1 The Journal of the Institute of Chemistry of Ireland Obituary and Tribute to James Philip Ryan Award Winners: Industrial Chemistry Award 017 Prof Tom Moody - Almac Annual Lecture Series (Eva Philbin) - Prof Donal O’Shea – RCSI Enzyme Processes Past, Present & Future Commemoration of first lady Professor of Chemistry at RCSI Molecular gastronomy, as a prototype for discussing the issue of scientific strategy. Prof Hervé This The Second Dublin Werner - Prof Tony Werner 2011 - 2008 IRISH CHEMICAL NEWS ISSUE NO. 5 DECEMBER 2017 2 The Institute of Chemistry of Ireland PO Box 9322, Ravensdale Delivery Unit, Ravensdale Road, Dublin D03 CY66. Web: www.instituteofchemistry.org Email: [email protected] Originated 1922 Incorporated 1950 The Professional Body for Chemists in Ireland Contents:- Page A Message from the President. 6 Editorial 8 Obituary and Tribute to James Philip Ryan 11 Institute Awards 2017 16 Almac Enzyme Processes Past, Present & Future 22 Report on EuCheMS General Assembly Meeting 35 Report on the 7th Eurovariety in University Chemistry Teaching 38 Report on EuCheMS Division of Chemical Education Council 41 Eurachem Analytical Measurement Competition 2017 46 Young Chemists’ Group of the ICI 48 Senior Science Quiz National Final 2017 50 Commemoration of first lady Professor of Chemistry at RCSI 52 Molecular gastronomy, as a prototype for discussing the issue of scientific strategy. 56 The Second Dublin Werner 74 Conferences January 31th 79-82 IDA Reports 83-89 Enterprise Ireland Report 91 Industry and Business Reports 92-104 Note: Opinions expressed in this Journal are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Institute. IRISH CHEMICAL NEWS ISSUE NO. 5 DECEMBER 2017 3 Again we thank our Sponsors:- IRISH CHEMICAL NEWS ISSUE NO. 5 DECEMBER 2017 4 IRISH CHEMICAL NEWS ISSUE NO. 5 DECEMBER 2017 5 Sponsors of the Institute of Chemistry of Ireland Annual Dairy IRISH CHEMICAL NEWS ISSUE NO. 5 DECEMBER 2017 6 A message from the President Dear Colleagues, I would like to wish you a Happy new year. There are a number of exciting events happening in 2018. For Environmental Chemists, the Environmental Science Association are running a conference in CIT on March 26th- March 28th. ( see http://www.esaiweb.org/environ/ ) There is a Eurachem event in Dublin on 14th - 15th May 2018, of interest to anyone interested in Quality Assurance. (see http://eurachem2018.com/ ). The 70th Irish Universities Chemistry Research Colloquium will be held in the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering in Queens University Belfast on 13th-15th June; an event that the ICI has been proud to support. The EUCheMS Chemistry Congress will be in Liverpool from 26th- 30th August ( see https://www.euchems2018.org/ ). Furthermore we are progressing with a bid to host the Congress in Dublin in 2022. Finally I would like to wish you all a healthy and productive 2018. IRISH CHEMICAL NEWS ISSUE NO. 5 DECEMBER 2017 7 IRISH CHEMICAL NEWS ISSUE NO. 5 DECEMBER 2017 8 Editorial End of another year and this is the 5th Issue for the year and one short of the target of six per year for the second successive year. The fundamental is getting academic papers on time. Publication dates approach and papers do not arrive on time for editing and preparation of the mater document for checking or modifications. This is disappointing as so much high quality chemical research is taking place in our universities, colleges and research institutions. I think it is important to highlight that work and effort and communicate it to the larger chemical community in academia and industry. Another concern is that the name of the journal may indicate that is simply a newsletter and this might discourage researchers from taking the time and effort to write papers for publications in ICN. Council are currently discussing the possibility of changing the name to better reflect the aims of the journal which is to highlight the range and quality of chemical research in Ireland and credit the researchers. It has been a very active year for the Institute with many awards, a Congress and promotions of chemistry events. These are reported on in the following pages. It is with great sadness that we have the obituary of our Honorary Secretary, James Philip Ryan or Philip as we knew him, a most remarkable and modest person with many achievements to his name. Most of the material has been provided by his sister Sheila Ryan with some editorial additions and a few comments from long serving Council members. Notices of impending events coming up early in 2018 namely the Irish Lab Awards and the Industry & Business set of four parallel conferences at City West on January 31st. Our Industrial Chemistry Award Winner Prof Tom Moody who let a team from Almac has provided a paper