Green Chemistry Goes to Hong Kong with Gordon Research Meetings

[Madzia_Foreiter]

Show how green your work is at Gordon Research Conference and Seminar on Green Chemistry in Hong Kong this year!

The Twelve Principles of Green Chemistry define our view of a sustainable future, with a key focus on designing chemical products and processes that have minimal environmental impact, are energy-efficient, and come with inherent safety for health and the environment. Cutting-edge developments, however, require constant stimulating discussion, multidisciplinary approaches, and an enthusiastic international community of scientists willing to share their high-quality research. All these factors are present at the unique Gordon Research Conference (GRC) on Green Chemistry; this year to be held in Hong Kong!

Since 1931, GRC, being a non-profit organisation, provides an international forum for the presentation and discussion of the frontier research in the biological, chemical, and physical sciences, including related technologies. The GRC meetings are high-quality and cost-effective, being organised by leading investigators in the field, and held in fairly isolated locations to minimise distractions. Also, only unpublished research at the absolute frontier of knowledge in the field is presented; GRC meetings are officially “off-the-record”, with no abstracts or proceedings published before, during, or after the conference. This approach, a uniquely informal interactive format, gives the GRC meetings recognition as the world’s premier scientific conferences.

In 2014, among 300 conferences and seminars organised by GRC, one can find the latest GRC on Green Chemistry. Initiated in 1996, the GRC on Green Chemistry has become the most important multidisciplinary meeting in the area of sustainable chemistry. It is bi-annual, and traditionally has alternated between US and European sites to facilitate attendance from a very large international community of active scientists in the field of green chemistry. However this year, for the first time, it moves to Asia! The 2014 meeting is strongly focused on the industrial approach to green chemistry, and will gather people such as Steve Ley (Keynote Lecture), Roger Sheldon, and Alan Alda, among others.

A very recent addition to the GRC scheme is the Gordon Research Seminar (GRS), which is committed to gathering young scientists in the field to discuss their current research in a highly-stimulating and non-intimidating environment, and build informal networks with their peers that may lead to lifetime collaborations and achievements. It precedes the GRC meeting, and is primarily for graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, and other scientists with comparable levels of experience and education. The GRS on Green Chemistry will take place during the weekend prior the main GRC in Hong Kong. Being strongly connected with the main theme of industrial green chemistry, the Keynote Lecture will be given by Ji Qi from Merck. Moreover, a Career Strategy Panel will be held titled "On the Marriage between Academia and Industry", featuring guests from both industry and academia.

Finally, the best summary of GRC and GRS on Green Chemistry comes with the opinions from the previous meetings’ attendees, in particular that being held in Italy in 2012. See you in Hong Kong!