RSC Molecular Spectroscopy Group
Winner: 2022 Inspirational Committee Award
For the successful transition of their programme to run online during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Celebrate RSC Molecular Spectroscopy Group
#RSCPrizes
I’m personally very proud to be part of a committee that has been recognised for making a big effort over the COVID lockdown to keep up the important job of sharing, reviewing and discussing world class science when there was no possibility to do this in person.
The Molecular Spectroscopy Group provides a forum to researchers and industry scientists interested in all fields, applications and types of molecular spectroscopy. Molecular spectroscopy describes a range of specialised analytical techniques used to provide data in a variety of different ways including quantification, imaging and a range of qualitative measurements of structural or chemical features at the molecular level.
These techniques can be applied in organic chemistry, inorganic chemistry, biochemistry, clinical, diagnostic, industrial, pharmaceutical and other settings to help provide understanding, enabling technological and scientific advancement. The group has set up and run an online seminar series, which will continue post-COVID-19, to showcase all these different applications and techniques, with themed seminars featuring a diverse range of academic and industrial speakers, from senior professors to postgraduates and early career researchers.
The themes have been technique-focused, application-focused, and even more broadly outcome-focused, including sustainability, the beauty industry, pharmaceuticals and clinical diagnostics. This has continued to bring the best molecular spectroscopy science to the community in the absence of face-to-face meetings. It has also expanded the reach of the group, with many more international scientists able to attend our meetings and enhancing the group’s interactions and delivery to our members.
I am absolutely delighted that the RSC has recognised the collective hard work and innovation of the Molecular Spectroscopy SIG by honouring us with the Inspirational Committee Award 2022. The team has worked tirelessly and diligently during these most challenging of times to ensure our scientific community continues to flourish. Making full use of things we learned during lockdown, we have maintained delivery of our very successful monthly online seminar series, and we have been able to keep the number of attendees, at 50–80, by listening to our members and keeping the presentation topics varied. As things have reopened, we have continued to support other learned groups by sponsoring prizes aimed at early career colleagues. We are very proud recipients of this award and aspire to carry on the good work in 2023.
I’m delighted and proud that the MSG has received this recognition from the RSC. Setting up the seminar series when scientific meetings had to go online has been an incredibly rewarding and productive activity, both personally for me, and for the committee. It has really helped us stay connected and improve our interactions with our members which has been our main aim, but to receive this prize from the RSC feels a great recognition for what we’ve done to help promote our area of the chemical sciences. This will help the committee continue to focus on how we can best continue to get the latest molecular spectroscopy science shared with our members as we move towards 2023.
I am delighted to receive this recognition of the hard work and dedication that we have put into coordinating the online seminar series for the last two years. I have enjoyed hearing the wide variety of expert speakers that have helped us keep connected and engaged with our field even during times of isolation and would like to thank them for sharing their science with us. It is a pleasure to host the questions in each session, knowing that participants from all over the world have enjoyed participating and we look forward to continuing the seminar series for the remainder of 2022 and possibly beyond!
It is a fantastic achievement for the MSG committee to receive this award and I was delighted to hear the news. Our seminar series has been brilliant in bringing likeminded individuals from a range of disciplines and countries together at a time when we had never been further apart.