DivCHED CCCE: Committee on Computers in Chemical Education

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Global Stamp Competition: Chemistry as a Cultural Enterprise.pdf

Global Stamp Competition: Chemistry as a Cultural Enterprise

by Lida Schoen and Christiane Reiners

CCE organised the Global Stamp Competition for students and undergraduates to show Chemistry as Cultural Enterprise (CCE). The stamps are required to highlight the impact of chemistry on a country’s culture and everyday life.
We launched the competition with our partners in Paris last January during the IYC 2011 opening ceremony at UNESCO Headquarters.

Organisation and Results

The competition was open to students in 3 age categories (12-14, 15-18 and undergraduates) from all subjects, not only chemistry! Students uploaded their designs to a moderated publication platform, that allowed moderated peer review (not active anymore).

After the deadline for submissions (June 15, 2011), we counted 247 designs from 18 different countries! Students from 15-18 uploaded most. The competition was most popular in Asia Pacific.

The use of the peer review possibility (mainly -very- positive) started later and we suppose many students used social media to alert each other.

Nominees

The international jury consisted of Prof. Morton Hoffman (CCE NR USA, ACS), Dr. Rachel Mamlok-Naaman (CCE NR Israel), Dr. Lynn Hogue (ACS), Datuk Dr. Soon Ting Kueh (CCE NR Malaysia, IKM, FACS), Dr. Anthony Smith (EC₂E₂N), Dr. Harry Kelly (GlaxoSmithKline) and Prof. Daniel Rabinovich (USA, stamp expert).

Criteria 

1. The design should clearly show the relationship between chemistry and the national/regional culture, so no general history of chemistry, no famous chemists / Nobel laureates, unless born in the country, e.g. no Bohr from outside Denmark and no Periodical System unless from Russia.
2. The quality of the description (max. 50 words), number of hits and number and quality of the peer reviews (quite a few of them in the national languages, also in non-Latin characters).
3. No stereotypes like a nerd professor and no bad sides of chemistry (in general) like pollution and toxic substances, they already get enough attention in the media (very few entries).
4. Many designs looked more like (beautiful) posters or water colours than like stamps. Our stamp expert suggested we had better choose designs, that are suitable as a (real) stamp.

The jury published a list with 56 nominees (650 hits), students apparently still looked on the publication platform. During 2 long and ‘difficult’ meetings we selected winners and runners-up.

Winners and runners-up

12-14:                  Vasilena Vasileva (14) from SOU Hristo Botev, Gorna Malina, Bulgaria
15-18:                  Muzhafar Hassan Ismail (17) from Mara Junior Science College Taiping, Malaysia
Undergraduates: Peter Yousef M. Rubio (18) from Santo Tomas University, Manila, Philippines

Runners-up (15-18) from Cyprus, Malaysia and USA.
Due to generous support of GlaxoSmithKline winners received $500 and runners-up $250.

Peer review on the winners sites

Official Closing Ceremony in Brussels and follow-up

A selection of the best designs was on show in our Global Stamp Competition booth, which attracted during the breaks many delegates, including IUPAC president Prof. Nicole Moreau.

Vasilena Vasileva (Bulgaria) received her prize from Lida Schoen on November 8, 2011 in a ceremony in her school.
We got a unique chance to combine the prize giving ceremony with a YAC activity (another IYC 2011 idea and long running CCE project) in the winner’s class with her teachers (Science and English). English teacher Kirilka Stankova took the initiative to let her students participate in the IYC 2011 international competition. A good example of integrating subjects on secondary school level and thus popularising chemistry as meaningful content during English lessons! The YAC activity and the whole were covered by a local TV station.

 IKM Malaysia offered an additional prize to the winner and runner-up. The Society honoured the students with invitations for the Annual Meeting on December 9, 2011.

Peter Yousef Rubio's winning design (undergraduate category) was presented during the Coconut Week Celebration of the Philippine Coconut Authority-Department of Agriculture on August 25-28, 2011 in the SM Megatrade Hall in Manila in the Philippines. He will get an invitation as guest of honour for the conference dinner during the next Annual Conference of the Philippine Chemical Society.

