The Periodic System of the Chemical Elements

2019 has been designated by the United Nations and UNESCO as the International Year of the Periodic Table (IYPT2019), so on the evening of 7 November the section was delighted to welcome Prof Brigitte van Tiggelen from the Science History Institute (Philadelphia, USA and Paris) and le Centre de Recherche en Histoire des Sciences (UCLouvain, Belgium) to the British School of Brussels to talk to us about the origins of the Periodic System of the Chemical Elements.

The International Year of the Periodic Table (IYPT2019) coincides with the celebration of the anniversary of the first publication of the Periodic System by the Russian chemist Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleev. However, Mendeleev was not the only one to propose a classification of all the elements then known, and he shared with Lothar Meyer the idea of making it a periodic system.

Brigitte's talk was entitled 'A work in progress: the Genesis and Development of the Periodic System' and covered the genesis of the periodic system including the significant contributions of scholars other than Mendeleev, such as Lothar Meyer; the question of the true significance of the predictions made by Mendeleev in the acceptance of the system by contemporaries, and the gradual but relatively slow dissemination of this tool within chemistry education. 

She also focused on the unique feature of Mendeleev's approach in his desire to produce a law of nature, the Periodic Law, that could be used to make predictions about the existence and sometimes even the properties of elements still to be discovered.

Brigitte described the development of the ideas behind the periodic system and the multiplicity of different periodic tables that have been generated over the century and half of its existence. In particular how it has adapted to successive new discoveries relating to the constitution of matter and its interpretation in terms of quantum mechanics. Not only could Mendeleev not have foreseen these developments, but he had a very hard time accepting the discovery of radioactivity and unstable elements, not to mention the isotopes of the elements, or the disruption of the atom and the atomic nucleus. 

Today, it is not possible to imagine the teaching or publication of a chemistry textbook that did not include a Periodic Table. But research conducted by historians of science show that the table did not enter the educational syllabus until quite late, demonstrating that what we now consider to be the indispensable and universal tool was absent from chemical training for many generations.

We hope to invite Prof Van Tiggelen back in 2020 to talk on the subject of 'Women in Science'. She has recently been the joint editor of an important book on the contribution of women to shaping the chemical sciences - 'Women in their Element' - that provides ample evidence of the female contributions to the iconic table of chemistry. The book shows how women contributed to the building and understanding of the periodic system and to the discovery of  many elements.

Yeast: A Key to new Brewing Science

On the evening of 9 October 2019, RSC Belgium members and friends were treated to a most entertaining and informative talk from Professor Kevin Verstrepen, director of the Leuven Institute for Beer Research, professor in Genetics and Genomics at Leuven University, and Director of the VIB Centre for Microbiology. The event at took place at the British School of Brussels.

Prof. Verstrepen is best known for his research into the genetics of beer yeasts and the development of novel superior brewing yeasts for a variety of clients. As part of this research he and his team have rigorously tested and tasted some 250 (mainly) Belgian beers. Its a hard job, but someone has to do it!

While most consumers know that yeast is responsible for producing the alcohol in fermented beverages like beer and wine, few people realise that yeast also contributes greatly to the aroma of these products. Prof. Verstrepen took us through his research that focuses on characterising, comparing and understanding different industrial yeasts from across the world. Over the past years, his research team has collected thousands of yeast strains from various industries and locations, including some medieval breweries, distilleries and from many spontaneous fermentations.

Fermentation assays revealed enormous differences in aroma production, fermentation efficiency and stress tolerance. In addition, DNA analysis reveals the history and domestication of today’s yeasts, and also opened the doors to understanding and improving aroma formation. Using these resources, Kevin's team is producing several new, superior yeast variants with specific properties and aroma profiles , some of which are already used for commercial production of fermented beverages. In a parallel research effort, Prof Verstrepen is leveraging the power of high-throughput chemical analysis and the availability of large consumer databases with machine learning and AI to understand the chemistry behind aroma formation and subsequent consumer appreciation. 

The ultimate result was the first fact-based atlas of Belgian beer that allows cross-comparison between different beers.

The results of this extensive research are now available in a book 'Belgian Beer - Tested and Tasted - The Complete Guide' that provides objective science-based measures of beer parameters. The book can serve as an introduction to Belgian beer for the uninitiated; a reference for the seasoned Belgian beer fan; and encourages the reader to explore new beers based on the atlas. The ideal present for the beer lover in your life?

