Research and Innovations in Chemical Science: Paving the Way Forward

The Computational Chemistry Group of the University of Mauritius (CCUoM) [1] is involved in carrying out research using computational chemistry methods to solve chemistry and interdisciplinary problems. Apart from research work, CCUoM started a virtual conference on computational chemistry and its applications in 2013 (VCCC-2013) [2] and some of us shared our first experience on the organization of the virtual event [3]. After organizing VCCC for three consecutive years, the topics of the virtual conference were extended to other scientific fields using computational methods and thus, an annual virtual conference on computational science (VCCS) was organized for four years. In these virtual conferences, different aspects of a traditional face-to-face conference were maintained, such as a website for the event, call for abstracts, abstract submission, reviewing of abstracts, book of abstracts, presentations, certificate of participation, conference programme, call for full papers, and publication of the proceedings. The salient features of these virtual conferences were that they took place during the whole month of August, there was no live presentation, a nominal registration fee was applicable, free registration was also possible, there was an online platform for scientific interactions, and a virtual cultural day was held on the last day. There have always been good responses for these virtual conferences with an average of 30 presentations and 100 participants from 25 countries. After each virtual conference, a survey was conducted and the feedback was helpful in improving on subsequent virtual events.

VCCS-2020 was planned for August 2020 but alas, there was the outbreak of COVID-19 in December 2019. On 19 March 2020, the Government of the Republic of Mauritius announced a complete lockdown in Mauritius. In light of this, we decided to apply the experience and feedback that we gathered from our previous virtual conferences and broadened the range of topics to include chemistry and interdisciplinary science subjects so as to promote scientific give-and-take while the world was confined. By broadening the list of topics, we also provided more diverse opportunities for the increasing number of participants that our virtual conferences were attracting over the years. These resulted into the birth of the virtual conference on chemistry and its applications (VCCA-2020). A formal endorsement request was sent to IUPAC. The request was successfully approved which makes VCCA-2020 the first virtual conference that was endorsed by IUPAC. In addition, we collaborated with other international institutions, namely the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), Springer, the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) and Elsevier, which eagerly supported VCCA-2020 and played an important role in promoting the virtual conference. OPCW sponsored the participation of seventy participants from Sub-Saharan Africa.

As we were preparing for VCCA-2020, the scientific community kept research dissemination and networking ongoing as a result of the surge in virtual conferences [4, 5, 6]. In fact, most of the conferences were transitioned to online events [7, 8, 9, 10].Virtual conferences offer possibilities which fit the changing needs of the new era of COVID-19; for instance, researchers may attend a conference while abiding by the travel restrictions and social distancing measures [11].Moreover, virtual conferences provide a more inclusive platform for scientific discussions whereby researchers from laboratories and institutions with limited funding can participate [12, 13].

The starting points of VCCA-2020 were the setting up of the international advisory committee and the website (https://sites.uom.ac.mu/vcca2020/). The international advisory committee consisted of twenty-two members from twenty-one countries. Four Nobel Laureates, namely Robert Huber (1988 Nobel Prize Winner in Chemistry), Sir Richard Roberts (1993 Nobel Prize Winner in Physiology or Medicine), Ada Yonath (2009 Nobel Prize Winner in Chemistry) and Jean-Pierre Sauvage (2016 Nobel Prize Winner in Chemistry), accepted our invitation to participate in VCCA-2020. We also extended our invitation to prominent scientists who agreed to participate and they were considered as keynote speakers. Simultaneously, we proceeded with a call for abstracts.

Ponnadurai Ramasami poses with a picture of Erwin Rudolf Josef Alexander Schrödinger, who was celebrated with a series of events during the virtual conference

The deadline for the submission of abstracts was 22 June 2020 and a total of 194 abstracts were obtained from 46 countries. These abstracts were reviewed and 190 of them were accepted. The corresponding authors were then notified about a decision on their submitted abstracts. They were also aked to complete their registration and submit their presentations by the 20 July 2020. The registration fee was kept nominal and the major costs were associated with logistics and administrative purposes. It is worth pointing out that compared to our previous virtual conferences, we reduced the registration fee in order to broaden participation so as to keep the momentum going in terms of scientific collaboration and stay up to date on the latest research as the world was on lockdown. Nevertheless, a participant could register for free and access all the contents.

The participants were encouraged to submit video presentations of 20-30 minutes and guidelines were provided, although presentations in PDF and PowerPoint formats were also accepted. Ultimately, there were fifty video presentations. To the best of our knowledge, most of the virtual conferences consist of live presentations and we wanted to overcome the geographic limitation and technical challenges. Thus, we did not host any live presentation during VCCA-2020 and all presentations were available on the website as from the first day of the virtual conference.. As such, VCCA-2020 can be considered as flexible as participants were able to view or download presentations at their own convenience.

