Schweizerische Chemische Gesellschaft (SCG)
With pleasure we look back on a very interesting and active year. The Swiss Chemical Society not only continued and developed its well-established activities but again pushed new initiatives to face todays challenges. We also implemented new sections and networks to incorporate community members whose interest were not covered so far. In addition, the SCS took over the responsibility for existing programs that run now under the umbrella of the SCS and complete its activity portfolio.
The most important, new initiatives in 2019:
Furthermore, we stayed actively connected to our partners and co-operated for many projects.Please enjoy reading through the 2019 annual report that shows again a very active and lively society.
Dr. Alain De Mesmaeker, PresidentDavid Spichiger, Executive Director
President Division of Fundamental Research
At the end of 2019 Roger Alberto, Yves Auberson, Antonio Togni and Christian Hinderling stepped down as presidents of their division.
www.chimia.ch, www.ingentaconnect.com/content/scs/chimia Dr. Gillian Harvey, Chair of the Editorial Board
2019 was a very successful year with excellent special issue topics organised by Editor-in-Chief E. Peter Kündig and the guest editors. It is with great pleasure that I thank them all for their expert input. Our guest editors in 2019 in the order of their appearance were: Christoph Weder, Curzio Rüegg and Lucas Montero de Espinosa (University of Fribourg), Alan F. Williams (University of Geneva), Sandrine Geber (EPF Lausanne), Oliver Mühlemann (University of Bern) and Frédéric Allain (ETH Zurich), A. Dieter Schlüter (ETH Zurich), Alain de Mesmaeker (Syngenta Crop Protection, Stein), Fabrice Gallou (Novartis Chemical and Analytical Development, Basel), Claudio Battilocchio and Edouard Godineau (Syngenta Crop Protection AG), Catherine E. Housecroft and Edwin C. Constable (University of Basel), Torsten Luksch (Syngenta) and Hans Peter Lüthi (ETH Zurich).
In 2019 (volume 74) the following 10 issues were published:
Issues 4 and 7/8 containing the SCS laureates' articles and the program of SCS Fall Meeting are regular features of the annual program. The column section with the Swiss Science Concentrates, Highlights of Analytical Chemistry, Highlights in Polymer and Colloids Chemistry, Medicinal Chemistry and Chemical Biology Highlights, Chemical Education and Universities of Applied Sciences is now well-established and with the Conference Reports give a regular insight into the activities of the SCS and the Divisions. The Society information pages, under the direction of David Spichiger, also provide news and information about current and future events.
After more than 70 years of publishing activity in one or another form, CHIMIA will be entering into a new phase in 2020. From the beginning of the year CHIMIA will become a platinum Open Access journal. This means that the online special topic articles will be available (from Ingentaconnect.com) free of charge and that the authors will not be required to pay any article or page fees. We hope that this move will increase the visibility of CHIMIA and that authors will be even more willing to contribute their excellent review articles.
The CHIMIA website has been redesigned to give better access to the content, with all the past columns and the full pdf issues (for SCS members) easily accessible.
Submissions of scientific articles are now done exclusively on the OJS system (https://ojs.chimia.ch/index.php/chimia) and is generally performing well for both guest editors and authors.
The Advisory Board is currently being revamped by Sarah Sulzer-Mosse and in 2020 will take up its new role in advising both the Swiss Chemical Society and CHIMIA on strategy and future planning.
After the successful change to a two-column layout in 2019, CHIMIA will be presenting a new face in 2020 with a redesigned front cover. A competition to find a new background design was won by Pavol Ondrisek, University of Geneva, and laid the basis for a redesign of the CHIMIA title and the overall appearance while still retaining a familar look.
In its sixth year as a full member of the ChemPubSoc community the SCS could profit again from a respectable royalty payment of 'Chemistry - a European Journal' and some of the ChemPubSoc Journals as well as from the ChemPubSoc conference grant. Prof. E. Peter Kündig represented the SCS as Swiss delegate and chaired the annual ChemPubSoc meeting in Warsaw, Poland, on September 1-3, 2019. SCS holds 5% of shares of Chemistry - A European Journal and participates as co-owner of ChemElectroChem, ChemPlusChem, ChemistryOpen, ChemCatChem, ChemPhotoChem, Batteries & Supercaps and Chemistry Select. SCS supported the marketing initiatives of ChemPubSoc on its website, during SCS events and in CHIMIA.www.chemistry-europe.org
After its relaunch in 2016 and comprehensive marketing and promotion measures in the past four years, including the celebration of the 100thanniversary in 2017, we see an encouraging increase of the journals reputation that's also reflected in the impact factor that passed the 2.0 marker for the first time since 20 years. Especially the special issues for François Diederich (5/2019) and Philippe Renaud (12/2019) provided high visibility and numerous papers. A total of 88 articles were published in volume 102 (2019).onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/15222675
25-27 January 2019, Saas-Fee
The 17th Swiss Snow Symposium (SSS) 2019 took place in Saas-Fee (January 25th-27th). The symposium featured five invited lectures, nine contributed talks and a poster session. About 40 people participated to this traditional event of SYCA.
