Chemistry Challenge 2022 results announced

The results of the RSC Belgium Chemistry Challenge 2022 were announced at our event on 29 September with Prof Vincent Lemaitre at the British School of Brussels (BSB) in Tervuren. As for the previous two years, this year's Chemistry Challenge was undertaken as a virtual event in the early summer with the students working remotely at their schools.

For the 2022 Challenge, we received entries from the majority of our group of international and European schools in the Brussels area and beyond and, as ever, the Challenge was designed to test the student's chemical knowledge and initiative. In total entries for 2022 were significantly up on 2021.

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 Olivia Brenninkmeijer from the Antwerp International School (AIS), pictured below, who received a €50 award.

In second place was Giorgia Lucrezia la Cognata from the European School in Mol (ESMol) who won €25 and the third prize of €10 went to Zeynep Ozel of BSB.

Section B - Structured questions

In this section the first prize of €50 was awarded to Kiara Kuralla of BSB with Matei Slavnicu from St.Johns International School (St John’s) picking up the second prize of €25. Two third prizes of €10 were awarded to Siena Ootes of the European School 1 in Luxembourg (ESL1) and Zeynep Ozel of BSB.

Section C - Thinking Matters

For this section the top prize of €50 went to Kheya Sinha of BSB, with BSB's Kalvin Biggs picking up a second prize of €25. Four third places worth €10 were awarded to Simon Guisset and Philipp Weisser of ESL1 and Kiara Kuralla and Naomi Copner from BSB.

The Keith Price Prize

With an outstanding performances in Section B, and receiving an additional €100, this year's Keith Price Prize was claimed by Kiara Kuralla of BSB (pictured below on the far right with some other BSB winners - from left to right Kalvin Biggs, Kheya Sinha, Naomi Copner, Zeynep Ozel and Kiara). 

Well done to everyone who took part in this year's Chemistry Challenge! Every student that entered the competition receives a certificate of participation (see pic from ESL1 below). And, of course, we will be running the Challenge again in 2023 and look forward to further widening participation!

Extreme phenomena in our universe, from the infinitely small to the infinitely large

On the evening of 29 September 2022 RSC Belgium welcomed back, once again, Professor Vincent Lemaitre from Universite Catholique de Louvain to discuss the latest thinking in high energy and astrophysics in a talk on ‘Key experiments probing extreme phenomena in the universe from very small to very large scale structures’. His talk was our first in-person talk since the COVID pandemic and was hosted at the British School of Brussels. This event was also the prize giving ceremony for our Chemistry Challenge 2022 for school students.

Scientific knowledge is forged through observation of nature and the development of scientific theories. The latter must not only explain observations, but they must also make predictions that can be verified by experiments! By construction, and contrary to beliefs, scientific theories are therefore falsifiable by possible observations not predicted or understood by theories. Present theories are therefore doomed to be replaced by new ones, more complete and more efficient. The key element for the development of new theories is therefore our ability to observe nature in its smallest corners and extreme conditions - at different spatial and temporal scales, and at different levels of structural complexity.

In the talk, Prof Lemaitre took us through three recent experiments in physics that allow us to observe (or reproduce the conditions of) extreme phenomena in our universe, from the infinitely small to the infinitely large.

They were:

• The CMS experiment at the LHC (Particle Physics and the discovery of the Higgs boson)
• The LIGO/VIRGO experiments (General Relativity and the discovery of gravitational wave), and
• The ICECUBE/KM3NeT experiments (Physics of Astroparticles and the first observation of Blazers – a form of supermassive black hole - with neutrinos).

After presenting the main result(s) obtained by these significant projects, Vincent briefly discussed some future experimental projects in each of these research fields.

The talk was followed by a networking reception where the discussion continued.

We had hoped to combine the live 'in-person' event with a webinar version but a few technical hitches prevented this and we also were unable to record a video version of the event. Our apologies for this.

Norman Lloyd Fundraiser 2022

RSC Belgium members and friends were treated to a sunny afternoon on Saturday 20 August to raise funds for our Dr. Norman Lloyd Scholarships at Cardiff University.

Our hosts for the afternoon were Rita and Peter Woodward and the venue was their beautiful garden in Duisberg.

Assisting with proceedings were are Nina (Nostra Nina Lions from D’Es) and Treeze (Treeze Lions from D’Es) - Rita and Peter's two pedigree Leonbergers. Leonbergers are rather large but very friendly canines, but if they decide to lean on you you know about it! 

Rita and Peter provided a sumptuous spread for their guests including drinks. Tim Reynolds brought along Timm's Pimm's and blackberry sherbet.

A tombola was held with some fine prizes and in total, including donations from people unable to attend, over 900 euros were raised for our Norman Lloyd scholarships.

