Chemistry Education is the Way Forward

I am just back from attending the International Conference on Chemistry Education (ICCE) that was held in Cape Town, South Africa, from July 18 to 22, 2022. I left Spain in one of the worst heat waves of the last decades. Wildfires raged across Europe, and many cities, from China to Iran, were hitting temperature records. Because of that, both the location of the conference (in a cool Cape Town in the middle of winter) and the theme of the conference, connecting chemistry education and sustainability, could not have been more appropriate.

This conference also took place at an appropriate time, just days after the launch of the International Year of Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development (IYBSSD). The Opening Ceremony at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris, France, was a celebration of what science is doing to improve our quality of life, create jobs and wealth, and help us understand our interaction with the Planet. However, it was also a call for action to create and implement the solutions we so desperately need to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on time.

The ICCE2022 started on July 18, which is Nelson Mandela International Day. He was the one who once said, “Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world.” Those words were an inspiration to all the participants and a constant reminder of the importance of chemistry education to inspire and equip a new generation of chemists to tackle the most pressing challenges of our time.

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Feature img: Group picture taken during the Young Ambassador of Chemistry (YAC) Open Day held on July 23 and including of the IUPAC volunteers (Marietjie Potgieter on the far left, Bette Davidowitz, Hooi Ling Lee and Rachel Mamlok-Naaman on the far right, and JGM in the center) and staff members of the Cape Town Science Centre .