Kitchen Chemistry goes Belgium

In September RSC Belgium embarked on its biggest ever school tour with Prof. Stephen Ashworth of the University of East Anglia, aka the Kitchen Chemist. Our Kitchen Chemistry tour saw Stephen give 15 individual demonstration lectures or talks at six venues over five days. In total over 1 800 individuals participated in at least one of the events. The tour was partially funded by the first ever RSC Outreach Grant awarded to a section based outside the UK or Republic of Ireland and saw the section working with some new venues and audiences. All in all the Kitchen Chemistry tour was a tremendous success!

The tour kicked off on the morning of Monday 16 September with a Kitchen Chemistry demonstration lecture for elementary pupils at St Johns International School in Waterloo. Students from the International School of Flanders also came to this show.

After lunch Prof Ashworth gave a talk on the Periodic Table that he has developed specially for the International Year of the Periodic Table (IYPT2019) to a group of older students.

A quick trip to the museum complex on the Waterloo battlefield was followed by an evening Kitchen Chemistry show for the Waterloo Scouts at St. Antony's Church Hall in Braine-l'Alleud. This was our first event organised for scouts in Belgium.

Tuesday saw the Kitchen Chemist with his chaperon and chauffeur for the week, RSC Belgium secretary Tim Reynolds, heading for the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) in Geel. At JRC Geel we were hosted by RSC member Dr Hendrik Emons and set up in the centre's auditorium to give a Kitchen Chemistry demo in the morning and the Periodic Table talk in the afternoon. The audience for these two shows were students from the neighbouring European School at Mol plus JRC staff. The JRC are looking to expand their outreach work to schools and hoped to learn from the Kitchen Chemist's experience.

If its Wednesday, then it must be the British School of Brussels in Tervuren. Here three Kitchen Chemistry demonstrations and one Periodic Table talk were given to students during the day. In addition, in the evening a public performance of the Kitchen Chemistry demonstration lecture was given. This evening event was also the prize giving for our 2019 Chemistry Challenge winners.

Woluwe European School was the venue on Thursday 19 September with one performance each of Kitchen Chemistry and the IYPT talk to appreciative student audiences.

The tour was completed on Friday 20 September with our first ever trip to Antwerp. The venue was Antwerp International School where two Kitchen Chemistry demonstrations were given and a final Periodic Table talk.

Our thanks to all the teachers, technicians and RSC Belgium volunteers involved in making this very successful tour a reality. Feedback from students and teachers was universally fantastic and we may well be inviting the Kitchen Chemist back to Belgium in the near future. Second helpings anyone?

Beyond the Higgs Boson and Gravitational Waves

On 16 May 2019 RSC Belgium had the pleasure of welcoming back Professor Vincent Lemaitre of UCLouvain for a fascinating talk entitled 'Beyond the recent discoveries of the Higgs Boson and gravitational waves' in the Performing Arts Centre (PAC) at St. Johns International School.

Prof Lemaitre described how the recent discoveries of the Higgs boson and gravitational waves have shown how quantum field theory and general relativity are today's proven theories of modern physics. These two theories have managed to explain thousands of non trivial observations and today, some people think that there is nothing more to discover in physics.

In his presentation, after a reminder and an explanation of these two spectacular discoveries, Prof Lemaitre was able to convince the audience that, on the contrary, we are undoubtedly at the dawn of a new revolution of thought in our quest of a more complete understanding of nature!

Prof Vincent Lemaitre is Director of the Centre for Cosmology, Particle Physics and Phenomenology at the Universite Catholique de Louvain (UCL) and is an enthusiastic ambassador for his science who is able to engage with audiences of all ages. His previous talk to RSC Belgium was a tremendous success and this follow-up again proved to be an extremely animated and informative evening!

Memorial Symposium for Prof Istvan Marko

On 12 and 13 September 2019 RSC Belgium was proud to sponsor a memorial symposium for our good friend and supporter Professor Istvan Marko at the Universite Catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain) in Louvain-La-Neuve. Presentations at the symposium entitled 'Organic Chemistry and The Synthesis of Complex Molecules - A tribute to István Marko' featured contributions from Istvan's many friends and colleagues including two Nobel Prize winners. It was followed by a reception and a dinner on Friday evening.