The Scholarships

The Norman Lloyd scholarship was established by RSC Belgium in cooperation with Cardiff University in memory of our long-term friend and supporter Norman Lloyd.  The Dr Norman C. Lloyd Scholarship provides an annual scholarship of £1,000 for an undergraduate student, usually in their first year of study,  at the Cardiff School of Chemistry. So far eight undergraduates have been recipients of the award. Find out more here.

If you would like to make a donation to the Scholarship fund, you can transfer your contribution to the RSC Belgium ING account BE 91 3630 8144 4876 making sure to include the reference 'Norman Lloyd Scholarship Fund'.

Foreign bodies uncovered

On Saturday 2 July, RSC Belgium members and friends were treated to a fascinating guided walk around the lower town in Brussels led by Dr Paul Snell. Paul specialises in art and architectural tours usually with a particular theme or geographical focus and for our walk he took us on a tour of ‘Foreign Bodies’.

The walk started with a coffee at Le Cirio café in central Brussels. We learnt that this grand and venerable Brussels establishment was originally set up as a canned vegetable store in the 1880s by Italian Francesco Cirio as part of a chain of stores across Europe. You can still spot Cirio tomatoes on the shelves of your local store. The cafe has also been a regular backdrop for films.

The tour then moved on to the Metropole hotel to learn about the Solvay Conferences via the Rodin reliefs on the Bourse and eventually ended at Mont des Arts. Here many of the party enjoyed an optional lunch on the terrace of the Restaurant Albert on the fifth floor of the Belgian Royal Library (KBR).  

Our thanks to Paul for a truly informative and entertaining walk packed with facts and anecdotes: it would be true to say 'we all learned something - in fact several new things' during the excursion! 

My personal favourite was that Jean Neuhaus, inventor (or was it his wife?) of the praline and ballotin box, was another Italian visitor to Belgium (original family name Casanova!) and was a pharmacist. His first pharmacy shop was in Galeries St. Hubert and he started coating his medical pills with chocolate to make them more palatable.

Paul's Foreign Bodies walks explore places associated with various guests, visitors, exiles, invaders and liberators in the capital. Our tour also included historical characters like Jacques-Louis David, Victor Hugo, Karl Marx, Verlaine, and Baudelaire (not a big fan of Brussels).

Preventing breast cancer recurrence and metastasis

On the evening of 19 May 2022 RSC Belgium members and friends tuning in for a webinar event describing a major breakthrough for the prevention of breast cancer recurrences and metastases with Professor Pierre Sonveaux of the Universite catholique de Louvain. The webinar presented the current state of knowledge in cancer research and in particular the recent discovery of a very promising treatment using the drug MitoQ to prevent metastasis: the mechanism(s) by which cancer spreads from an initial or primary site to a different or secondary site within the host's body.

In many ways, cancer can be thought of as a metabolic disease, said Professor Sonveaux, where cancer cells attempt to grow and multiply by gradually depleting locally available food resources. When these resources dwindle to the point of creating cellular starvation and waste accumulates, some cancer cells activate a metastatic programme which, when fully operational, allows them to leave hostile areas to colonise areas that are more welcoming, often in distant organs.

In clinical practice, this process often marks the transition from curative medical interventions to palliative medical interventions. In breast cancer, Professor Pierre Sonveaux ‘s team has demonstrated that it is possible to halt the metastatic process by blocking the activity of metabolic sensors inside cancer cells. One of the most promising molecules, as it can be administered to humans without major side effects at the doses required to have an effect, is MitoQ. 

This drug holds great promise in preventing cancer from spreading and, therefore, increasing recovery rates for patients. Future research will work to convert this hope into a clinical reality. Prof Sonveaux’s work has focused on the use of MitoQ in breast cancer, but he indicated that studies are showing good results for other cancers, including prostate cancer. This very informative presentation was followed by a lively question and answer session. 

The webinar was recorded and can be viewed below or via the RSC Belgium YouTube channel. Apologies for some issues with the sound quality in parts of this video.

About Prof. Pierre Sonveaux

Pierre Sonveaux is Pharmacist by training. After a Diplôme d’Etudes Approfondies in the team of Prof. Benoît Van den Eynde at the Brussels branch of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, he obtained his PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences (vascular oncology) under the supervision of Prof. Olivier Feron at the Université catholique de Louvain in 2004. As a postdoc, he joined the lab of Prof. Mark W. Dewhirst at Duke University. Back at UCLouvain in 2008, Pierre won an ERC starting grant, was promoted to Assistant Professor, and created his own team of translational research. He is now Research Director of the F.R.S.-FNRS and extra-ordinary Professor at UCLouvain. His team is currently active in three main areas: understanding the oxidative pathway of lactate in cancer; characterising and harnessing the metabolic control of (tissue-specific) cancer metastasis; and unravelling the contribution of cancer and host cell metabolism to chemo- and radio resistance for cancer re-sensitisation. He has authored more than 125 peer-reviewed papers and has nine patent applications.

