Highlights of the week included:


The opening reception with a chemistry demo (above) from Technopolis Science Centre on the evening of Monday 3 October.

An exhibition on Maria Sklodowska-Curie (Marie Curie) all week with an official opening by the wife of the Polish Ambassador to the EU on Wednesday 5 October lunchtime.


Prof Dimitri Mendeleev was reanimated by actor Peter Casey (pictured above, left, with David Sears UK EESC member and organiser of the EESC IYC week) and instigated an elemental question and answer session on Thursday 6 October at lunchtime.


A very interesting presentation on the 'Catalytic Clothing' project with Profs Tony Ryan and Helen Storey (pictured above) was given on the evening of Thursday 6 October. This initiative has some excellent ecological credentials and also novel ideas for science communication with the public.

A presentation on the Solar Impulse aircraft from Solvay at lunchtime on Friday 7 October.

Mendeleev School Tour
Peter Casey stayed in Brussels for a couple of school visits as well. On Friday 7 October Prof Mendeleev spent the day at the British School of Brussels (BSB) and on Monday he visited the European School at Mol. At both schools he helped bring the Periodic Table vividly to life for students of all ages. He is shown 'in action' at BSB below.