A conference report was published in CHIMIA 5/2019.
22 February 2019, Metalor AG
The annual DIAC meeting took place at Metalor Technologies SA on February 22nd, 2019. Metalor is the worldwide leading precious metal company, located in Marine-Epagnier. It is an international Swiss-based group, with subsidiaries in 17 countries.
Dr. Lynda Si-Ahmed and Dr. Jonathan Jodry from the Metalor management addressed a warm welcome to the approx. 20 DIAC members and gave an introduction to Metalor's activities.
The exclusive scientific lecture during the annual meeting was giben by Prof. Dr. Rebecca Buller, ZHAW. She leads the Competence Center for Biocatalysis (CCBIO) at the Institute of Chemistry and Biotechnology, Zurich University of Applied Sciences in Wädenswil and she gave us an update on her work in the field of Biocatalysis. All presentations, as well as the Q&A after the lectures, were highly appreciated by the participants.
After lunch everybody was invited to participate at the site tour of Metalor, where the groups got the presentation of the manufacturing of precious metals and advanced materials. The participants learnt a lot about site security and how, compounding of precious metals adds value through the creation of a high degree of purity.
6 April 2019, Empa Dübendorf
The Spring Meeting 2019 was organized by Prof. Brigitte Buchmann (Empa Dübendorf and ETH Zürich) under the topic 'Novel Pathways in Materials Science'. To meet the importance and relevance of this topic, six leading speakers were invited; Profs. Mercouri Kanatzidis, Northwestern University, Evanston USA, Maryna Bodnarchuk, Empa Dübendorf CH, Edward Sargent, University of Toronto, CDN, Christophe Copéret, ETH Zurich, CH, Jürgen Janek, Justus-Liebig Universität Giessen and KIT, D and Michele Ceriotti, EPF Lausanne, CH. They provided the attendees with exciting presentations about this topic in a broader sense.
Traditionally, the Spring Meeting is the platform for the Alfred Werner Prize, which was awarded this year to Prof. Jeremy Luterbacher from the EPF Lausanne, Switzerland. His award lecture gave fascinating insights into the chemistry of biomass as related to the production of added-value products and was entitled 'Protect and serve: acetal formation during biomass fractionation as a toolkit for reducing degradation and introducing new reactivities'. The Spring Meeting was very well attended with participants not only from Switzerland but also from abroad. During lunch time, the general assembly of the SCS took place, confirming the board and the executive board members of the SCS and its divisions. scg.ch/springmeeting/2019
12-13 April 2019, Beatenberg
Roughly 80 analytical scientists participated in the meeting and enjoyed a nice scientific and social atmosphere, allowing a lot of exchange across different disciplines but also between academia and industry. About half of the attendees were PhD students, reflecting one of the goals of the meeting, which is connecting young scientists and providing networking opportunities also for future collaborations. The 26 posters presented surpassed the expectations of the organizers, almost double the numbers of the previous year. Six sponsors supported the meeting and had the chance to present themselves.
16-17 May 2019, HEIA Fribourg
The 14th Freiburger Symposium took place on the 16th and 17th of May at the HEIA-Freiburg. The topic of the Symposium was: 'Industrial Applications of Catalysis - Time for New Approaches'. Again a keynote lecture was given by the CSO, Dr. Jürgen Roos (new Chief Scientific Officer) of Siegfried AG, Zofingen, with the key note lecture 'Catalysis - an important tool in Siegfried's offering'. The organizers under the lead of Dr. Remo Gamboni and Dr. Prof. Roger Marti, have designed a fantastic program, combining theoretical aspects and practical implementation around the symposium topic. The Symposium was also the platform to present the 2018/19 winners of the Sandmeyer Awards. Dr. Alain De Mesmaeker and Dr. Raymonde Fonné-Pfister from Syngenta for 2018 and Dr. Andreas Voegelin and Dr. Stephan Hug from Eawag, Dübendorf for 2019. Again, the Symposium achieved the expectations of the participants. Beside the scientific lectures, participants always appreciate the networking opportunities during the coffee/lunch breaks and the symposium dinner. Close to 100 industrial professionals and students attended the symposium and were giving a very positive feedback.