Nuclear Energy at EU Level - Current State of Play and Outlook

On the evening of Thursday 28 April 2022 RSC Belgium hosted a webinar talk from Andrei Goicea, Policy Director with FORATOM - The Voice of the European Nuclear Industry. The title of Andrei's presentation was 'Nuclear Energy at EU Level - Current State of Play and Outlook'.

Andrei talked about FORATOM and the status of nuclear energy at EU level. He outlined the benefits of nuclear energy and its future at EU level including new developments, such as the European Green Deal that will impact on the nuclear sector.

He looked at the potential of nuclear for sustainable hydrogen production and its role in European industrial strategy. Other topics included that were covered included security of energy supply, energy pricing and the potential of small modular reactors (SMRs).

The nuclear energy sector currently includes a fleet of over 100 reactors in the EU that supports over 1 million jobs and produces around 25% of the EU's electricity – the highest single source of electricity. Andrei highlighted that nuclear is an option for decarbonization and that few EU nations will achieve the 2030 carbon emissions targets with their current mix of power production. The exceptions being nations like France and Sweden with higher contributions of nuclear power.

In terms of its potential for hydrogen production, the characteristics of nuclear power production are well suited to running electrolysers at greater capacity than other low-carbon options, so so-called 'pink hydrogen' ('green hydrogen' is defined as hydrogen generated by renewable power - solar, wind etc) has better economics.

The very informative presentation was followed by a lively question and answer session. You can download Andrei's presentation here and a recording of the webinar can be viewed below or via our RSC Belgium YouTube channel.

About the speaker

Andrei Goicea graduated in 2002 from both the University Politehnica of Bucharest - Faculty of Power Engineering as a nuclear engineer and the “Spiru Haret” University, Marketing and Foreign Trade Faculty as an economist. He also holds a masters degree from the University Politehnica of Bucharest - Faculty of Power Engineering in nuclear safety and radiological protection from 2003.

He started work with FORATOM - The Voice of the European Nuclear Industry - in May 2015 and is currently Policy Director. He previously worked at Nuclearelectrica in Romania (2003 – 2013) and on the Mochovce Units 3 and 4 Project in Slovakia (2013-2015).

Chemical recycling: Enabling plastic waste to become a valuable resource

On the evening of Thursday 31 March 2022 RSC Belgium members and friends enjoyed a highly informative talk on 'Chemical recycling: Enabling plastic waste to become a valuable resource' with Henk Pool from Cefic – the European Chemical Industries Association.

“Every year, Europeans generate 25 million tonnes of plastic waste, but less than 30% is collected for recycling” states the 2018 European Plastics Strategy. Henk showed us how EU regulation and chemical innovation is ensuring that recycling and reuse can minimise waste and build a circular economy for plastics in Europe.

EU initiatives

The EU Green Deal is at the heart of the EU’s ambitions of becoming a climate-neutral continent. To meet these ambitious European objectives, much more plastic waste needs to be collected, sorted and prepared for recycling and a broader range of markets need to be supplied with plastic products containing recycled content.

The European ambition to transition from a linear economy towards a sustainable circular economy calls for an array of complementary innovative recycling solutions and business models. Chemical recycling enables the production of chemicals including plastics from End-of-Life plastic waste streams that are currently incinerated, placed in landfill or exported.

Over the last decades, recycling of plastics has been mostly limited to plastic waste streams which were relatively easy to collect and recycle through mechanical recycling. For packaging this led to overall plastic recycling rate of 41%. Yet still today, a large part of plastic waste ends up in landfill or incineration.

Chemical innovation

To further increase plastic recycling, other and complementary recycling routes will be required to process plastics that are difficult to be handled in mechanical recycling processes. Chemical recycling can therefore fill a void in the plastics recycling loop, conserve valuable resources, and contribute to the creation of a low-carbon circular economy.

Chemical recycling technologies allow the use of plastic waste as feedstock for the chemical industry and replace fossil feedstock materials to produce new chemicals including plastics. Chemical recycling can upgrade the quality and produce secondary feedstock materials that are equivalent to virgin resources. Chemical recycling also has the potential to remove undesired additives and impurities allowing the use as recycled content in high-demanding applications such as food contact materials or medical applications.

During the webinar Henk clarified the different recycling options and routes for plastic waste; took us through the EU policy framework and its developments; and discussed the progress made and the need for further collaboration in technology development, value chain – market developments, and policy development to hit the EU’s ambitious targets.

More information

You can access the slides that Henk presented here and much more information on initiatives in this area can be found on Cefic’s Chemical Recycling Website.