Green Chemistry Postgraduate Summer School Online

The organizing committee

The School was held in collaboration with ICGCSD of which all 15 members of the International Scientific Committee belonged, and Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. The Summer School was sponsored by various Organizations that are acknowledged in this article. With their generous contributions, about half of the postgraduate students attending the School, coming from developing countries, have been awarded with a scholarship.

In total, 210 applications were submitted and 180 were considered eligible to attend the school. A strict selection by the members of the International Scientific Committee was made based on the applicants CVs, publications, recommendation letters from their tutor, and their motivations letter to attend the Summer School. The 180 selected post-graduated attendees came from 42 different countries, a diversity nearly matched by the 30 instructors who participated online in the Summer School. Special guest Nobel Prize Jean-Marie Lehn gave his lecture directly before the Closing Ceremony.

The rigorous selection of the participants contributed to form a class of high cultural level students, and who all find themselves at a point of their life where they are ready to invest their talents and scientific know-how in their future professional careers in a mature and responsible way. The top-level and diverse range of topics offered at the Summer School provided the students the chance to look around, exchange scientific knowledge and establish important links with other participants and professors for fruitful joint projects and research activities. This was a real success for this Summer School, as these opportunities will speed up the participants’ careers, as it occurred in former schools.

In fact, five alumni who now occupy important positions in their respective countries came back to the School as instructors: Peter Licence (United Kingdom), Katalin Barta (Austria), Sergey Zinoviev (The Netherlands), Fabio Aricò (Italy) and Aurelia Visa (Romania).All the lectures were recorded and made available on the Green Sciences for Sustainable Development Foundation’s website (www.gssd-foundation.org) for one week after the end of the Summer School. Afterwards, the recordings could be shared with those who request them.

This virtual Summer School was of course more challenging than an event in person: while the students had the opportunity to be connected from everywhere at the same time, it was necessary to keep their attention high; this was possible only by the engagement reached with the scientific quality of the instructors. The engagement of the students in the Summer School activities was secured by involving them in discussions following the lectures and through virtual poster sessions.

A few teachers of the Green Chemistry Postgraduate Summer School 2020

The welcome and opening address was delivered by the chair Pietro Tundo on 6 July 2020. The following five days made for an ambitious program. The main topics of the Summer School were: Exploitation of renewable resources, New reaction pathways, Energy saving, Food safety, Green Chemistry for cultural heritage, Climate Change damages mitigation, and Education. The program was divided in 13 lecture sessions and 7 poster sessions. Every morning before each session a 30-minute period was reserved for sponsors and institutions represented as follows:

1. Tiziana Lippiello, Vice Rector of Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Italy and Representative for International Relations;

2. Christopher Brett, IUPAC President and Professor of Chemistry at University of Coimbra, Portugal;

3. Natalia Tarasova, Member of Governing Board of the International Science Council, Director of Institute of Chemistry and Problems of Sustainable Development, Mendeleev University of Chemical Technology of Russia and Chairholder of UNESCO in Green Chemistry for Sustainable Development, Russia;

4. Andrey Guryev, CEO of PhosAgro, Russia;

5. Zhigang Shuai, Vice President of Chinese Chemical Society, China;

6. Gaetano Guerra, President of Società Chimica Italiana, Italy;

7. Massimiliano De Martin, Councilor of the Municipality of Venice, Italy;

8. Ana Aguiar-Ricardo, President of EuChemS Division on Green and Sustainable Chemistry, Portugal;

9. Buxing Han, Secretary of IUPAC Interdivisional Committee of Green Chemistry for Sustainable Development, China;

10. Mary Kirchhoff, Director of the ACS Green Chemistry Institute, USA;

11. Gaetano Carminati, Senior Technical Expert from the National Authority for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, Italy, Ca’ Foscari;

12. Alessandra Zorzi, Director of Ca’ Foscari Library of Scientific Area, Italy;

13. Fun Man Fung, elected Secretary of the International Younger Chemists Network, Singapore;

14. Martyn Poliakoff, The School of Chemistry, University of Nottingham, UK;

15. Carmine Capacchione, Member of Società Chimica Italiana, Italy;

16. Marco Bella, Professor of Organic Chemistry at La Sapienza University of Rome and Member of Parliament of the Italian Republic in the Chamber of Deputies, Italy.

After each lecture session was 30-minute Q&A session where the moderators select questions from the students and ask the speakers. The students could use the feature to vote the most relevant question to be answered first.

