IUPAC Women’s Breakfast: Sheffield
Sheffield researchers Dr Marta Martinez Alonso and Samantha Peralta Arriaga were awarded funding from the RSC to support their IUPAC Women’s Breakfast in celebration of the International Year of the Periodic Table.
By Dr Marta Martinez Alonso
On 12 February the chemistry department of Sheffield University held an event as part of the IUPAC centenary celebrations and the International Year of Periodic Table. It was an event for women in chemistry and related areas to create contact networks and share experiences, as part of the IUPAC centenary celebration entitled "Empowering Women in Chemistry: A Global Networking Event".
The event was held at the Dainton Building facilities in the chemistry department at the University of Sheffield from 10am to 2pm. 43 women signed up to the event and more showed up on the day. Also, some men came to show interest about the event and about the work women are doing in chemistry.
The event included a plenary talk by Professor Julia Weinstein, oral presentations by PhD students Sophie Graves, Manasi R. Mullay and Heater Carson and another talk by Julie Hyde. We also had a poster session in which eight posters were presented.
Among the oral presentations and talks the role of women in science was a main topic, as well as their impact in society.
For the oral and poster presentations attendants voted for the best in each category and we selected the two winners: Jenny Train for her poster and Heather Carson for her oral presentation. They were each given a periodic table mug and an Amazon Gift Card.
As part of the IYPT celebrations we had an activity entitled "Periodic Table Raffle". A periodic table was set on the wall with different coloured sticky notes, where the participants chose one element and grabbed a sticky note of the same colour as the one on the wall. They then wrote or drew something related to the element. Finally, they had to stick it back on the wall, in the correct place. We randomly picked three of the elements and gave three prizes to the winners (Chemistry Top Trumps, Molecular Model Kit and Periodic Table Mug).
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