Chemical Science Blog

The ChemSci2023: Leaders in the Field symposium took place at JNCASR, Bangalore, in January and showcased the rapidly growing chemistry community in India, focusing particularly on young and early career researchers. The symposium was organised by the RSC India team, along with the input of Chemical Science, Associate Editor George Subi.

Our Executive Editor, May Copsey, and Associate Editors, Serena DeBeer and Steve Goldup, were in attendance at this exciting event which acted as a forum for sharing developments within the Indian chemistry community.

May Copsey, Executive Editor

“I was delighted to attend this Symposium again in person after a couple of years of online, and it really lived up to all expectations. My greatest impression from the meeting was of the enthusiasm for research and discussion coming from the younger researchers who were attending the meeting. The science presented throughout the Symposium was so exciting. It really emphasized to me the world-class chemical science research that is being done in India, and I’m excited about what we can expect to see from this next generation of leaders in the future.”

Steve Goldup, Associate Editor

“The ChemSci Leaders in the Field symposium was my first trip to India and I was incredibly impressed by the quality of science I saw. Of course, at Chemical Science we regularly receive excellent manuscripts from groups based in India, but seeing talk after talk from outstanding Indian scientists during the symposium really hammered home the quality of research being carried out in the country. I was also extremely impressed by the calibre of the students and postdocs during the poster sessions, all of whom explained their results enthusiastically and clearly, and were able to discuss both the details of their experiments and the wider context of their work.”

Serena DeBeer, Associate Editor

“The opportunity to participate in the ChemSci Leaders in the Field symposium in India was a truly wonderful experience. I was really impressed by all the exciting science, the great talks and the lively discussions. The opportunity to get to know many of India’s rising stars in the chemical sciences, and also to meet so many talented students, was a real highlight. And last but certainly not least, the extremely kind hospitality of our hosts made me feel very welcome and is very much appreciated. I very much look forward to returning to India again soon!”

Many students took part in the ChemSci2023: Leaders in the Field symposium, including Anju A K,  who received a “Best Poster” prize for her research. We wish Anju the best with developing and continuing her research in this exciting area!

                      Anju A K, JNCASR, India

“I had a great time enjoying all wonderful and exciting scientific sessions. The symposium had an excellent line-up of the speakers who talked about their amazing scientific contributions to the cutting-edge research.

The poster session was also engaging where I could interact with students from different institutes explaining their unique research works. I was also so fortunate to take part in the poster session and discuss about my research problem with eminent scientists. The work I explained in my poster was on ‘a through-space donor-acceptor charge-transfer approach to control between different triplet harvesting pathways’. The fruitful discussions also helped me to get some insights to carry out my project forward.

I consider myself blessed and honoured to participate in the symposium and thank Chemical Science and Royal Society of Chemistry for giving me this wonderful opportunity.”

The team is already looking forward to the 2024 ChemSci: Leaders in the Field meeting which will continue to showcase the excellence of research across the chemical sciences from India.

Did you attend the 2022 Chemical Science symposium on sustainable synthesis and catalysis? Catch up on the excitement in Andrei and Paolo’s joint round up of the event, as co-chairs of the conference alongside Ning Jiao.

In early November of 2022 the Royal Society of Chemistry convened an international conference dedicated to sustainability in chemical synthesis. The event was headlined by David MacMillan (2021 Chemistry Nobel Laureate) of Princeton University, who shared his lab’s recent advances in photoredox catalysis. Given Dave’s involvement with Chemical Science as the founding Editor-in-Chief, his talk was particularly meaningful and had set the tone for the rest of the conference. What followed was a series of lectures on a broad range of topics under the umbrella of sustainability. Matt Gaunt of Cambridge University described his lab’s efforts to site-selectively modify oligonucleotides. Danielle Schultz of Merck presented her team’s collaborative effort with the Sarlah lab of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to synthesize complex cyclic peptide natural products for medicinal chemistry applications. Daniele Leonori was able to dazzle the audience with his lab’s imaginative use of nitroarenes in organic synthesis. Shannon Stahl of the University of Wisconsin delivered a brilliant lecture that described his lab’s inroads in catalytic biomass processing using oxidation catalysis. Following his talk, Anne McNeil of the University of Michigan highlighted the role of electrochemistry in converting halogenated polymeric waste materials into value-added products.

The second day of the symposium kicked off with a session dedicated to organocatalysis. Takashi Ooi of Nagoya University took the floor and demonstrated his lab’s ongoing efforts to design new organocatalysts, while the subsequent lecture by Bin Tan of Southern University of Science and Technology focussed on asymmetric access to chiral biaryl molecules. Anat Milo from Ben-Gurion University shared her lab’s data-driven approaches to chiral organic catalyst design.

Moving on to other sustainable methods driven by light, Debabrata Maiti of IIT Bombay surprized the crowd with his mild conditions for photochemical palladium-catalyzed C-H activation. After that, Tim Noël of the University of Amsterdam presented his work in flow photochemistry, which is an integral part of our future when it comes to new ways of running chemical transformations. The second part of the day focused on biocatalytic strategies. Francesca Paradisi, Nicholas Turner, and Alison Narayan discussed strategies to evolve enzymes and use them for making useful molecules.