Mariam El-Agamy, School Principal Lycée La Liberté d’Alexandrie, Egypt, sent a picture of all nominees from the school in Alexandria with their certificates.

Customised stamps

Cyprus issued a customised stamp with the runners-up design.

The Netherlands did the same with the Dutch winning (nominated) students’ design (Hofstad Lyceum, the Hague) by Dutch National Postal Services.

Summary and recommendations

Students of all ages like global competitions. After the closing date we got many questions about new competitions, where to find and when!
The main challenge for the organisers, apart from getting funding (IUPAC CCE and GlaxoSmithKline), was to let students know. Publicising on different sites (IYC 2011, IUPAC, the Science Across the World and FactWorld sites) didn’t have effect. Apparently students and teachers don’t pay attention to these media. Next we tried to get interviews and publications in Journals of Chemical Societies and (Chemistry) Teachers Associations with more effect. But best worked personal global contacts (IUPAC and SAW). Quite a few teachers and professors turned the competition into a class room activity, that after submission of the different designs also generated a lot of peer review.

Acknowledgements

The challenge before we could turn the IYC 2011 idea into announcing the competition was the funding for traveling to the opening and closing ceremonies of the International Year of Chemistry. In Paris we launched the competition and in Brussels we showed the results (CCE project).
Jeff Howson, manager of the Making The News (MTN), a British educational site, offered us to use the publication platform version without any costs, since MTN2 was launched in 2011.
And for prizes for the winners GlaxoSmithKline (via the European Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Education Network: EC₂E2N) helped us.

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Celebrating the Role of Polymers in Society during the International Year of Chemistry

As focal point of our celebration of the international year of chemistry, the Polymer Division of the IUPAC has held an International contest entitled “A World Without Polymers?” The contest was addressed to university and high-school students in each of the 60 countries of the national adhering and associate adhering organizations of the IUPAC. The contest invited submission of either a video or an essay on the theme of “A World Without Polymers?”, that is, how the world might be if, as absurd as it may sound, there were no polymers in either today’s or in the future world. The objective of this activity was to encourage a greater understanding by the public of the significance of polymers to everyone’s quality of life. The target audience was the general public, teachers and students where instead such appreciation is lacking and the widespread use of polymers is taken for granted. 

 The polymer division contacted polymer societies around the globe to help in publicizing this event and received numerous entries for both the essay and video competition.  After selection by a panel of distinguished polymer chemists, 3 winning videos and 3 winning essays were selected.  These are posted on the IUPAC Polymer Education website found at: http://www.iupac.org/polyedu/page30/page40/styled-13/index.html.

 The winners in the video category are:

 1. Y.C.S. Lann, First Place Video (Asia)

Yvonne Choo Shuen Lann is a Malaysian high school student who has just completed her Matriculation. She is now pursuing her first-year degree in Pure Chemistry at Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) as of September 2011.

 2. A. Gomes and team, Second Place Video (Europe)

Andre was part of a group of 5 teenagers that just wanted to have some fun while studying polymers for Chemistry class, and ended up making their own video contribution for the IYC 2011.

 3. C. Newby & M. Kunkel, Third Place Video (North America)

This video was written and edited by Melissa Kunkel, a junior at Cornell University majoring in Materials Science and Engineering. Carol Newby is a graduate student and she helped film the movie and did some of the voiceovers.

 The winners in the essay category are:

 1. C. Stenman, “A World Without Polymers” (Europe)

Charlotte is a high school student in Sweden and contributed one of several entries from her English class.

 2. E.O. Peter, “A World Without Polymers” (Africa)

Emmanuel Ochoche Peter was born at Adoka, in Otukpo LGA of Benue State Nigeria. In 2009 he proceeded for his Master‘s Degree in Analytical Chemistry at the Bayero University Kano (BUK), Kano State Nigeria.

3. Bérengère Escuyer et al., “It was a really great morning” (Europe)

Bérengère and her team have graduated high school and are in the midst of further chemistry studies, largely planning for careers in industry.

