A packed out lecture theatre enjoyed a thrilling evening of loud bangs and bright colours as Dr Peter Portius and his research group entertained with their fireworks lecture. Combining fascinating chemistry with vivid displays ensured that it was a thoroughly enjoyable evening for all who attended.
Read on for some amazing photos, and to find out what happened to the gummy bear...
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Seminar on the "Role of Chemistry in Drug Discovery" (RCDD) – 6^th July 2013

A conference on the "Role of Chemistry in Drug Discovery" was jointly conducted by the Royal Society of Chemistry (Deccan Section - DS) and Krishna University at Vijayawada.
 
Over 800 Masters and Bachelors degree students participated, with a number of students from other parts of India.
 
The keynote speaker, Prof. Arun Kumar Sharma, Penn.State, Univ., Medical School, highlighted the role of selenium in cancer therapy. Other speakers included Prof. V. Peesapati, Secretary, Royal Society of Chemistry - DS, chairman of the seminar, also NIPER-Hyderabad; Prof. M V Basaveswara Rao, Convener of the RCDD; Prof C V Chalapathi Rao, Osmania Univ.-Hyderabad and Prof. V.Jayathirtha Rao, Head CPC Division, IICT-Hyderabad.
 
Topics ranged from “the Pharmaceutical Value of Heterocyclic Chemistry”, to “combinatorial chemistry and its importance in Drug Discovery” and “the increasing importance of chiral drugs”. Information on the courses and programs run by the Krishna University was also given.
 
In addition to lectures, a poster competition took place and prizes were presented to four winners.
 
The program was sponsored by PVS Labs Ltd. Andhra Bank, Vijayawada, Krishna University and RSC-Deccan Section.
 
Seminar, Quiz and Demo in Chemistry Program for School students - July 2013

RSC-Deccan Section organized a seminar, quiz and demonstration on Chemistry for school children in collaboration with Model High School Alumni Association of Osmania University (OU) at Model High School, Hyderabad.

The day began with lectures by Dr. C Chalapathi Rao, Retd. Chemistry Professor, O U; Dr. Ch Krishnakumari, Retd. Reader, Singareni Women’s College; Prof. V Peesapati, Secretary, RSC-DS and Dr. V. Jayathirtha Rao, Director Gr. Scientist, IICT.
These were on “Why study chemistry”, the importance of Chemistry in our day to day life, the hazards of smoking and the role of chemistry not only academia but also in the drug and chemical industry.

A fun demonstration followed, featuring: a volcanic eruption, extraction and separation of vitamin A from spinach, red cabbage extract used as an  indicator, boiling an egg in cold water and exothermic reactions,(burning paper without fire) and more. Students were thrilled and enjoyed seeing all these live experiments and how chemicals are fascinating.

A quiz was run in the afternoon for 9^th and 10^th class students. 12 students from six schools participated in the completion and Vedic Vidyalaya High School won the first prize. All the participants in the quiz program received certificates and scientific books from RSC-DS.
 
One day conference “Inspiration through chemistry” for postgraduate students – September 2013 

RSC-DS organized a seminar, quiz and poster session for PG students in association with Annie Besant Women and Srinidhi UG & PG Colleges, Hyderabad.

The seminar was inaugurated by Prof. M S Reddy, Registrar, Osmania university. Prof. Peesapati, Secretary RSC-DS, welcomed the delegates and summarised RSC-DS activities in 2013. Dr Richard Porte, RSC-Cambridge explained the structure of the RSC and its role for the advancement of the chemical sciences not only in the UK but also globally through this kind of work-shop, conferences and encouraging Indian scientists to write projects in collaboration with UK universities.

The morning session started with invited lectures on “An introduction to nanomaterials” and “Why chiral drugs are so important” by Prof. M Vithal and Prof. V Peesapati respectively. This was followed by a quiz competition for MSc chemistry students from six different colleges. A lecture on “Luminescence and applications” by Dr Rao began the afternoon, after which 24 students took part in a poster display and competition. Over 200 students attended the conference.

Elocution and Chemistry Quiz program - September 2013

The Royal Society of Chemistry – Deccan Section organised an Elocution and Chemistry Quiz program in association with Chaitanya PG & UG College Warangal. This included a guest lecture on “Green Chemistry”by , Dr. Y. V. D. Nageswar, Chief Scientist, Indian Institute of Chemical Technology.

11 teams took part in the elocution competition, which was on the theme of “Enzyme Catalysis and Applications”, and 15 teams of students from the local colleges of Warangal district town participated in the quiz. Over 200 students were involved in the day.

Guest lecture by Prof U N Das, USA on “Is type 2 diabetes mellitus a disorder of the brain?” - September 2013                                  

Prof. U N Das, UND Life Sciences, USA, delivered a guest lecture at Birla Institute of Technology and science (BITS), Hyderabad campus, for Research staff and students of the Institute. He spoke about the changes in peptide levels in the hypothalamus and changes in gastrointestinal hormone levels, and answered many of the research students’ and staff’s questions.
 
Guest lecture by Prof. Undurti N Das, MD, FAMS, FRSC:  “Lipids as potential anti-cancer drugs” - October 2013

Prof Das lectured on his current area of research to around 100 scientists from industry and academia. He explained that certain polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) show selective tumouricidal action without harming normal cells in vitro and in vivo. PUFAs not only kill tumor cells selectively, but are also able to protect normal cells and bone marrow cells from the cytotoxic and genotoxic action of radiation and chemotherapeutic drugs.