No conference is complete without an engaging poster session and this RSC event was no exception: throughout the two-day conference the participants had a chance to mingle with each other and enjoy posters. Like the selection of talks, the science described in the poster session represented a broad range of research topics and was a testament to the diversity of contributors. Several students were selected from the poster presentations and had a chance to present their work in exciting 5-minute segments.

Overall, the 2022 Chemical Science symposium on ‘Sustainable synthesis and catalysis’ offered a unique opportunity for networking and discussing the synthetic chemistry of the future. The hybrid meeting, hosted by the Royal Society of Chemistry in the beautiful Burlington House in London, was part of the Chemical Science symposia, which are held annually to discuss fast moving fields of chemical research. We are already looking forward to meeting you at the 2023 symposium.

Andrei Yudin Chemical Science Associate Editor	Paolo Melchiorre Chemical Science Associate Editor

Over the past few days, the ChemSci2020 Symposium @ IISER Kolkata has been held (virtually). The Department of Chemical Science, IISER Kolkata organised the second edition of the RSC sponsored Chemical Science conference, ChemSci2020: Leaders in the Field Symposium. The symposium has included presentations by students and postdocs, and a twitter-based poster session.

We are pleased to announce below the winners of the poster session:

Materials Chemistry:

Debashree Roy – Seed-mediated Synthesis of Gold Nano-Earbuds

Navpreet Kamboj – A 10.8 V metal-free microsupercapacitor with highly stable laser-irradiated graphene electrode for integrated energy storage device

Sahanaz Parvin – An earth-abundant bimetallic catalyst coated metallic nanowire grown electrode with platinumlike pH-universal hydrogen evolution activity at high current density

Soumendu Roy – Surface Ligand Directed Nanoparticle Catalysis

Supramolecular Chemistry:

Anastasiia V. Sharko – Dissipative Non-Equilibrium Self-Assembly of Cyclic Peptide Nanotubes

Ayan Chatterjee – Complex Cascade Reaction Networks via Cross β Amyloid Nanotubes

Sk. Atiur Rahaman – Energy Relay Enhances Switching Efficiency in a Dendrimer-Azobenzene Supramolecular Assembly having an Anion-pi Motif

Synthetic Chemistry:

Kingshuk Mahanty – Manganese-Catalyzed Electrochemical Tandem Azidation-Coarctate Reaction: Facile Access to Azo-benzonitriles

Jyoti Dhankhar – Spatial Anion Control on Palladium for Mild C-H Arylation of Arenes

Soniya Rani – Stereoretentive and Enantioselective C–H Alkylation of Pyridines: Phosphite Catalyzed N to C Migration from N–Alkylpyridinium Salt

Satyadeep Waiba – Manganese catalyzed α-alkylation of ketones with secondary alcohols

Techniques in Chemistry:

Abinash Padhy – Amphiphilic Mannose-6-Phosphate Glycopolypeptide-Based Bioactive and Responsive Self-Assembled Nanostructures for Controlled and Targeted Lysosomal Cargo Delivery

Kushal Sengupta – A Single-Molecule Study of Two-Component System CusRS for Efficient Copper Homeostasis in E. coli

Theoretical Chemistry:

Abhishek Aggarwal – DNA versus RNA- which one conducts better?

Dhiman Ray – Free Energy Landscape and Conformational Kinetics of Hoogsteen Base Pairing in DNA vs RNA: Enhanced Sampling and Markov State Modeling

Congratulations, from all of us at Chemical Science!

COVID-19 has rendered in-person events to be suspended or cancelled, disrupting connections around the globe. The impact of these cancellations on the sharing of information and ideas, especially in the research landscape, has been dramatic.

In an effort to help researchers to stay connected to advances in chemical research and share support we are proud to announce the RSC’s latest online-only seminar series.

Introducing RSC Desktop Seminars!

Welcome to the latest RSC Desktop Seminars, sponsored by Chemical Science, ChemComm and Chem Soc Rev. Each session will highlight two speakers, one journal board member and an early career researcher in the same field.

The RSC Desktop Seminar Series is an effort to not only replace in-person research seminars during the current pandemic situation but to also expand access for researchers around the world looking to connect to some of the leading minds in the chemical sciences. While these RSC Desktop Seminars are taking place in the Eastern US time zone working hours, we encourage any and all interested to register and attend!