 Each winning entry earned a 12 month subscription to Chemistry International and a copy of the IUPAC Polymer Division Purple Book. The 1^st place winners in each category were invited to attend the World Chemical Congress in San Juan, Puerto Rico on Tuesday, August 2, 2011.  A formal ceremony was held at the Symposium for Younger Polymer Chemists and the 6 winning individuals and groups were announced.

 We were fortunate to have Yvonne Lann take part in the ceremony. Also in attendance were her family and members of the Malaysian delegation. During the ceremony officiated by Christopher Ober, then President of the IUPAC Polymer Division, Yvonne made a few comments on the creation of her video and held a showing of her video which was enjoyed by all in attendance. The ceremony was recorded and can be found along with her video at:  http://www.iupac.org/polyedu/page42/styled-14/styled-15/index.html.

 As a sign of how social media is changing interactions, Yvonne met the winner of the Physical and Biophysical Division (I) Student Chemistry Cartoon Competition, Jessica Hough, on Facebook and the two winners spent time together at the World Chemical Congress attending talks on energy and sustainability.

 All of this activity was managed through the Division’s Polymer Education Website.  This website was created in 2004 as a means of sharing the contents of an educational CD describing polymer chemistry. The site is now designed to provide a means to communicating with teachers, students and the public about polymer chemistry and its benefit to society. The site has now grown to include information and definitions related to polymer chemistry, links to other educational websites, educational videos that relate to polymer chemistry, and advanced courses in polymer chemistry offered by partner organizations. For the IYC two additional sections of the website were developed. The first was related to the polymer division’s international funding call. For IYC, a funding call was introduced in partnership with the Committee on Chemical Research Funding (CCRF) to fund and study best practices in multi-country (3 or more) collaborations related to polymer chemistry. This successful competition provides research funds for 7 programs at a total amount of ~ $7M over a 3 year period.  In addition a page related to IYC activities and the video/essay contest was developed. The number of visits to the website was tracked and it was found that the IYC activities were a significant attraction to the website and increased overall traffic to the site.

 Our experience with the video/essay competition and the success of these efforts have encouraged us to continue our activities beyond IYC. Our division plans to hold a video/essay competition again this upcoming year. We are also working with CCRF to take the experience we gained with the international funding call and to identify new funding topics.

Front 3 (l to r): Mrs. Lann, Yvonne Lann, Zuriati Zakaria; back (l to r): Jung-Il Jin, Dennis Smith, Mr. Lann, Christopher Ober, Robert Stepto, Majda Zigon and Ting-Kueh Soon.

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visualizing_climate_change.pdf

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Visualizing and Understanding the Science of Climate Change

Peter Mahaffy, Brian Martin & Anna Schwalfenberg,*
The King’s Centre for Visualization in Science, The King’s University College, Edmonton, AB Canada T6B 2H3
Contact: peter.mahaffy@kingsu.ca; brian.martin@kingsu.ca

 *The complete list of IUPAC/UNESCO project participants and contributors to the development of visualizations is given at the end of this paper.

________________________________________________________________________

Understanding and responding to global climate change is one of the defining challenges of the 21^st century. Barraged by contradictory messages, many don’t have the right tools to see and understand the complex connections between human activity and our changing climate.  

 This IUPAC/UNESCO project was created as an International Year of Chemistry legacy to highlight connections between chemistry and sustainability. It brings together scientists and educators from the IUPAC Committee on Chemistry Education, The King’s Centre for Visualization in Science (KCVS, Canada), The Royal Society of Chemistry (UK), American Chemical Society (USA), UNESCO, and the Federation of African Societies of Chemistry to develop a set of 9 critically reviewed, interactive modules, web-based materials for global dissemination to help students visualize and understand the underlying science of climate change.

Target audiences are (a) teachers at the secondary and first year tertiary levels, (b) students at those same levels, and (c) chemistry professionals. Visualizations emphasize the fundamental science of climate processes, and make overt connections to chemistry curriculum.  The first 8 modules were launched during the International Year of Chemistry, and the final lesson focusing on where we go from here will go live by July 2012.