based on his lecture in RCSI in early December. There follows a Tribute to the First Lady Professor of Chemistry at RCSI. Professor Ethna Gaffney. Congress this year was on food chemistry at DIT, Kevin Street and Prof Hervé This, (Institut National de la Recherché Agronomique), France has provided an interesting paper on synthetic food from statgels to dynagels. For this Issue a second paper has been provided by Prof Brian McMurry on “The Second Dublin Werner” Tony Werner, the son of Professor EA Werner previously written about in Issue 3. The final sections cover announcements by the IDA, Enterprise Ireland and reports by our supporter Industry & Business. We are preparing to bid for the EuCheMS Congress 2022 for Dublin at the 2018 Congress in Liverpool. We are working with Dr Noel Mitchell, Keynote PCO who won The CCD Outstanding Contribution to Business Award 2017 for bringing 12,000 delegates and €20 million worth of conference business to the Dublin Convention Centre, which itself has won ‘World’s Leading Meetings & Conference Centre 2017’ at the World Travel Awards. I appeal to PIs and Heard of Chemistry Schools to get your teams ready to attend the EUCheMS Chemistry congress in Liverpool in 2018 and show support for our bid. I also appeal to readers and researchers to encourage your colleagues to join the Institute and engage in promoting chemistry and if you are not a member to join. Membership forms are available on our website. www.chemistryireland.org Responses can be sent to:- [email protected] Patrick Hobbs MSc, FICI, CChem, CSci, MRSC. Editor 30/12/2017 IRISH CHEMICAL NEWS ISSUE NO. 5 DECEMBER 2017 9 th 7 EuCheMS Chemistry Congress Molecular frontiers & global challenges ACC LIVERPOOL, UK 26–30 August 2018 REGISTER YOUR INTEREST About the congress With a theme of ‘Molecular frontiers and global challenges’, the 7th EuCheMS Chemistry Congress features five days of scientific and technical sessions, plenary lectures, oral and poster communications, keynote speakers and roundtable discussions, as well as exceptional networking opportunities, an exhibition and a unique social programme. The EuCheMS Chemistry Congresses reflect the outstanding research being done in Europe and around the world by bringing together chemists from different countries and professional backgrounds to exchange ideas, advance knowledge and discuss key issues for chemistry and society. As such, the 7th EuCheMS Chemistry Congress offers you exceptional opportunities to network with chemists from across Europe and beyond. Registration will open in late 2017, and will be via an online system; full payment is required to guarantee your booking. http://www.rsc.org/events/euchems2018# IRISH CHEMICAL NEWS ISSUE NO. 5 DECEMBER 2017 10 Update: There will be seven plenary speakers and six have now been confirmed. These are: Paul Alivisatos, University of California, Berkeley, USA Frances Arnold, California Institute of Technology (Caltech), USA Stefanie Dehnen, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Germany Christopher Dobson, University of Cambridge, UK Ben Feringa, University of Groningen, The Netherlands Jin-Quan Yu, The Scripps Research Institute, USA The seventh and final plenary speaker will be the winner of the European Chemistry Gold Medal which will be announced next year. In addition, the themes and conveners for the congress have all been agreed and confirmed: Theme A: Catalysis – Graham Hutchings (UK) A1: Catalysis at the homo/hetero/bio interface Christophe Copéret (M) Switzerland A2: Heterogeneous catalysis Annette Trunschke (F) Germany A3: Homogeneous catalysis Carmen Claver (F) Spain A4: Biological catalysis Dick Janssen (M) Netherlands Theme B: Chemistry in the Life Sciences – Sara Linse (Sweden) B1: Biomolecular assembly processes Tuomas Knowles (M) UK B2: Bioimaging, analysis and diagnostics Andrew de Mello (M) Switzerland B3: Synthetic biology Greg Challis (M) UK B4: Chemical biology and drug discovery Alessio Ciulli (M) UK Theme C: Energy, Environment & Sustainability – Ib Chorkendorff (Denmark) C1: New approaches to clean fuels Beatriz Roldan (F) Germany C2: Fuel cells and batteries Ifan Stephens (M) UK C3: Solar photovoltaics Annamaria Petrozza (F) Italy C4: Sustainable use of resources and green chemistry Eleni Heracleous (F) Greece C5: Clean water and air Ester Heath (F) Slovenia Theme D: Inorganic Chemistry Advances – Maria José Calhorda (Portugal) D1: Inorganic reaction mechanisms Yann Garcia (M) Belgium D2: Bioinorganic chemistry Ricardo Louro (M) Portugal D3: Main group chemistry Jean-François Halet (M) France D4: Transition metal chemistry Grace Morgan (F) Ireland Theme E: Materials, Interfaces & Devices – Barbara Albert (Germany) E1: Materials governed by scale and dimensionality Joao Rocha (M) Portugal