ORIGINS OF THE GLOBAL BREAKFAST
On the morning of 18 January 2011, women chemists from 44 countries leapt out of bed with purpose and shared breakfast together. They were taking part in the international networking event “Women Sharing a Chemical Moment in Time,” a “prequel” to the official launch of the International Year of Chemistry (IYC2011) in Paris on 27–28 January. Worldwide there were close to 100 breakfasts, involving roughly 5000 women chemists, making it one of the largest gatherings of women scientists worldwide. A number of countries held multiple breakfasts; in Australia there were 9, while in both the UK and the Netherlands, there were at least 10 different functions.
Since an aim of IYC2011 was for chemists to “connect” as well as “participate,” the event organizers encouraged different breakfasts to interact with each other using video chat or Skype. In this way, participants created a chemical “handshake” around the globe, in the same way that a wave travels around a sports stadium. The chemical handshake “relay” was then passed across to Russia, and into Europe and Africa. In Johannesburg, the South African Chemical Institute hosted a breakfast attended by IUPAC President Nicole Moreau (France) and ACS President Nancy Jackson. The event was particularly well supported in the Netherlands and in the UK; both countries hosted at least 10 different events, and a video link between the Beijing event and the main RSC event in London nicely joined Asia to Europe. The handshake then continued into Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Peru, Venezuela, and Colombia. North American breakfasts made links across the Pacific to Hawaii, which contacted Wellington in New Zealand across the International Dateline, thus completing the 24-hour global circuit.
THE GLOBAL BREAKFAST RETURNS
On 12 February 2019, as part of the celebrations for the centenary of the founding of IUPAC, women chemists and male supporters from over 50 different countries took part in the second IUPAC Global Women’s Breakfast: Empowering Women in Chemistry, A Global Networking Event. Worldwide there were 200 breakfasts, with between five and ten thousand participants involved. A global breakfast map was created which illustrated the location of each registered breakfast. The first events were held at 7AM local time in New Zealand, with Wellington and Palmerston sharing the honour of initiating the breakfast events. In her role as global co-convenor, Mary Garson skyped the Wellington breakfast from her Brisbane base to acknowledge their significant role. Breakfast events next launched successively in Asia, Europe, into Africa, then across to both North and South America. The final breakfast was launched in Hawaii 22 hours later. This global event provided an excellent opportunity to focus on these achievements, to expand professional networks, to learn from each other, and to raise awareness of the challenges women scientists face in academic, industry and government institutions. Since 2019, the IUPAC Global Women’s Breakfast has become an annual event.
See articles published in Chemistry International on the GWB:
Garson, Mary J., McConnell, Laura L. and Soby, Lynn M. “Diversity in Science at the Global Women’s Breakfast Network” Chemistry International, vol. 43, no. 3, 2021, pp. 8-11. https://doi.org/10.1515/ci-2021-0303
Garson, Mary and McConnell, Laura. “The IUPAC100 Global Women’s Breakfast Empowering Women in Chemistry” Chemistry International, vol. 42, no. 1, 2020, pp. 22-25. https://doi.org/10.1515/ci-2020-0107
Kerton, Francesca M. “Behind the Scenes: Stories of the Global Women’s Breakfast”, Chemistry International, vol. 44, no. 4, 2022, pp. 18-25. https://doi.org/10.1515/ci-2022-0404