The Lessons

Each lesson contains interactive visualizations that allow students to investigate actual climate data or develop a conceptual understanding of the scientific principles and processes underlying climate change. Throughout the lessons students are asked to critically engage with the material through worked examples and assessment items.

To prime the discussion of climate change science Lesson 1 -Introduction to Earth’s Climate clarifies the concept of climate (as opposed to weather), examines the factors that make earth’s climate unique and introduces the idea of differences in climate occurring over time.

Lesson 2 - Is Climate Change Happening? delves further into earth’s historical climate record, showing how data collected from ice core samples is analyzed to provide an understanding of ancient temperatures and greenhouse gas concentrations.  Attention is drawn to the correlation between greenhouse gas concentrations and global average temperature.

In Lesson 3 - Heating it Up: The Chemistry of the Greenhouse Effect, the atmospheric chemistry of greenhouse gases is explained.  The conceptual foundation necessary to understand collisional heating is established through a molecular level discussion of temperature, properties of gases and their interaction with electromagnetic radiation.

Earth’s radiation balance is examined in Lesson 4 - Climate: A Balancing Act, placing the absorption of infrared radiation by greenhouse gases in the context of other factors that affect incoming and outgoing radiation, including aerosols and earth’s albedo.

Taking a step back to look at the bigger picture Lesson 5 – Global Issues: The Impact of Climate Change consists of five engaging case studies that showcase the current and future effects of climate change on polar regions, coral reefs, vector borne disease, extreme weather and biodiversity

Lesson 6 – Greenhouse Gases: A Closer Look introduces the major greenhouse gases present in our atmosphere: water vapour, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and CFCs.  Natural and anthropogenic sources of the gases are examined and their global warming potentials are explained.

                                                                   
In Lesson 7 –Climate Feedback Loops the concepts of positive and negative feedback loops are introduced and used to explain the various feedback loops that are an integral part of earth’s climate system. Feedback cycles that affect atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, water vapour and methane are discussed.

Lesson 8 – Climate Change and the Oceans investigates the role of the world’s oceans in regulating climate and the effect that increasing carbon dioxide concentrations are having on ocean pH and the resultant implications for carbon speciation in the ocean ecosystem (see example below).

                                                                                                                   


Lesson 9 – What Now? Mitigation of Climate Change will go live in July 2012.  It will consist of an overview of potential strategies for adaptation and mitigation of climate change and will facilitate a discussion of how we should respond, individually and collectively, to the challenges posed by climate change.

Example of Interactive Visualization

A significant portion of human-generated carbon dioxide is finding its way into the world’s oceans where it affects the balance of carbon species in the ocean as outlined in the following equilibria:                                       

This alteration of ocean chemistry is subtle, but has significant ramifications for ocean biodiversity.  As CO₂ is absorbed into the ocean increased production of carbonic acid (H₂CO₃) is accompanied by an increase in acidity and decrease in pH of the oceans.  In turn, this causes a shift in the speciation of carbon, leading to lower carbonate (CO₃^2-) ion concentrations.  Marine organisms such as corals and molluscs require carbonate to form their shells, and the aquatic food chain is sensitive to carbon speciation. The decrease in ocean pH and changes in carbon speciation have important implications for the ability of certain sea creatures to form solid shells.

However, by simply looking at the set of equilibrium involved in regulating ocean pH the net result of changing atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations on the levels of the other carbon species in the oceans is not readily apparent.  An interactive visualization, shown in figure 3, was developed in order to clarify the relationship between atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration, ocean acidification and carbon speciation.  Students are able to manipulate atmospheric carbon dioxide levels by moving a slider located at the bottom left of the visualization and observe the resulting effects on ocean pH and carbon speciation.

Figure 1. An interactive visualization that allows exploration of the relationship between atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration, ocean pH and carbon speciation in the oceans.

This visualization is incorporated into Lesson 8 – Climate Change and the Oceans.  Other interactive simulations and data manipulation tools are integrated throughout the lessons on www.explainingclimatechange.com.