Istvan E Marko was born in Hungary in 1956 but his family fled the Soviet invasion of that year and settled in Belgium. After schooling in Wavre, István studied for a Licence en Sciences Chimiques at UCLouvain (Belgium) from 1974 to 1978 and then obtained his PhD in 1983 under the supervision of Professor L. Ghosez on the 'Semi-synthesis of Tricyclic Penicillins'. Between 1983 and 1985 he undertook postdoctoral studies in Ghosez's group on Intramolecular Keteniminium Cycloadditions: A New Route Towards Prostaglandins.

Then between 1985 and 1987, he moved to Burlington (University of Vermont, Vermont, USA), working in the group of Professor M.E Kuehne ("Biomimetic Total Synthesis of Monoterpene Indole Alkaloids and Binary Vinca Alkaloids") before joining in 1987 the research group of professor Barry Sharpless (MIT, Massachusetts, USA) working on the Catalytic Asymmetric Osmylation of Olefins. Barry Sharpless later won the 2001 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his work on Olefins and sent a video contribution to the symposium. Istvan also collaborated with 2016 Nobel Prize winner Ben Feringa who gave an outstanding presentation at the symposium (See photo below).

In 1988, Istvan decided to move back to Europe to take up a lecturer position in the University of Sheffield (United Kingdom), where he stayed for 5 years. In 1993 he had the opportunity to come back to his alma mater, where  he was in charge of the Laboratoire de Chimie Organique et Médicinale for 24 years until his untimely death in 2017.

As a professor, Istvan gave courses to bachelor's and master's students of chemistry and bio-engineering (Organic chemistry, Medicinal chemistry, Applied organic chemistry, Biosynthesis and total synthesis of natural products and Industrial chemistry…).

The main research areas in his laboratory included: Short, efficient and stereocontrolled total synthesis of natural products; Extraction, purification and structure identification of novel natural products; Development of new methodologies based on multiple bonds and ring formation; Asymmetric catalysis with and without metals; New organometallic reagents; Anionic polycyclisation reactions; Electroorganic synthesis; Development of ecological processes; Botanochemistry; Use of enzymes and microorganisms in organic chemistry; and Use of CO2 as a basic 1- carbon unit.

In the course of his career, Professor Markó supervised 39 post-docs, 66 PhD students, 92 master's students and 58 bachelor's students.

In January 1995, a group of young chemists including István Markó, launched the European Chemical Society (ECS), which at its inception, anticipated working together with the existing national chemical societies to promote chemistry at the European level. 

He was the author of over 250 publications, more than 200 of them in refereed journals, 19 patents and 16 reviews for books, as well as 38 articles in Belgian newspapers on "Chemistry in our Society". He delivered more than 20 general public lectures on "the key-role of chemistry in our modern society" and gave more than 350 conferences worldwide.

István regularly took part in television broadcasts (RTBF and RTLtvi) to popularise science in order

to make it more accessible, notably in collaboration with RSC Belgium, in order to encourage younger pupils to get excited about science, and in particular Chemistry. He was particularly active, together with his faithful technician Fabio Lucaccioni, in performing chemistry shows for schools.

Professor Marko was able to generate the desire to do chemistry among many students, even those outside of organic chemistry. We are proud to salute a truly great Scientist, Professor, Mentor and Friend! Thank you Istvan!

You can access Istvan's full biography here and download a commemorative booklet produced for the symposium here.

Chemistry Challenge 2019 Results announced!

The results of the RSC Belgium Chemistry Challenge 2019 have been announced and the talented prize winners picked up their winnings at a special RSC Belgium event on the evening of 18 September just before our public Kitchen Chemistry demonstration lecture. The prizes were presented by Prof. Stephen Ashworth (aka The Kitchen Chemist) at the British School of Brussels (BSB).

Once again we received around 100 entries from international and European schools in Brussels and beyond for this testing challenge of young people's chemical knowledge and initiative. This year a particularly strong performance was noted for the winner of the Keith Price Prize for best overall performance in terms of chemical knowledge.

The RSC Belgium Chemical Challenge has three sections:

1. A chemistry multiple choice paper
2. A structured questions on chemistry, and
3. A 'Thinking Matters' paper that is not chemistry based

And the top results were as follows:

Section A: Multiple choice

First place was taken by Maxwell Michalec from St Johns International School (St. Johns), with second place going to Rutvi Shah of the British School of Brussels (BSB). Third place was a tie between Ewan Cook from BSB and Paul Spence-Rechard of the European School Brussels I at Uccle (EEB1). Some of the prize winners are pictured below with our special guest Prof. Stephen Ashworth and Section Chairman Prof Bob Crichton.

