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On Wednesday the 6^th of April, Professor A. Stephen K. Hashmi, Dean of the Faculty of Chemistry and Earth Sciences and Head of the Institute of Organic Synthesis at Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg delivered a talk organized by the TCD Werner Chemical Society, Trinity College Dublin.
 
Professor Hashmi has been considered a pioneer in the field of gold chemistry since the late nineties. He delivered his talk - entitled "Homogeneous Gold Catalysis: Catalysts, Reactions and Mechanisms" - to capacity audience of undergrads, postgrads and staff members. It was a fascinating demonstration of organic chemistry, explaining the wide range of high yielding organic transformations possible such as asymmetric aldol reactions and nucleophilic additions with a variety of nucleophiles including carbon monoxide.

The talk was also enjoyable to chemists with different interests, thanks to the addition of little pieces of inorganic (showing the coordination chemistry at the gold centre, for example) and physical chemistry (like adding DFT calculations showing the HOMO and LUMO orbitals and explaining the increased efficiency of gold over palladium). Prof Hashmi littered his presentation with fun facts about gold, for example, gold has an E number - E175!
 
The talk was followed by a wine and cheese reception to give more self-conscious people a chance to ask Professor Hashmi questions in a less public setting. The evening was very enjoyable and educational. All attendees learnt something new about gold and gained new respect for the element that’s “not just a pretty face”.

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Aurora Walshe
Vice-President,
Werner Chemical Society