Current and Future Use

Promotion of the resources will take place following the completion of Lesson 9. Despite little advertising, there are already about 1500 unique visits per month from over 70 countries.

During the virtual conference we invite discussion about the sustainability legacy of IYC, the explainingclimatechange.com resource, and welcome ideas for promoting broad dissemination to educators, students, and the public, and integrating climate science into chemistry curriculum.

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iyc2011_and_beyond.pdf

IYC2011 and Beyond – UNESCO’s Contribution

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) was designated as the lead UN agency for the International Year of Chemistry 2011. UNESCO, together with its partner, the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), organized activities to highlight the vital  importance of Chemistry in our every-day lives, to encourage youth and the general public to appreciate the role of Chemistry in meeting international challenges, such as climate  change, water management and sustainable development, and lastly, to celebrate the contribution of women to chemistry, especially in the context of  the 100^th Anniversary of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry awarded to Marie Sklodowska Curie.

Three cornerstone events marked the year: The Launch Ceremony in Paris, France, the World Chemistry Leadership Meeting in San Juan, Puerto Rico and finally the Closing Ceremony in Brussels, Belgium. Apart from these cornerstone events, there were numerous other events which contributed to IYC and had an immense impact for the community and/or country. IUPAC and UNESCO realised at the outset that for IYC to be a success and to have a global reach, each country had to be involved and create  their own events, ensuring national ownership and participation. Through this process many successful events were organized globally all of which made a contribution to achieving the goals of IYC.

This paper will highlight the key events of IYC2011 that were organised at UNESCO Headquarters and around the world and how they have contributed and/or will contribute to the follow-up of IYC2011. In view of the decreasing interest among the youth in chemistry and the basic sciences in general, it was imperative to make the teaching and learning of chemistry not only more attractive and exciting, but also fun. An amalgamation of scientific activities with hands-on experiments, activities linking chemistry to music and art, and striking media elements were incorporated into the planned events of this yearlong celebration. At the end of 2011, ninety-seven countries worldwide had registered about 1400 activities on the IYC website – proving that it was a truly international endeavour. Some of the events that will be discussed are Women Sharing a Chemical Moment in Time (18 January 2011),  the Launch Ceremony (27-28 January), the launch of the UNESCO-L’Oreal Prize “In the footsteps of Marie Curie” (28 February – 4 March) and the Malta V Conference (5-8 December).

The year 2011 began with the successful Launch Ceremony at UNESCO Headquarters on 27-28 January 2011 with around 900 participants on each day.  The meeting was opened by Ms. Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO and Prof Nicole Moreau, President of IUPAC and keynote presentations were made by 4 Nobel Prize Laureates (Prof Jean-Marie Lehn, Prof Ada Yonath, Prof Yuan Lee and Dr Rajendra K. Pachauri) as well as interventions by other high-level dignitaries representing governments, along with representatives from the private sector and academia. Throughout the Launch, different aspects of the role of responsible chemistry in fostering sustainable development, in responding to global challenges today and in tackling those of the future were discussed. The Launch Ceremony was a platform for the world to embrace the International Year of Chemistry and to actively participate by organising events in their countries.

Preceding the Launch Ceremony, on the 18 January 2011, women chemists gathered for a breakfast session to celebrate “Women Sharing a Chemical Moment in Time”. This event was initiated by Mary Garson, Professor at the School of chemistry and Molecular Biosciences at the University of Queensland, Australia, to bring women chemists together worldwide for a breakfast meeting on a selected day in 2011 on the inauguration of the International Year of Chemistry. In addition to networking, the aim was to celebrate the pivotal role of Marie Curie in chemistry. It connected women chemists from New Zealand to Hawaii using modern communication tools like Skype/video conferencing and Twitter.  Around 5000 women from 44 countries worldwide shared their passion for chemistry (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onp3vkPANqs).

