2008: The international year of the potato, 2009: The international year of natural fibres, September 19th, 2010: International talk like a pirate day and now 2011: The international year of chemistry!
I definitely want a slice of this action. I am immensely proud to be a chemist so one day whilst perusing the RSC news (Hello? Goodbye!, Closer? Back off! Cosmo? CosNo!), we saw that networking breakfasts were being held all over the world so that women could share a chemical moment in time. (http://www.chemistry2011.org/participate/activities/show?id=37) The credit has to go to a PhD student who I will now refer to as Pyro, who thought than rather attend one, we should hold one! So far we have assembled a crew of savvy lady chemists across the pharmacy and chemistry departments. Comparisons have been drawn to the first few episodes of the apprentice; there is probably the same amount of intolerable squawking BUT this squawking is going somewhere, it makes sense, it’s met with squawks of approval and we won’t charge you £1.82 for a bread roll.
Last week, we established the who (preferably chemistry ladies from all backgrounds, but boys are allowed), what (pastries, yes and a talk about Marie Curie and another from a contemporary woman in science, a goody bag (squawk!)), where (Glasgow) and why (bringing us ladies together for cakes and chemistry of course!). And now for the how....This is the difficult part. How are we going to cover our costs, meet our deadlines? If we build it, will they come?
In terms of advertising support, we’ve had a great response (please see this issue of RSC news) and as an event, people seem interested. I also couldn’t ask for more from our departments who have made technical and financial pledges. Next time, I hope to report that we are overwhelmed with tunnocks teacakes, the costs have been met, Michelle Mone is giving a talk on the chemistry of the Ultimo and our goody bags are rammed with Veet, Green & Blacks hot chocolate and those RSC temperature scale/ periodic table thingys. Watch this space!
I definitely want a slice of this action. I am immensely proud to be a chemist so one day whilst perusing the RSC news (Hello? Goodbye!, Closer? Back off! Cosmo? CosNo!), we saw that networking breakfasts were being held all over the world so that women could share a chemical moment in time. (http://www.chemistry2011.org/participate/activities/show?id=37) The credit has to go to a PhD student who I will now refer to as Pyro, who thought than rather attend one, we should hold one! So far we have assembled a crew of savvy lady chemists across the pharmacy and chemistry departments. Comparisons have been drawn to the first few episodes of the apprentice; there is probably the same amount of intolerable squawking BUT this squawking is going somewhere, it makes sense, it’s met with squawks of approval and we won’t charge you £1.82 for a bread roll.
Last week, we established the who (preferably chemistry ladies from all backgrounds, but boys are allowed), what (pastries, yes and a talk about Marie Curie and another from a contemporary woman in science, a goody bag (squawk!)), where (Glasgow) and why (bringing us ladies together for cakes and chemistry of course!). And now for the how....This is the difficult part. How are we going to cover our costs, meet our deadlines? If we build it, will they come?
In terms of advertising support, we’ve had a great response (please see this issue of RSC news) and as an event, people seem interested. I also couldn’t ask for more from our departments who have made technical and financial pledges. Next time, I hope to report that we are overwhelmed with tunnocks teacakes, the costs have been met, Michelle Mone is giving a talk on the chemistry of the Ultimo and our goody bags are rammed with Veet, Green & Blacks hot chocolate and those RSC temperature scale/ periodic table thingys. Watch this space!
