Croatian Meeting of Chemists and Chemical Engineers

25HSKIKI in numbers

25HSKIKI gathered more than 400 scientists, researchers, and university and school teachers working in various fields of chemistry from 21 countries all around the world. The scientific programme covered all domains in chemistry through nine thematic sessions: Analytical and Structural Chemistry, Medicinal Chemistry and Biochemistry, Physical, Theoretical and Computational Chemistry, Synthesis and Catalysis, Supramolecular Chemistry, Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, Materials, Environment, and Education. The scientific highlights of the meeting included seven cutting-edge plenary lectures by internationally renowned chemists and 27 invited lectures on various current topics in chemistry. In addition, 40 oral contributions and almost 180 posters were presented and discussed at the meeting.

The programme

The Meeting was opened on Wednesday, 19 April 2017 with a welcoming word from Prof. Marijana Đaković, Chair of 25HSKIKI, Prof Srđanka Tomić-Pisarović, President of the Croatian Chemical Society, and Prof. Ante Jukić, President of the Croatian Society of Chemical Engineers, followed by the representatives of sponsors and supporters. In between the remarks of the speakers, the audience enjoyed traditional Croatian a capella singing performed by a local klapa: “Motovun.” The opening session ended with an excellent plenary talk given by Prof. Margaret Brimble (University of Auckland, New Zealand) on “Development of peptide and peptidomimetic therapeutic agents from a New Zealand perspective.” She also, as a representative of IUPAC, briefly presented IUPAC work and its agenda. After the formal opening, the participants were invited to continue the evening with an informal get-together with a delicious Istrian prosciutto and cheese, a selection of local wines, and live a capella singing.

Top: The audience at 25HSKIKI.

The programme on Thursday morning started with a plenary lecture, “Bio-inspired designer materials,” given by Prof. Jasper van der Gucht (Wageningen University, The Netherlands) who presented the use and challenges of common design motifs of a range of bio-inspired materials. After the lecture, parallel sessions were held during the day; Synthesis and Catalysis and Physical, Theoretical and Computational Chemistry in the morning and Supramolecular Chemistry and Analytical and Structural Chemistry in the afternoon. All sessions were filled with interesting invited talks and oral contributions interlaced with intense discussions. The final part of the Thursday programme was devoted to the poster session and the plenary lecture, “From molecules to materials” given by Prof. Christer B. Aakeröy (Kansas State University, USA), who took the audience on an exciting journey to the world of supramolecular chemistry and crystal engineering. The second day of the Meeting ended with a student mixer where young chemists and chemical engineers mingled, networked and, simply, had lots of fun.

Above: Prof Margaret Brimble (University of Auckland, New Zealand), representative of IUPAC, giving her plenary lecture.

The next day began with two plenary lectures. Prof. Joachim Ulrich (Martin-Luther University, Halle, Germany) presented the most recent approaches and current developments in industrial crystallization in his lecture “Product design form and function needs process design,” whereas Prof. Lynn Kamerlin (Uppsala University, Sweden) illustrated the application of theoretical physical organic chemistry to computational enzymology in her talk “Dynamics, flexibility, cooperativity and the evolution of enzyme function.” The diversity of the sessions which followed during the day such as Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, Medicinal Chemistry and Biochemistry, Materials, and Environment, ensured that all participants found lectures and presentations of their specific interest. Moreover, in parallel to the rich scientific program, the full-day session “Education” was organized in collaboration with the Croatian Education and Teacher Training Agency. The session gathered more than 60 school and university teachers who had an opportunity to discuss issues and perspectives related to modern approaches in chemistry teaching. The last plenary lecture on Friday, given by Dr Zdravka Knežević (Abdi Ibrahim Pharmaceuticals, Turkey) was dedicated to the “Pharmaceutical product design and development.” The intense day ended with a gala dinner where participants were able to network and share experiences in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere.

The last day of the Meeting started with a plenary lecture on the “Supramolecular Electronic Circular Dichroism: Characterization of Aggregated Phases of Conjugated Functional Polymers” delivered by Prof. Gennaro Pescitelli (University of Pisa, Italy) after which the 3rd symposium “Vladimir Prelog” took place. Traditionally, the symposium is devoted to the most recent developments in organic chemistry and this year, Dr Ivanka Jerić from Ruđer Bošković Institute, Zagreb, Croatia gave an invited lecture entitled “Multicomponent approach to natural product-like compounds.” Within the symposium, the Vladimir Prelog award for organic chemistry was handed to a young scientist, Dr Vjekoslav Štrukil from Ruđer Bošković Institute for his achievements in mechanochemical organic synthesis.

The workshops at 25HSKIKI

The programme of 25HSKIKI included two workshops “I can do it—science and business” and “How to succeed in science?” intended mainly for young chemical researchers and scientists to help them direct and develop their careers in chemistry. The workshop “I can do it—science and business,” held on Thursday 20 April, provided a platform for sharing experience and ideas for strengthening the relationship between fundamental chemical research and chemical industry through participation of leading managers from chemical companies such as Dr. Aleksandar Danilovski (Xelia Pharmaceuticals, Denmark), Dr. Dubravko Kičić (Bicro BIOCentar, Croatia), Prof. Tomislav Bolanča (Faculty of Chemical Engineering and Technology), Dr. Vjekoslav Majetić (Dok-Ing, Croatia) and Dr. Radan Spaventi (Triadelta Partners, Croatia). “How to succeed in science,” which took place on Saturday, 22 April, discussed three evergreen topics in chemical science: intellectual rights in chemical research (Dr Zrinka Banić Tomišić), rising a spin-off company in scientific environment (Dr Marin Roje, Ruđer Bošković Institute, Croatia) and a perspective on manuscript writing from an editor of scientific journal (Prof Christer B. Aakeröy, Kansas State University, USA).

Young chemists helping at the conference desk.

25HSKIKI was closed on early Saturday afternoon with announcing the best poster prize winners in even six categories and with a closing remark from Prof. Davor Kovačević, co-chair of 25HSKIKI, who thanked the organizers, participants, speakers, partners and sponsors without whom the realization of this meeting would not have been such a great success.

The next Croatian Meeting of Chemists and Chemical Engineers with international participation will be held from 9-12 April 2019 in Šibenik, Croatia.