Setting their Table: Women and the Periodic Table of Elements

Women are often overlooked or forgotten by the history of the discovery and establishment of the Periodic Table, despite their contributions to discovering elements and filling in the table.

While the Periodic Table is now long established, and the number of available elements is finite, the progress of chemistry continues to enable researchers to find new ways to use these elements for the benefit of men and women, and meet the challenges faced by humanity in the 21st century. The focus of this Symposium is on the contribution of women, and how these contributions have been implemented by the scientific community.

The Symposium sessions will cover a variety of advanced topics on following subjects:

• History of women, the elements and the Periodic Table
• The Periodic Table and chemical education, past, present and future (with a special attention to secondary school teachers and pedagogy)
• The elements and the Periodic Table for sustainable chemistry
• Beyond the elements: building nano- and bio-materials
• Old elements, new technologies: how to improve the quality of life
• Women in the chemical sciences, engineering and technologies
• Endangered elements: how to face the scarcity of resources

Authors are encouraged to submit contributions for Oral and Poster Communications before 30 November, 2018.

The Symposium is organized under the auspices of UNESCO and through the cooperation of IUPAC, IUHPST, EuChemS (European Chemical Society) as well as the Real Sociedad Española de Química and the University of Murcia. It is set in the frame of the International Year of the Periodic Table of the Elements (IYPT) and will start on the International Day for Women and Girls in Science.

The programme includes plenary lectures, keynotes, oral communications and posters, as well as a round table.