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After Hong Kong and Shanghai, the last day of the 2012 NJC Symposium: New Directions in Chemistry took place at the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Chemistry (ICCAS) in Beijing.

The day began with a repeat of my presentation to the students on preparing and publishing scientific manuscripts. Two attendees were the winners of the drawing for the classic books “Elements of Style” (William Strunk, Jr. and E. B. White) and “Eats, Shoots & Leaves” (Lynne Truss) offered by NJC.

Professor Jiannian Yao (Member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and NJC Board member) and ICCAS Vice-Director Zhen-Zhong Yang made the opening remarks on behalf of the Institute, while NJC co-Editor-in-Chief Wais Hosseini presented the journal.

A full day of 10 presentations included ones by Profs Deqing Zhang (Laboratory of Organic Solids, ICCAS), Buxing Han (Thermodynamics and Thermochemistry Laboratory, ICCAS), and Zhongfan Liu (Center for Nanochemistry, Peking University).

Prof. Deqing Zhang presents an overview of the Institute to the NJC team.

The scientific attaché of the French Embassy and the director of the CNRS office in Beijing honored us with their presence. I also had the pleasure of meeting the staff of the RSC office in Beijing, who are housed in the Institute.

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Deqing Zhang makes a point to Zhen-Zhong Yang and I during dinner.

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While our very busy week officially ended with a lovely Chinese banquet with our hosts, some of us were up bright and early the next morning for an expedition to the Great Wall at Badaling, northwest of Beijing. The outing was organized by the Institute and two of the graduate students accompanied us to facilitate the visit. Many thanks to them!

Thus ends our week-long visit to Hong Kong and the People’s Republic of China. All in our group enjoyed it immensely and we were greatly impressed by what we heard and saw in the institutions that we visited.  

We thank our hosts and all who participated in one way or another in these three NJC New Directions in Chemistry Symposia. We are very grateful to them for their kindness and hospitality.

After 2 days in Hong Kong, 9 of us continued on to Shanghai for the 2nd stop on the NJC China tour. 

We were thrilled to see our name in lights on the front of the East China University of Science and Technology (ECUST) building where the symposium was held. 

 

ECUST President Xu Hong Qian (in the middle of the front row) and his colleagues, Professors Bozhong Mu (at the left in the back row) and Chunyan Bao (at the right end of the front row), made us feel like visiting royalty with their welcome. 

The programming was top-notch, with interesting lectures on a diverse variety of topics by NJC Board members and invited speakers Professors Yi Yang (ECUST), Guoxin Jin (Fudan University) and Dawei Ma (Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry). 

Biological chemistry, chemical methodology & reactivity, organization were the themes of the session. 

Before the symposium opening, I gave a course for the students and younger researchers on writing up their research results for publication in scientific journals. 

After the serious scientific business began, the non-less-serious business of socializing, at a lovely Chinese banquet (with numerous toasts) hosted by Prof. Qian. For those of us who were still feeling energetic, our hosts took us for a visit to the famous Bund area of Shanghai, where we admired the night lights. 

 

Thursday was our “day off” and a chance to do a little sightseeing. Two lovely ladies from ECUST were our guides for the morning. We bargained in the souvenir shops, visited the famous Yu Yuan Garden, then lunched in a nearby restaurant, before flying to our next, and last, stop of Beijing. 

Left to right: NJC Board members Len Barbour, Odile Eisenstein, Peter Junk and Helen Hailes near the entrance to the Yu Yuan Garden. 

Check back soon to read about Beijing!

Our group of 11 NJC Board members and editors arrived in Hong Kong at the beginning of the week for the first of 3 stops on our 2012 China tour. About half of us are China “virgins” so we are quite excited and are looking forward to the week that awaits us.

University of Hong Kong Professor of Chemistry, Vivian Yam and her group were our hosts; they did such a great job, taking care of us and making sure we didn’t get lost in the 3D topology of the University!

The first symposium was a full program of 14 presentations by NJC board members/editors and Hong Kong chemists. Listening to these, I was struck by the connections between talks that, at first glance, had no relationship. Some of these were:

• ion channels (for biology and batteries by Dan Yang and Takashi Kato, respectively)
• use of porous materials (Len Barbour and JN Moorthy)
• the effects of aggregation (Kato again and Ben Zhong Tang)
• separating similar species (Michael Scott and Moorthy)
• fluorine containing systems (Odile Eisenstein and Peter Junk)
• transaminases (Helen Hailes and Ling Peng)

At the end of a long day, Niamh O’ Connor and Jamie Humphrey (of the RSC Publishing office in Cambridge) hosted the board members, editors and Vivian Yam for a lovely dinner. While sipping a velvety Australian Shiraz wine provided by Vivian, we tasted Shanghai-style delicacies, to give us a fore-taste of our upcoming stop.

Left to right: Vivian Yam welcoming NJC members; Editor-in-chief Mir Wais Hosseini breaking the chicken; tea service. (Thanks to Debbie Crans for these photos.)

Thanks to Vivian and her team, all the participants, and the French Consulate of Hong Kong and Macau (who gave financial support) for making this event such a scientific success and a delight for all of us, who came such a long way!

Next stop: Shanghai!