Christopher Brett, president of IUPAC, was the first speaker of VCCA-2020 with a presentation entitled IUPAC: Its Global Role and Activities (view recording at https://youtu.be/1fgVj_2XNsg). The virtual conference was concluded with two keynote presentations entitled An Inclusive Chemistry Community by Ale Palermo from RSC and Supporting Research Continuity: Elsevier Research Solutions by Khalid M. Shalan from Elsevier.

Based on our previous experience with virtual conferences and our technical know-how, we used the free Web Wiz platform for the online discussion although several virtual conferencing software are now readily available with significant cost. Once a participant posted a question, query, or comment on the Web Wiz platform, all other participants were notified by email. All the posts on the online discussion platform were moderated to better control the flow of discussion. However, questions/comments/queries which were not relevant were not approved and therefore, not posted. In such cases, we privately contacted the participant to inform them the reasons. It was important for us to moderate the posts so as to avoid insignificant notifications which were sent by emails to all registered participants.

As part of VCCA-2020, 12 August 2020 was marked as Schrödinger Day. We also marked the International Youth Day. The events were celebrated as part of the 75^th anniversary of the United Nations. Schrödinger Day is in recognition toErwin Rudolf Josef Alexander Schrödinger for his birth anniversary. Erwin Schrödinger was born on 12 August 1887 and he bagged the 1933 Nobel Prize in Physics for the formulation of the Schrödinger equation. One of the aspects of Computational Chemistry involves solving the Schrödinger equation numerically.

International Youth Day is commemorated every year on 12 August and the theme for 2020 was “Youth Engagement for Global Action.” The programme of the day was held online using Zoom with 300 participants. In the morning session, The Vice-Prime Minister, Minister of Education, Tertiary Education, Science and Technology, Honourable Leela Devi Dookun-Luchoomun addressed the participants and focused on the need for capacity building. Jean-Pierre Sauvage, 2016 Nobel Prize Winner in Chemistry and Hayat Sindi, Scientific Advisory Board Member of the United Nations also intervened in the morning session. The afternoon research capacity building session was conducted by Lydia Rhyman from the Computational Chemistry Group and Khalid M. Shalan from Elsevier Africa. Participation for the event on 12 August was free but participants had to register and a certificate of participation was provided through an automated process. The participants were also offered complimentary access by Elsevier to use Reaxys for one month. A survey was conducted, and most appreciated the event although some mentioned that the afternoon session should extend for more than one day.

VCCA-2020 reached a successful end on 31 August 2020. A total of 401 participants registered for the virtual conference. To mark the one-month long event, on the last day, we hosted a virtual cultural day on the Web Wiz forum where participants were encouraged to share videos highlighting the culture, music, food and interesting places from their respective countries. Moreover, there was the announcement of three best presentations which were decided by independent juries. Cash prizes were offered and sponsored by the organizing committee of VCCA-2020 and ICTP. Springer also offered book vouchers to the winners. The awardees for VCCA-2020 are:

Y. Ganga-Sah; Synthesis of Sterically Congested Chiral 2,2’-Bi(adamantyl)-Based Alcohol and AminesO. Holtomo; Radiative Forcing Efficiency of the Stereoisomers cis- and trans-CHCl=CH-CF₃ in the DFT FrameworkS. Kundu; Synthesis of N-Methylated Amides Utilizing Methanol

After the end of VCCA-2020, a survey was carried out among the participants to gain feedback (previous page) and 25 % of them responded. According to the survey, most of the participants came to know about VCCA-2020 through peers, email, and the internet, which indicates that VCCA-2020 was well advertised and promoted. The overall feedback about the Web Wiz forum was positive, while 2 % of the participants found the forum confusing. We thus deduced that scientific discussions through the Web Wiz forum were effective. In general, the feedback for VCCA-2020 was positive. 70% of the participants attended a virtual conference for the first time, which reflects the rise of virtual conferences in the COVID-19 era. A majority of the participants qualified the book of abstracts which was circulated and the organizing committee as helpful and considered video and presentations with audio to be better. Of all the participants who responded, 81 % are interested to participate in VCCA-2021, while the rest have not decided yet.

We noted an increased interest to participate in a virtual conference and this paradigm shift may soon be an integral part of scientific interaction. However, some universities and funding bodies are still reluctant to support and recognize participation in a virtual conference. Another factor that benefits effective and efficient participation in a virtual conference is the technical skill which is required for better virtual presentation and interaction.

The virtual conference was followed by a call for full papers for the conference proceedings. These will be peer-reviewed and will be part of a special issue for Pure and Applied Chemistry and a book to be published by De Gruyter. Currently, the full papers are under review and publications are expected to be completed by mid March 2021.

On a concluding note, the organizing committee would like to thank all the international advisory members, reviewers of abstracts, participants, sponsors and juries for the success of VCCA-2020. The facilities from the University of Mauritius are fully acknowledged.

Based on positive responses to a post-conference survey, organizers are enthusiastic about future virtual events.

The committee is planning for VCCA-2021 which will be held in August 2021.