14 June 2019, HEIA Fribourg
On June 14, 2019, nearly 50 photochemists from all over Switzerland and beyond gathered together at the Haute Ecole d'Ingénieurie et d'Architecture in Fribourg (HEIA-FR) for the annual SCS Photochemistry Section meeting to discuss their latest findings in the field. The organizing committee consisting of the board of the SCS Photochemistry Section put together a program consisting of 3 invited talks, 9 oral communications and a poster session with 24 posters to revive this event which, they hope, will to take place annually. The general assembly of the section was held during the day. (scg.ch/pcs).
5-9 Mai 2019, Brunnen
It was snowing on the Bürgenstock summit and the surrounding countryside when the participants of the 54th Conference on Stereochemistry reached Brunnen on Sunday May 5, 2019. The organizing committee (Christian Bochet, Alain De Mesmaeker, Fabrice Gallou, Cristina Nevado, Thomas Ward and Jérôme Waser) warmly greeted each newcomer and disclosed the program of the prestigious conference. This year's president, Véronique Gouverneur, University of Oxford, welcomed the guest of honor John Brown, University of Oxford, and all of the 119 attendees during the dinner, and officially opened the conference with a few words of introduction.
Main speakers of the 2019 edition were
The next conference will take place in Brunnen from April 26-30, 2020.A conference report was published in CHIMIA 06/2019.
6 September 2019, University of Zürich
The Fall Meeting is the largest event of the Swiss Chemical Society. Whereas it was extended to 1.5 days in 2017 in Berne, the duration was again one day at the Meeting in Zurich 2019 as at EPF Lausanne in 2018. The SCS board together with the DFR board decided at one of its meetings to follow a rhythm with one-day events in Zurich and Lausanne and a 1.5d event in Berne. The Fall Meeting was very well attended with about 900 national and international participants. 97 oral contributions and 422 posters were presented throughout the fields of chemical research.
Plenary lectures were provided by the Sandmeyer Award recipients Drs. Dr. Michael Berg, Dr. Stephan Hug, Dr. Annette Johnson (in memoriam), Dr. Andreas Voegelin and Prof. Lenny Winkel, Eawag, Dübendorf. The awardee of the SCS Industrial Science Award was Dr. Christoph Boss, Idorsia Pharmaceuticals Ltd. who presented a plenary lecture entitled "20 Years of Medicinal Chemistry - Always look at the bright side (of life)". The Grammatikakis-Neumann Award Lecture 2019 was provided by Prof. David Sarlah, University of Illinois, Urbana, USA about "Photochemical Dearomatization of Nonactivated Arenes". The SCS Senior Industrial Science Award Lecture 2019 went to Dr. Fabrice Gallou, Novartis Pharma AG and was entitled "Alternative solvents: from a compliance-driven activity to a trigger for innovation". The meeting was excellently organized by the local team under the chair of Profs. Roger Alberto and Hans-Peter Lüthi. The scientific committees with members from all Swiss Universities organized an outstanding scientific program. As the DFR board anticipated, most of these members will serve also on the forthcoming SCS Fall Meetings to enable a continuity. Parallel sessions in the classical fields of chemistry in the morning and in the afternoon gave insights into fundamental and applied research going on in the different divisions of the SCS.
The Fall Meeting was financially supported by many companies and public bodies such as the Swiss Academy of Science SCNAT, BASF, Syngenta, Novartis, Roche, ChemPubSoc/Büchi and the University of Zurich. Session endowments came from Mettler Toledo, Clariant, Lonza, Syngenta, Janssen, Idorsia, Siegfried and Dow. DSM and Metrohm are the award sponsors. All their supports are gratefully acknowledged.
Feedback from the participants was excellent and the Jury had for once enough time to select the laureates, mirroring the excellent local organization. In 2022, the next Fall Meeting will again be at the University of Zurich. scg.ch/fallmeeting/2019
6 September 2019, University of Zürich
Within the framework of the Fall Meeting of the Swiss Chemical Society the Division of Chemical Education in cooperation with Christian Hinderling and Achim Ecker from the ZHAW Wädenswil organized a symposium for chemistry teachers teaching at different levels such as Sek I, Sek II, advanced technical colleges (FH) and universities. The major objective of this symposium was the dialogue between chemists working in education, research and industry and to gain insight of current topics, that might enrich future chemistry lessons and be transferred to the classrooms.