The UNESCO-L’Oreal For Women in Science Awards has been operative for the past 14 years. This award recognises the contribution and achievement of outstanding women scientists and supports the career growth of young women researchers. Since 1998 there have been 72 Laureates from 30 countries recognized for their effort and accomplishment and over 1200 young women researchers from 100 countries, received fellowships. In 2011 a new award category – “In the Footsteps of Marie Curie”, was introduced. This special fellowship is awarded to a former International Fellow, 10 years after she initially received her fellowship (in mid-career), who has demonstrated determination and excellence in her research area/endeavour. This award is associated with one of the goals of IYC – recognising women in chemistry (and science) through the achievements of Marie Curie.

The Malta V Conference “Frontiers of Chemical Sciences: Research and Education in the Middle East” was the last official event of the 2011 International Year of Chemistry (IYC) at UNESCO Headquarters. The Malta Conferences use science as a lever for development and as a bridge to peace in the Middle East by bringing together scientists from countries in this region with eminent scientists from industrialized countries, to work together to address key issues essential for fostering sustainable development and solidarity. They provide a forum through which mutual understanding between people from different traditions, religions, races and political systems may be strengthened, and regional peace and security promoted. The focus themes for the workshops of the Conference were: Medicinal Chemistry and Natural Products; Environment: Air and Water Quality; Sustainability of Resources, Energy and Materials; Science Education at All Levels; and Nanotechnology and Material Science. The opening session featured addresses by the Director-General of UNESCO and by HRH Prince Hassan of Jordan. Other brief interventions were made by the President of the Malta Conferences Foundation, the President of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), the Chair of the Board of Directors of the American Chemical Society, and the President of the Royal Society of Chemistry. Five eminent scientists, Nobel Prize winners: Claude Cohen-Tannoudji (France), Nobel Prize in Physics, 1997; Richard Ernst (Switzerland), Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1991; Dudley Herschbach (USA), Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1986; Walter Kohn (USA), Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1998 and Jean-Marie Lehn (France), Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1987, were among the speakers.

Another event at UNESCO Headquarters that received much attention was the opening of the world premiere of Elżbieta Sikora's opera "Madame Curie", which celebrated the Polish Presidency of the European Council and the International Year of Chemistry and occurred in November. It was organised by the Permanent Delegation of the Republic of Poland to UNESCO as well as the Natural Science Sector at UNESCO. This opera was presented within the framework of the International Year of Chemistry and highlighted the extraordinary achievements of Maria Sklodowska Curie on the 100th anniversary of her Nobel Prize in Chemistry award.

Some events were started during IYC2011 and are still ongoing. A typical example is the film “Chemistry: All about You”, a project of the European Petrochemical Association (EPCA), with UNESCO and IUPAC targeted at 16 – 20 year olds and which made a huge impact on youth. This film shows the importance of chemistry in our daily lives and explains how chemistry can sustainably contribute to safe drinking water, food production, development of textiles, health and health care, energy- and emission-friendly housing, transport, communication and education. At the same time it underlines the importance of women in chemistry on the occasion of the centennial of Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Marie Sklodowska Curie. The film is available in 14 languages and has been requested by many schools around the world. In continuing to promote the importance of chemistry after IYC2011, this film, together with the Global Water Experiment, is now part of the Chemistry Education series that EPCA runs together with the European Schoolnet in schools in Europe. These efforts are evidence that IYC served as an effective platform for many new ventures and projects in chemistry education.

The above events have all contributed to the goals of the International Year of Chemistry. Many distinguished chemists and scientists came together to celebrate the achievements of Chemistry and its contributions to the well-being of humankind. All the events that took place during IYC2011 are crucial for the follow-up which will help us to address the future challenges in Chemistry by taking into account the UN Millennium Development Goals and the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2014).  UNESCO is committed to being a part of the solution for the future of Chemistry, together with IUPAC, and chemistry education is at the forefront of upcoming endeavours.

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iyc_introduction.pdf

An Introduction to the International Year of Chemistry – 2011

John M. Malin, Chair IYC 2011 Management Committee and Bryan Henry, IUPAC President 2006-2007, University Professor Emeritus,  University  of Guelph

 All known matter – gas, liquid and solid – is composed of the chemical elements or of compounds made from those elements.  Humankind’s understanding of the material nature of our world is grounded in our knowledge of chemistry.  Indeed all living processes are controlled by chemical reactions.  After initial suggestions from Russia and Korea, the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) first discussed the possibility of an International Year of Chemistry in April 2006.