Section B: Structured Questions

In this section first prize was again won by Maxwell Michalec from St. Johns with Ewan Cook and Robbie Goodall both from BSB tied for second place. Thrid prize was also a tie between Aaryan Metha of BSB and Dillen Lee from the European School at Mol.

Section C: Thinking Matters

Here first place was awarded to Pippa Hartog who picked up her prize at a seperate ceremony when the Kitchen Chemist visited her school - Antwerp International School - on Friday 20 Spetember. Osobel Peppiette of Uccle European School took second place and the third-prize winner was Aura Sofia Ortega Claici from European School Brussels IV in Laeken.

Keith Price Prize

By winning both chemistry sections, Maxwell Michalec of St. Johns also recieved the prestigious Keith Price Prize for the best best overall score. A remarkable effort!

First prize winners in each section received €50, second €25 and third places €10 with the winner of the Keith Price Prize receiving an additional €100.

Well done to everyone who took part in this year's Chemistry Challenge! Every student that entered the competition receives a certificate of participation. We will be running the Challenge again in 2020 and look forward to widening participation! 

Summer BBQ boosts Norman's Fund

On the afternoon of Saturday 13 July 2019 RSC Belgium members and friends got together for a fundraising BBQ at our Section Chairman Bob Crichton's abode in Wavre with the aim to help boost our Norman Lloyd Scholarship fund. 

A good time was had by all with chef de cuisine Fabio in charge of the al fresco cooking and our hosts Bob and Bobbie providing a sumptuous multi-course spread.

Section secretary Tim Reynolds brought along some Timms Pimms and committee members contributed items for the raffle, which was drawn by Norman's wife Setsuko.
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Prizes included vintage wines, beer, BBQ equipment and floral arrangements among many others.

All told EUR 795 was raised to support the continuation of our successful Norman Lloyd Scholarships at Cardiff University. The fund 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, the fund has sponsored five students and has sufficient funds another award in the academic year 2019-2020.

Thanks to the generosity of the guests and contributors to the BBQ we are now well on the way to securing a seventh year for the Scholarships.

You can find out more about the Norman Lloyd Scholarship scheme on our dedicated blog page that also has links to brief profiles of the five recipients so far. If you would like to support the fund, please do not hesitate in contacting the section secretary.

BSB represent Belgium in TOTB Final in Birmingham

On Saturday 9 March, four students from the British School of Brussels (BSB) represented Belgium at the RSC's National Final of the Top of The Bench (TOTB) competition at Birmingham University. BSB were the winners of our hotly contested eliminator that took place in November.

The annual Final event, organised by the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), is designed to enthuse and excite children with Chemistry and encourage them to consider further education and careers within Chemistry. The Top of the Bench competition is one of the longest-standing activities organised by the RSC for school students and has been running for more than 20 years.

Sabina (Year 11), YiIlin (Year 10), Mathieu (Year 9) and Xavier (Year 9) from BSB took part in a series of individual and group tasks alongside 31 other schools from across the United Kingdom.

After an individual written test in the morning, the students were assessed in the afternoon during a group problem-solving exercise. This practical task took place in the brand new, state-of-the-art Chemistry laboratory of the University of Birmingham where the students were able to access fantastic facilities only normally found in industrial chemical laboratories. The day ended with a fun and informative lecture on polymers and biopolymers. The students had a look around the campus and enjoyed working in state of the art facilities in Birmingham and thoroughly enjoyed this day in a world class institution.

Shape and Form in Biology

On the evening of Thursday 14 March 2019, new section chairman Prof Bob Crichton gave the  opening talk of our 2019 programme with a description of the progress made in elucidating 'Shape and Form in Biology' at the British School of Brussels (BSB).

The shape and form of biological objects has long intrigued scientists, particularly in how they determine biological function. The world of structural biology has been dramatically changed in the last few years with the advent of new developments in electron microscopy and crystallography of biological macromolecules.