Choo, Yvonne S. L.; Fung, Fun Man, Vidal, Juliana L. “The PARTY Approach: How Friendship Transcended Borders for Science”, Chemistry International, vol. 46, no. 3, 2024, pp. 6-11. https://doi.org/10.1515/ci-2024-0302
Yasin, Suhad A. Global Women’s Breakfast (GWB)—The Impact of the (GWB) at the University of Duhok, Chemistry International, vol. 46, no. 4, pp. 48-48. https://doi.org/10.1515/ci-2024-0422
Organizing Team
Global Breakfast Founder: Emeritus Professor Mary Garson, University of Queensland, Australia. LinkedIn – Twitter
Co-Chair: Dr. Laura McConnell, Bayer Crop Science, USA. LinkedIn – Twitter
Coordinator: Dr. Fatima Mustafa, IUPAC Global Breakfast Coordinator, San Antonio, USA. LinkedIn – Twitter
Event Contact Info: globalbreakfast@iupac.org
We thank the members of the IUPAC Global Breakfast Project Task Group. If you are looking for a connection in your region, please reach out to these representatives:
ASIA
Prof. Mei-Hung Chiu, National Taiwan Normal University, China Taipei. LinkedIn
Prof. Mary Garson, Queensland University, Australia
Prof. Huanli Dong, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
Prof. Chao-Ping Hsu, Institute of Chemistry, Academia Sinica, China Taipei
Dr. Hooi Ling Lee, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia. LinkedIn
Dr. Bipul Behari Saha, FABS, Hyderabad, India. LinkedIn
Dr. Hina Siddiqui, Associate Professor, University of Karachi, Karachi, Pakistan. LinkedIn
Dr. Singto Sakulkhaemaruethai, Polymer Society of Thailand, Thailand. LinkedIn
Prof Ahjeong Son, Ewha Womans University, Korea. LinkedIn
Prof. Dr. Supawan Tantayanon, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand. LinkedIn
Prof. Mohammed Shoeb, University Dhaka, Bangladesh
AFRICA and MIDDLE EAST
Dr. Ayat Bouzieh, Jordan University of Science and Technology, Irbid, Jordan. LinkedIn – Twitter
Prof. Dr. Ghada Bassioni, Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt. LinkedIn – Twitter
Dr. Cynthia Ibeto, University of Nigeria Nsukka, Enugu, Nigeria. LinkedIn
Dr. Sadhna Mathura, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. LinkedIn
Prof. Marian Asantewah Nkansah, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana. LinkedIn
CENTRAL and SOUTH AMERICA
Prof. Karla Susana Bernal, Facultad de Ciencias Químicas, Universidad Autónoma de Chihuahua, Mexico. Twitter
Prof. Vanderlan Bolzani, IQ-UNESP, Sao Paulo, Brazil. LinkedIn
Dr. Susana Briceño Guevara, University of Costa Rica, San Juan, Costa Rica.
Prof. Carla E. Giacomelli, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba – CONICET, Córdoba, Argentina. LinkedIn
Dra Estela Pérez, Colegio Chileno de Químicos A.G., Chile. LinkedIn
Dr. Marilia Valli, Institute of Physics, University of São Paulo (USP), São Carlos, SP, Brazil. LinkedIn
EUROPE
Prof. Cristina Delerue-Matos, REQUIMTE/LAQV, Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto, Portugal
Dr. Fun Man Fung, University College Dublin, Ireland LinkedIn
Dr. Tien Thuy Quach, Aston University, United Kingdom LinkedIn
Prof. Hemda Garelick, Middlesex University, United Kingdom. LinkedIn
Prof Javier Garcia Martinez, IUPAC, Spain. LinkedIn
Prof. Lars R. Öhrström, Chalmers University of Technology, Göteborg, Sweden. LinkedIn
Prof. Diane Purchase, Middlesex University, United Kingdom, LinkedIn
Prof. Dr. Fani Sakellariadou, University of Piraeus, Greece. LinkedIn
Dr. Tatiana Usova, Dow Europe GmbH, Russian Federation. LinkedIn
NORTH AMERICA
Dr. Akiko Nakamura, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA. LinkedIn
Dr. Lori Ferrins, Northeastern University, Boston University, MA, USA. LinkedIn
Dr. Danniebelle Haase, Dow Chemical Company, Collegeville, PA, USA. LinkedIn
Prof. Francesca Kerton, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada. LinkedIn
Dr. Liana Vaccari, National Academy of Sciences, Washington, DC, USA. LinkedIn