The IUPAC Executive Committee formally endorsed the idea of IYC in 2007. Because only the United Nations can declare an International Year, IUPAC contacted UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, with a proposal that it was time to celebrate the achievements of chemistry and its contributions to the well-being of humankind.  Almost simultaneously IUPAC President Bryan Henry appointed a task group chaired by Prof. Peter Mahaffy to begin working with UNESCO staff and with the Ethiopian Ambassador to UNESCO to bring about a UN declaration. The UNESCO Executive Board in 2008 officially endorsed the concept of an International Year of Chemistry.  In response to a motion by Ethiopian representatives, the United Nations General Assembly declared shortly afterwards that 2011 would be the International Year of Chemistry.

In addition, Henry appointed in 2007 a Management Committee, chaired by Dr. John Malin, to implement and oversee the management of IYC 2011 from IUPAC’s perspective.  The IUPAC Executive and the committee concluded that the broad goals of IYC 2011 were: (1) to show how the science of chemistry helps in meeting the eight stated UN Millennium Goals, (2) to publicize the science of chemistry as both intellectually vital and essential in meeting the needs of humankind, and (3) to provide a worldwide voice for chemistry. Four specific IYC objectives ultimately were formulated: (a) to increase the public appreciation and understanding of chemistry in meeting world needs, (b) to encourage the interest of young people in chemistry, (c) to celebrate the role of women in chemistry – noting especially that 2011 was the 100^th anniversary of the Nobel Prize awarded to Madame Sklowska-Curie and also the 100^th anniversary of the founding of the International Association of Chemical Societies, predecessor to IUPAC, and (d) to show how chemical science and engineering contributes to meeting the UN Millennium Goals.

            A number of subcommittees were charged with organization of the “cornerstone” events to be produced by IUPAC itself, particularly the Opening Ceremony in Paris in January 2011, the IUPAC Congress and General Assembly held in August 2011 in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and the Closing Event held in December 2011 under the patronage of the chemical and pharmaceutical industry. A cornerstone event that turned out to be especially important was the Global Experiment on Water, which grew to involve students and teachers around the world.

The Management Committee and the IUPAC Executive endorsed creation of an IYC 2011 Website, managed by Dr. Fabienne Meyers, which listed national contact points around the world, described how organizations or individuals could become active in IYC 2011, and publicized a list of some 2000 individual IYC projects and events being carried out. Using the website and through personal contacts made by IUPAC officers and other contributors, the organizing partners, IUPAC and UNESCO, encouraged participation in IYC by the chemical industry, regional federations, national chemical societies, NGOs,  Universities, Educational and Research Organizations, and individuals. A Fundraising Committee was appointed, chaired by IUPAC Treasurer Prof. Sean Corish.

Some diverse IYC 2011 operations and events in support of chemical education around the world will be described in other contributions to this Virtual Colloquium.  We are certain of four major results:  First, IYC 2011 projected to chemical professionals, students, policy-makers and the public the awareness that chemistry makes significant contributions to our lives.  Second, the Global Water Experiment showed students worldwide that by working together they themselves could contribute to science and study the environment in meaningful ways.  Third, organizations in many countries leveraged their participation in IYC 2011 to enhance and publicize their own national activities. Fourth, IYC 2011 highlighted the many contributions women have made to chemistry

We note that human understanding of the fundamental nature of our world is grounded in chemistry. Molecular transformations are basic to production of foodstuffs, medicines, fuels and materials – essentially all manufactured and extracted products. Humankind will rely on this science to maintain a sustainable, wholesome environment for all the earth.  IYC 2011 was a unique opportunity for everyone to celebrate these central contributions of chemistry.

Acknowledgement:  The IUPAC Management Committee for IYC2011 sincerely thanks Global Partners DOW and EPCN and Global Sponsors BASF, CEFIC, EVONIK, L’Oreal and Solvay for their kind support.

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