Bob's lecture outlined recent advances in two areas - cryo-electron microscopy (the 2017 Nobel Prize for Chemistry was awarded to Jacques Dubochet, Joachim Frank and Richard Henderson "for developing cryo-electron microscopy for the high-resolution structure determination of biomolecules in solution”) and the use of X-ray free electron lasers (the EUR 1.25 billion XFEL at the Deutsche Electronische Synchotron in Hamburg has just come on beam), supplementing existing synchrotron facilities for protein structure determination. This enables structure determination from nanocrystals, thereby overcoming some of the biggest hurdles of traditional crystallography (radiation damage) through the principle of diffraction-before-destruction, as well as simultaneously opening a new era of time-resolved (femtosecond) structural studies.

The section is organising a trip to the XFEL facility and the neighbouring DESY synchrotron in Hamburg on 28 June. Find out more here.

Prof Robert (Bob) Crichton has had a long and distinguished career in biochemical research. He graduated in Biochemistry from the University of Glasgow, Scotland, in the mid-sixties and after carrying out postdoctoral research at the Max Plank Institut für Biochimie in Munich, Germany, he moved to the Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium in 1973, where he has been a professor of Biochemistry in the Department of Chemistry. His main research interests are in the inorganic biochemistry of iron and related metals and he is author of the book on iron metabolism -  'Iron Metabolism: From Molecular Mechanisms to Clinical Consequences.'

Of course, Bob has also been a mainstay of the RSC Belgium section for many years, giving one of its first ever talks and he has just started his third stint as Chairman of the section.

Process waste water oxidation

On the evening of Tuesday 9 April, our second talk of 2019 took place at St. Johns International School with Raf Dewil who is Professor at the Process and Environmental Technology Lab (PETLab) at KU Leuven. PETLab is a research group within the Chemical Engineering Department at KU Leuven based at the Campus de Nayer site north of Mechelen. The title of Raf's talk was 'Advanced oxidation processes: from the lab to a Chemical Plant-on-a-Truck' and dealt with the various methods to treat on-site hazardous water generated by various industrial and chemical processes.

Over the past ten years, the PETLab group has established a broad expertise in resource recovery and the production of renewable chemicals and energy carriers from waste, side and biomass streams and it specialises in waste- and wastewater treatment processes, mixed-culture microbial processes, chemicals from low-cost feedstocks, and model-based optimisation of processes.

Within their facilities at the KU Leuven Campus de Nayer, PETLab combines a broad range of analytical equipment with extensive lab- and pilot-equipment. With numerous industrial collaborations, PETLab aims at combining fundamental knowledge with a hands-on philosophy to tackle real-life problems that industry is confronted with. 

Raf's talk focused on a range of oxidation methods for the degradation of organics from hazardous wastewater streams and how laboratory work is scaled up to full sized units including an innovative modular system that combines chemical and biological oxidation treatments.

Raf's talk ended with a video outlining the 'Plant on a Truck’ concept operating at Janssen Pharmaceutica’s chemical production site in Geel. that treats process waters from the production of active pharmaceutical ingredients in a cost-effective and sustainable way.

Prof Dewil is also Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Environmental Management and his main research interests span advanced biological and chemical wastewater treatment, advanced Oxidation Processes (AOP), sludge treatment and disposal, anaerobic digestion processes, and production of renewable chemicals from biomass and waste.

RSC Belgium 2019 AGM Report

The section's Annual General Meeting (AGM) took place on Friday 15 February 2019 at Les Amis Dinent Restaurant in Wezembeek-Oppem at 19h30 and was followed by the section's Annual Dinner from 20h00. The meeting opened at 19:30 with ten members present but a further nine members, who were unable to attend the AGM in person, had asked the Chairman to act as their proxy for the meeting if a vote was required thus achieving our quorum.

Following the recording of apologies received, the minutes of our previous AGM of 2 February 2018 were approved with no corrections. The section secretary, William Darnley, then presented the Committee Report on the Section's 2018 Activities. 2018 had been another good year for the section, with 10 events, of which six were public lectures, two social trips and our two annual school outreach events. The committee once again attended inter-section curling in Kent, where victory had been claimed! Membership stands at 131, a minor increase over last year.

The year kicked off with an evening with Prof. Sir Martyn Poliakoff – our highest attended event of the year with in excess of 50 people! And ended with another favourite: Dr. Urbina-Blanco’s talk on using CO2 as a chemical building block. In between these fabulous events were scattered throughout the year other, equally fantastic events, with a social outing to the highly interesting “Trainworld” train museum in Schaerbeek. We also took a trip to the Duvel brewery to the keen interest of many members. Other highlights included lectures on the duality of Music and Chemistry in April and a lecture on the history, importance and of course the chemistry of the colour blue.