About 80 participants followed the invitation and listened to the five plenary lectures and participated in the workshops.
23-27 September 2019, Messe Basel
As founder of the trade fair in 1956 and now partner of MCH Messe Schweiz, SCS was again responsible for the organization of the ILMAC Forum activities. The overall topic of the four-day program was 'Green & Sustainable Solutions':
Tue, September 24, 2019
Wed, September 25, 2019
Thu, September 26, 2019
Fri, September 27, 2019
Linked to the forum program SCS provided a platform for its partners to present themselves and to highlight their activities in the field of Green & Sustainable Chemistry. The poster session with 18 contributions gave a compact and informative overview of the topic. Presenting partner:
Traditionally also the Universities of Applied Sciences used the platform to promote their offers:
More details can be found at scg.ch/ilmac/2019
24-27 September 2019, Messe Basel
After its launch in 2013 the Swiss National Technology Platform SusChem Switzerland was officially hosed by the SCS but run by CimArk. To express its commitment and to push green and sustainable approaches, SCS took over the responsibility to run the platform. Phase II of the initiative was initiated at ILMAC 2019 with the 1st Swiss SusChem Days on September 25-27, 2019. The three lunch forums, the workshops, the discussion roundtables and the SusChem Evening session with input lectures and a panel discussion formed a fantastic program.
More details can be found at scg.ch/ilmac/2019
19 October 2019, Syngenta, Stein (AG)
The Swiss Chemical Society and Syngenta organized the 5th edition of this one-day symposium entitled «Welcome to the One Electron World» on Thursday 17thOctober 2019. The focus was on cutting-edge research in single electron chemistry, from photoredox to electrochemistry and radical reactions and beyond for their role in life science. The highlight of the day were three plenary lectures with Prof. Samir Zard, Prof. Robert Knowles and Prof. Dereck Pratt as well as six invited lectures. A poster session rounded out the program over lunch time. The event took place at the Syngenta research campus in Stein, close to Basel Switzerland. More than 200 participants joined the event.
7-9 November 2019, Sumiswald
DIAC Workshop was held from the 7th to 9th of November 2019 in Sumiswald i.E.. The main topics were the on-boarding of our new DIAC board members and to review our strategic intent, with the program for 2020. Highlights for 2020 will be the general assembly at Dottikon ES, the ILMAC Lausanne and the SICS-Symposium end of October.
www.euchems.eu
EuChemS acts as a single independent voice for chemistry in Europe. EuChemS advises the European Parliament and Commission on chemistry topics and promotes excellence in European research via continuous collaboration with the European Research Council. The divisions and working parties run biennial conferences and summer schools in most areas of chemistry.
The 2019 General Assembly took place in Bucharest, hosted by the Romanian Chemical Society on October 3-4, 2019.
In 2019 EuCheMS published 4 Newsletters and a monthly EuChemS Brussels News Update. SCS re-published them on the SCS website and partially in CHIMIA.
One of the main duties of the SCS Division of Fundamental Research is to support financially conferences within Switzerland organized by its members. The rules for support have been amended in 2017 and support was given according to these new guidelines. The following conferences and symposia were thus supported in 2019
www.scg.ch/DCE/
Eight Chemical Education columns were published in CHIMIA.
The 3rd ChemEdu conference was organized at University of Zurich, parallel to the SCS Fall Meeting on September 6, 2029. About 80 teachers from different level participated in the workshops and listened to the plenary lectures.
The Balmer Price was given to Dr. Rita Oberholzer, Kantonsschule im Lee, Winterthur.
www.scg.ch/SWC/
The creation of the new Swiss Women in Chemistry (SWC) network was announced in the June 2019 Chimia Issue. Under the umbrella of the Swiss Chemical Society, its aim is to facilitate networking and provide a supportive community for female chemists in Switzerland at all career stages. The founding members are:
The Swiss Women in Chemistry (SWC) celebrated their inauguration with a gala night at the ILMAC conference in Basel in September 2019, with two short presentations by Dr Maria Inès Velazco, Consultant at MIV Senses and former SVP R&D, Firmenich and Dr. Leslie A. Fendt, Integrated Strategy Leader IBD at Roche, followed by a networking cocktail event.