Next Up:

8 September 2020 15:00 BST / 10:00 EDT
15:05: “FLP Chemistry: A metal-free approach to the activation of strong bonds”
Professor Doug Stephan – Professor of Chemistry at Toronto University and Editorial Board Chair of Chemical Communications
15:55:“Phosphorus-Ylides: Powerful Ligands for the Stabilisation of Reactive Main Group Compounds”
Professor Viktoria Däschlein-Gessner – Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at Ruhr-Universität Bochum

Find out more & register

Upcoming RSC Desktop Seminars in this Series:

15 September 2020 15:00 BST / 10:00 EDT
15:05: “Polymers that mimic natural saccharides for applications in drug delivery”
Professor Heather Maynard – Dr Myung Ki Hong Professor in Polymer Science in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and the California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA and Associate Editor of Chemical Science
15:55: “Tailoring Polymer Dispersity by Controlled Radical Polymerization”
Dr Athina Anastasaki – Assistant Professor in the Materials Department at ETH Zurich and Editorial Board Member of Polymer Chemistry

Find out more &  register

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22 September 2020 15:00 BST / 10:00 EDT
15:05: “Towards catalytic methane functionalization with Pt complexes”
Professor Jennifer Love – Professor of Chemistry at University of Calgary and Editorial Board Chair of Chem Soc Rev
15:55: “Synthetic modeling of the heterobinuclear Mo/Cu active site in aerobic carbon monoxide dehydrogenase (CODH)”
Professor Neal Mankad – Associate Professor of Chemistry at the University of Illinois at Chicago

Find out more & register

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Previous Seminars:

1 September 2020 15:00 BST / 10:00 EDT
15:05: “Mechanically Chiral Molecules: Synthesis and Applications”
Professor Steven Goldup – Professor of Chemistry at University of Southampton and Associate Editor of Chemical Science
15:55: “The synthesis and unexpected behaviour of knotted molecules”
Dr Fabien Cougnon – Research Associate in the Department of Organic Chemistry at University of Geneva

Find out more

Chemical Science is pleased to be sponsoring the 16th Annual Tri-Institutional Chemical Biology Symposium along with RSC Chemical Biology and Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry. The event will take place virtually on the 1st of September, 2020, 09:00-18:30 EDT.

This event showcases research at the forefront of chemical biology, and is sponsored and organized by the Tri-Institutional PhD Program in Chemical Biology (TPCB), a joint graduate program of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, The Rockefeller University, and Weill Cornell Medicine in New York City.

Register for this free event here by the 28th of August 2020

Undergraduate students interested in chemical biology are especially encouraged to attend.

Poster submissions are welcomed from all attendees, including early college high school students, undergraduates, postbaccalaureate students, research assistants and technicians, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, research staff, and faculty. Posters will be presented live by video in parallel meeting rooms, and judged by TPCB faculty members and keynote speakers for a selection of poster awards sponsored by TPCB and their promotional partners, including Chemical Science, RSC Chemical Biology and Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry.

For more information, please visit the Tri-Institutional Chemical Biology Symposium event page.

TPCB has been strongly committed to diversity and inclusion since its inception. It welcomes scientists from underrepresented minority groups and disadvantaged backgrounds, and those with disabilities. It does not tolerate racism, discrimination, or harassment of any kind. All attendees are expected to maintain the highest standards of professional conduct throughout the symposium.

Submit to Chemical Science today! Check out our author guidelines for information on our article types or find out more about the advantages of publishing in a Royal Society of Chemistry journal.

Keep up to date with our latest articles, reviews, collections & more by following us on Twitter. You can also keep informed by signing up to our E-Alerts.

Chemical Science is pleased to be sponsoring The 19th International Symposium on Silicon Chemistry (ISOS XIX) in Toulouse, 05 – 10 July 2020 along with RSC Advances, ChemComm and Dalton Transactions.

It will be held at the University Paul Sabatier and aims to bring together outstanding scientists from both academia and industry to explore the frontiers of Silicon Chemistry from basic and fundamental science to the development of new synthetic tools and of silicon-based materials and technologies. The scientific programme will reflect the latest achievements in synthesis (organic and organometallic), bio-organo silicon chemistry, catalysis, and material sciences (including bio-composites, silica, silsesquioxanes, silicones, silicon polymers etc..).

You can find out more on the website.

Don’t forget to register before the deadline:

Early Bird Registration Deadline:  15 April 2020

Submit to Chemical Science today! Check out our author guidelines for information on our article types or find out more about the advantages of publishing in a Royal Society of Chemistry journal.

Keep up to date with our latest articles, reviews, collections & more by following us on Twitter. You can also keep informed by signing up to our E-Alerts.

Chemical Science and Dalton Transactions are very pleased to be sponsoring the F. Albert Cotton Award in Synthetic Inorganic Chemistry Symposium this year as part of the Spring ACS National Meeting in Philadelphia. The award recognizes outstanding synthetic accomplishment in the field of inorganic chemistry. The award is granted regardless of race, gender, age, religion, ethnicity, nationality, sexual orientation, gender expression, gender identity, presence of disabilities, and educational background. Creativity and imagination is especially valued.

We wish the 2020 winner Professor Daniel J. Mindiola a huge congratulations!

You can find out more about the F. Albert Cotton Award in Synthetic Inorganic Chemistry on the website.

Submit to Chemical Science today! Check out our author guidelines for information on our article types or find out more about the advantages of publishing in a Royal Society of Chemistry journal.

Keep up to date with our latest articles, reviews, collections & more by following us on Twitter. You can also keep informed by signing up to our E-Alerts.