We have our 5th Norman Lloyd scholar this year, William Cawdell. Reports from Cardiff are that he is a fantastic student and he intends to become a teacher!

Top of the Bench was yet another cracking event, with 11 teams from six schools and three countries partaking! It was an incredibly close call on the winners, but after reassessing all the teams’ performance in the practical exercise it was decided BSB was this year’s winners! They will be competing in the final in Birmingham in March.

Section finances

The section treasurer, Julie Tupenny, presented the 2018 financial report and accounts. On 1 January 2018, the net assets of RSC Belgium Section had been €8 552. The Annual Grant for 2018 received in June 2018 from RSC UK was €5 000, somewhat less than the requested €7 000. However, with no Café Chimique this year the financial situation is good.

For the Year ending 31 December 2018, the net assets of RSC Belgium Section amount to €10 311. This included part payment of a RSC Outreach Grant for the proposed Kitchen Chemistry tour (see below).

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 of €7 000 will be requested from RSC UK to cover all the activities planned for 2019.

On behalf of The Belgium Section, Julie thanked Ralph Palim F.C.A the Hon. Auditor for his thoroughness in auditing and approving the RSC Belgium Section for the year ending 31 December 2018. Ralph has agreed to continue as the section's auditor for 2019.

Chairman’s Remarks

The Chairman, Tim Reynolds, thanked the committee for their hard work and support during the year and during his four years as Chair of the section. As ever we had hosted an interesting and diverse programme including some firsts. He thanked William Darnley for taking on the burden of section secretary.

Looking forward to 2019 he anticipated a challenging year with the fallout from Brexit making all our lives a little more difficult, however he was pleased to announce that the RSC would be launching a free legal service via its Community Fund to all RSC members in the EU who required support over issues such as immigration, residence or nationality as a result of Brexit. The service would cover any member, their partner or dependents and was good news.

The RSC Belgium programme for 2019 was also looking good and pretty much complete. Highlights included a possible trip to Hamburg in June to visit DESY and the new XFEL facility that is set to revolutionise our understanding in the biological sciences; the Kitchen Chemistry schools tour in September that is largely funded by the first RSC Outreach Grant to be awarded to any section outside the UK and Republic of Ireland (another first for RSC Belgium!); and the Istvan Marko Memorial Symposium at Louvain-La-Neuve that the section will be supporting and is attracting some notable speakers.

In anticipation of the elections, the Chair wished Bob Crichton well as the incoming Section Chair and welcomed Matt Andrews to the committee.

Committee elections

Three ordinary members were elected to the committee (Rita Woodward, Matt Andrews, and William Darnley) and the three Section officers were elected with Bob Crichton becoming Chair, Julie Tupenny remaining as Treasurer, and Tim Reynolds moving to the role of Section Secretary.

Election to the committee is for a two-year term and David Terrell and Jane Downing are currently in mid-term on the committee. The full composition of the RSC Belgium section committee can be found here. The first meeting of the 2019 committee took place on 5 March 2019.

All business being completed the meeting adjourned at 19:59 and the Annual Dinner commenced. You can access the full draft Minutes of the 2019 AGM here. These minutes will be presented to the AGM of the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Belgium Section in 2020 for approval.

Fifth Norman Lloyd Scholar selected

RSC Belgium is proud to announce that the fifth recipient of the Dr Norman C. Lloyd Scholarship at Cardiff University has been selected and is enjoying their first year at the university. William Cawdell started his MCheM degree in Chemistry at the end of September.

The Norman Lloyd Scholarship is given to new students to the Cardiff School of Chemistry who are of high academic standing and a resident of Wales.

In an email thanking the section for sponsoring his award William (pictured above) wrote:

"I am delighted to have been selected as a beneficiary of the Dr Norman C Lloyd scholarship. I am really enjoying my first semester studying chemistry at Cardiff University. As well as studying I enjoy playing badminton for the university squad and building computers. I plan to continue my education after my bachelors degree either in Cardiff or in another university either in the UK or abroad. I ultimately want to teach in schools or perhaps at university in the future."

We all wish William every success in his studies at Cardiff.

The scholarship

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