The first round of the SWC mentor-mentee matching platform was successfully launched in October 2019 across three regions: Zurich (contact person Rebecca Buller), Basel (contact person Rachel Hevey) and Romandy (contact person Maud Reiter). The mentors meet up with their mentees (Master, PhD students and postdoctoral researchers) on a monthly basis to provide support and advice on helping to guide them in achieving their career goals. An informal dinner to allow for a free exchange between all the program participants was held in November/December 2019 in all three locations.
The SCS Lectureships are a third major platform of the Division of Fundamental Research. It consists of a one-week lecture tour of the awardee through at least 4-5 Swiss Universities. The 2019 program consisted of the following eight programs:
More details can be found at http://scg.ch/scs-lectureships
scg.ch/awards
The SCS awarded six individuals and one group of scientists for their outstanding contributions. A total sum of CHF 80'000 as well as medals and award certificates were given to the prize winners.
CHF 10'000 and medal in bronze; awarded to a promising young scientist for outstanding independent chemical research. The award was given to
Prof. Jeremy Luterbacher, EPFL Lausanne, for his original and groundbreaking research on chemical conversion of plant material using protection group chemistry during biomass depolymerization and upgrading. The prize was given on the occasion of the SCS Spring Meeting in Dübendorf on April 5, 2019.
The prize is awarded to a promising young scientist for outstanding accomplishments in the field of experimental or theoretical photochemistry. The prize is awarded bi-annually, and the winner receives a certificate and a cash check of CHF 5'000. In 2019 the price was awarded to
Prof. David Sarlah, University of Illinois, Urbana (USA), for his great achievements is the development of photochemical dearomatization of nonactivated arenes that allows for a rapid incorporation of oxygen, nitrogen and carbon functionality with exquisite stereocontrol. The ceremony and the lecture took place on the occasion of the SCS Fall Meeting in Zurich on September 6, 2019.
The prize is given to honor very successful and established investigators with outstanding achievements over many years. The winner receives a certificate and a cash check of CHF 10'000.
Dr. Fabrice Gallou, Novartis Pharmaceuticals AG, Basel, was awarded in recognition of his outstanding track record of innovation and creativity in the field of organic synthesis and for his leadership in coaching and mentoring of young scientists at Novartis.
The prize is given to honor successful investigators with outstanding achievements. The winner receives a certificate and a cash check of CHF 7'000.
Dr. Christoph Boss, Idorsia Pharmaceuticals Ltd., Allschwil, reiceive the prize for his outstanding contributions as medicinal chemists with remarkable analytical skills and an excellent flair for multidimensional lead optimization taking into consideration all aspects of modern medicinal chemistry. The two SCS Industrial Science Award lectures took place on the occasion of the SCS Fall Meeting in Zurich on September 6, 2019.
CHF 20'000; awarded to a person or to a group for outstanding work in industrial or applied chemistry. In 2019 the SCS awarded
Dr. Michael Berg, Dr. Stephan Hug, Dr. Annette Johnson (in memoriam), Dr. Andreas Voegelin and Prof. Lenny Winkel, from the Eawag, Dübendorf, for their experimental and modelling studies on drinking water contamination by arsenic and other geogenic elements with an enormous impact not only in Switzerland but around the globe. The award lecture took place at the Freiburger Symposium on May 17, 2019 and at the SCS Fall Meeting in Zurich on September 6, 2019.
CHF 2'000 for individuals and CHF 2'000 for the school's chemistry department. SCS awarded
Dr. Rita Oberholzer, Kantonsschule im Lee, Winterthur, for developing and implementing an innovative and, in the meantime well-established, experiment of anodizing Caran d'Ache pens that can be easily used in a short hands-on training at Gymnasium level. The award ceremony took take place at the ChemEdu Meeting in Zurich on September 6, 2019.
CHF 1'000 and medal in bronze; presented for an outstanding diploma thesis in Chemistry conducted at a Swiss University of Applied Sciences. SCS awarded
Ms. Sandra Witschard, Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften, Wädenswil, for her Bachelor thesis focusing on «Voxelated planar spheroid tissue assembly» and
Mr. Ivan Cornu, Haute école d'ingénierie et d'architecture Fribourg, for his Bachelor thesis entitled «Synthesis of new pinene-phenanthroline and pinene-terpyridine type ligands». The award lectures took place at the ILMAC 2019 in Basel on September 27, 2019.