180 post-graduate students from 42 different countries attended the 2020 Green Chemistry Summer School online.

Program by day

First day, 6 July 2020, Pietro Tundo opened the Summer School. The program consisted on 3 lecture sessions and 2 poster sessions. The lecturers of the first day were as follows: Michael Graetzel (Switzerland) Energy Beyond Oil, Solar Cells that Mimic Natural Photosynthesis; Mario Marchionna (Italy) Hydrogen: the Missing Piece of the Zero-Carbon Puzzle?; Giuseppe Mazzitelli (Italy) An affordable and clean energy: nuclear fusion, Emiliano Cazzola (Italy), Green Radiochemistry: dream or reality?; Buxing Han (China) Catalysis in Green Chemistry; Natalia Tarasova (Russia) Green Chemistry within Planetary Boundaries. The moderators of the sessions were: Aurelia Visa (Romania), Fabio Aricò (Italy) and Neil Coville (South Africa).

The second day, 7 July 2020 followed the same template containing 3 lecture sessions and 2 poster sessions. The lecturers of the day were: Haoran Li (China) Aerobic oxidation in vitamin industry; Pietro Tundo (Italy) Reaction mechanism and energy profiles: how Green Chemistry complies with them: The case of Dimethyl Carbonate; Krzysztof Matyjaszewski (USA) Towards green atom transfer radical polymerization; Paul Anastas (USA) The Periodic Table of the elements of green and sustainable chemistry; Aleksander Antonov (Russia) Green Chemistry for life; Klaus Kümmerer (Germany) Design of chemicals and pharmaceuticals for environmental mineralisation; Jane Wissinger (USA) Green Chemistry education: pathway to a sustainable future. The moderators of the sessions were: Buxing Han (China), Christopher Brett (Portugal) and Ana Aguiar-Ricardo (Portugal)

The third day, 8 July 2020, contained 2 lecture sessions and 2 poster sessions. The lecturers of the day were: Konstantinos Triantafyllidis (Greece) Adding value to biorefinery and pulp industry side-streams. Lignin valorization to fuels, chemicals and polymers; Peter Licence (United Kingdom) Chemistry in-vacuo: Suck it and see!; Zhimin Liu (China) Ionic Liquids-catalyzed chemical reactions, Philip Jessop (Canada) CO₂-Switchable Materials; Fabio Aricò (Italy) Bio-based platform chemicals and dialkyl carbonates: synthesis, functionalization and applications; Katalin Barta (Austria) Cleave and couple: embracing complexity in renewable resources. The moderators of the sessions were: Katalin Barta (Austria), Neil Coville (South Africa), Florent Allais (France) and Mary Kirchhoff (USA)

The fourth day, 9 July 2020, program consisted in 3 lecture sessions and 1 poster session. The lecturers of the day were: Marco Eissen (Germany) Synthesis design with mass related metrics and health metrics; Francesco Trotta (Italy) Exploitation of renewable resources in Chemistry; Sergey Zinoviev (The Netherlands) Green Chemistry in the context of the chemical weapons convention, its contribution to chemical safety and security and the peaceful uses of chemistry; Jonathan Forman (USA) Chemical disarmament, non-proliferation, and security. Is there a role for green and sustainable chemistry?; Ferruccio Trifirò (Italy) The elimination of toxic reagents to realize a sustainable chemistry; Mary Kirchhoff (USA); Liliana Mammino (South Africa) The study of molecules and the design of substances: interfaces between green chemistry and computational chemist. The moderators of the sessions were: Aurelia Visa (Romania), Gloria Obuzor (Nigeria), Philip Jessop (Canada) and Jane Wissinger (USA)

Poster winner awardees

The fifth day, 10 July 2020, program consisted on 2 lecture sessions and the closing ceremony. The lecturers of the day were: Oliver Kappe (Austria) Going with the flow – The use of continuous processing in organic synthesis; Florent Allais (France) Biomass upgrading through the combination of biotechnology, Green Chemistry and downstream process; James Clark (United Kingdom) Bio-based Solvents and their selection; Jean-Marie Lehn, Nobel Price in 1987 in Chemistry for the synthesis of Cryptands: innovation in the field of supramolecular chemistry (France) Perspectives in Chemistry: Molecular – Supramolecular – Adaptive Chemistry. The moderators of the sessions were: Konstantinos Triantafyllidis (Greece), Neil Coville (South Africa) and Pietro Tundo (Italy).