Research in this area implies that unsaturated fatty acids could be used to enhance the anti-cancer action of chemotherapeutic drugs and reverse tumour cell drug resistance.

Mr. Raghu Iyer, Vice-President, Vivimed Labs proposed a vote of thanks, and the DS secretary honoured the speaker by presenting a memento.

Shashi Ravi Suman Rudrangi, MRSC,  a second year PhD student (Pharmaceutical Science) at the Medway Centre for Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Greenwich, has been awarded a ‘PhD Research Travel Grant' from the Organic Division of the Royal Society of Chemistry to attend and present a poster entitled 'Solid state Econazole-Cyclodextrin complexes prepared by Supercritical carbon dioxide processing’, at the '3rd European Conference on Cyclodextrins', which was held at Antalya, Turkey between 2-4 October, 2013. more...

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On the 8^th and 9^th of July, a R&D symposium, sponsored by the RSC and Procter & Gamble, was held in Lagos, Nigeria, covering the topics of regulatory harmonisation, hygiene and sustainability. The two day conference included a trip to the University of Lagos, where a collaboration laboratory was announced between P&G and the university. P&G will be sponsoring a select number of African students to carry out 6-month internships in Lagos, encouraging industry collaboration and local scientific innovation in Africa. The meeting also prompted RSC representatives in Nigeria to initiate the process of setting up two local sections in the country.  


A picture of all RSC members present at the University of Lagos, Nigeria. 
 
For more information on the conference, please visit www.rsc.li/pacn-nigeria-2013.

As part of the pearl jubilee celebration of K.E.T.S V.G., Vaze College of Arts, Science Commerce, Mumba, in association with RSC WIS and CRSI ( Mumbai local chapter), organized a two day lecture PG series on the topic of 'Pericyclic reactions' on 26^th and 27^th of July 2103. 161 participants, including 7 teachers, from 28 colleges in and around Mumbai benefited from the lectures and discussions.

The speakers were Prof. K.P.Kaliappan & Dr. Santosh Gharpure, faculty from the department of Chemistry, IIT, Mumbai. The lecture series started with a very brief inauguration by Dr. Panse, the Head of the Chemistry department. Dr. Abhijit Roy Chowdhary, RSC WIS officiate, spoke in brief about the activities of RSC WIS and also mentioned about the opportunities and benefits available for student members of RSC.

The topics in the two day lecture series covered included introduction to pericyclic reactions and molecular orbitals, electrocyclic reactions, introduction to cycloaddition and Diels Alder reactions,1,3 dipolar cycloadditions, [2+2] cycloaddition and sigmatropic rearrangements. The feedback has been extremely positive and the students benefited a lot from the lectures and the discussions that followed. Students have requested that more such lectures be organised in future on various topics.

 Southampton University ChemSoc invited David Alker to deliver a series of careers-related talks for undergraduate and postgraduate students on the 9th and 10th of May, 2012. The undergraduate talks covered the topics of careers and workplace awareness. David stayed back after the talks to discuss further questions from the attendees over refreshments.
 
The talks were well received and some of the attendees made the following comments about the event:
 

I attended (and helped organise) both the talks aimed at Undergraduate students. I really enjoyed the contents of both the talks and really appreciated how they were quite distinct separate events, yet were both highly informative. The Careers Talk gave us not just a glimpse of the choices available, but actually made a lot of the attendees think about how Chemistry is so important in so many different ways in people’s lives. The Workplace Awareness talk was more about what is expected of an Undergraduate/ recent graduate at a workplace, be it your first job or an internship or a placement in a research lab or industry. However, whatever the name suggests, Dave did not just preach us on ‘how to behave’, it was quite an interactive and humorous session, with him taking in input from us as well. I would be glad to participate in more of such events, given how it engages students and at times, keeps some disenchanted students from disengaging from their course and helps them change their views about how Chemistry affects lives. -Ishani Bhattacharya, Undergraduate student (2nd Year, 2011/12)

 

I attended the Workplace Awareness Talk for Undergraduates and it was a very good decision to do so, as I think it was quite informative and helpful when it comes to preparing for my Fourth Year placement.
-Hamid Khan, Undergraduate student (2nd Year, 2011/12)

 

The event was certainly aimed at PhD students rather than Masters or Undergraduate students. There was quite a lot of background information about the current economic climate (CEC) and what that means for employment opportunities. David also went through what someone with a PhD has to offer and, therefore, how a PhD should make someone employable, despite the CEC. There was a list of potential careers (very broad) and he mentioned facts like only 10 % of PhDs stay in academia. The talk was more about giving us an overview than specific careers ideas: he got us to think about the opportunities a PhD gives, rather than suggesting that it means doing chemistry forever. In my experience of a PhD (and I think some of my group members would agree), it can seem like by doing a PhD you have committed yourself to a lifetime of either academia or industry directly related to the PhD, when, in fact, a PhD should be opening rather than closing doors. This is what the talk was about.
-Mary Cholerton, PhD student   

The 27th Young Scientist Symposium was held at Bangor University, September 18th 2012. With 47 delegates in attendance the symposium is a great opportunity for scientists from Bangor and Glyndwr Universities, at the early stages of their career, to present their work, as well as network and share information and knowledge. A great varied programme was presented, both in the oral and poster presentations.

Fresher's Cocktail Party (Sept 2012)