Poster sessions

A significant number of young scientists, 60 students, had the opportunity to expose their poster in 7 poster sessions from Monday to Thursday. The poster sessions were considered a highlight of the Summer School. The student contributions were scientifically noticeable and often original. The way of sharing their research with the other attendees and the interest and curiosity shown by the participants was a real benefit. Each student was allowed to talk on his/her own poster for 5 minutes. Out of these presentations, six posters were awarded.

The jury for poster awards included Neil Coville, Ana Aguiar-Ricardo, Mary Kirchhoff, Gloria Obuzor, and Aurelia Visa. To select the winners was a very hard job, taking into account the high number of very good presentations.

Poster winner awards & closing ceremony

During the poster awarding ceremony six participants were awarded for their posters and each gave a 10-minute presentation on their work.

The 6 winners were:

1. Carlos Alberto Da Silva Junior (Brazil) Teaching Green Chemistry to deaf students: a Brazilian case study;

2. Melissa Greta Galloni (Italy) Iron functionalised hydroxyapatites as efficient eco-friendly catalysts for air-quality protection;

3. Tafadzwa Precious Mabate (South Africa) Inorganic-perovskite catalyzed transfer hydrogenation reaction of cinnamaldehyde using glycerol as a hydrogen donor

4. Li-Qi Qiu (China) Highly efficient visible light-driven rhenium catalysis for CO₂ Reduction through second-sphere-modification strategy,

5. Kristy Stanley (Ireland) Effect of Ni NP morphology on catalyst performance in non-thermal plasma-assisted dry reforming of methane;

6. Kevin Weibel (Germany) A more sustainable and highly practicable synthesis of aliphatic isocyanides.

The Closing Remarks were given by Christopher Brett, IUPAC President, Ana Aguiar-Ricardo, President of EuChems Division on Green Chemistry, and by members of the Summer School Organizing Committee: Fabio Aricò, Paula De Waal, Elena Alfine and Aurelia Visa. The final remarks were given by the Chair, Pietro Tundo. At the end of the closing ceremony a group photo with all the participants of the Summer School, including teachers and students, were taken.

Photos can be found on the Green Sciences for Sustainable Development Foundation’s website (www.gssd-foundation.org) as well as the proceeding of the Summer School. After the Summer School, all participants have received a certificate of attendance.

Conclusions

Basic sciences are needed now more than before, as they are the pillars of our growth. While we pay attention to the increasing emission of CO₂ and the increasing number of new chemical compounds that are spreading in the environment, it is difficult to foresee an end to this sinister and destructive trend. Nature is not in a hurry, but humankind is: we must keep in high consideration the consequences of our rapid industrial development. A new partnership is necessary among academic, governmental and industrial researchers, to share scientific bases and to cooperate in the management of sustainable development issues.

The outcomes and the success of this online Summer School will pave the way for the next Summer Schools which will be held in person in Venice; the Green Sciences for Sustainable Development Foundation will support and follow the activities of this relevant initiative.

Overall, the experience we made during the first online Summer School and the student feedbacks are very positive.

Acknowledgments

The Summer School was the first international initiative organized and managed by the new-born Green Sciences for Sustainable Development Foundation (www.gssd-foundation.org), a non-profit Foundation based in Venice, Italy.

The event was endorsed by IUPAC and Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, the Italian National Commission for UNESCO Roma, the Ministero dell’Ambiente e della Tutela del Territorio e del Mare, the GREENOMIcS UNESCO/UNITWIN Network, the Municipality of Venice and ENEA.

The Summer School was sponsored by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, PhosAgro Russia, Kaimei Technology Co. Ltd. China, the European Chemical Society, the American Chemical Society/Green Chemistry Institute, the International Young Chemists Network, ICAS International, the Royal Society of Chemistry, and GreeNovator.

In 2021 this school will continue with the 13th Edition of the Post-graduate Summer School on Green Chemistry that will be held from 4-10 July 2021 in Venice (www.greenchemistry.school) - both on site and on-line modalities - organized by the Green Sciences for Sustainable Development Foundation (www.gssd-foundation.org). As before, the event is realized in tight collaboration with the IUPAC Interdivisional Committee on Green Chemistry for Sustainable Development ICGCSD (https://iupac.org/body/041) and the Venice Ca’ Foscari University (www.unive.it).