President's Letter - July 2021
Written by Dr Susan Northfield, MRACI
Published 9 July 2021
Dear RACI Victorian Branch community,
What a difference a month makes. As we continue to ease COVID-19 restrictions, New South Wales are in a situation we are all too familiar with in Victoria. Like many of you, I have friends, family, and colleagues in NSW, and I wish them all the best for an end to their lockdown as soon as safely possible. Please consider reaching out to those you know in NSW – we know from experience it can make a difference. I’ll be doing the same.
Though we haven’t yet transitioned back to face-to-face events yet, I am very excited to remind you that the CHEM2021 conference is being hosted by the branch on Zoom next week on July 12th and 13th! This conference has been over 18 months in the planning and has been organised by a group of extremely hard-working early and mid-career chemists on the Branch Committee. This event is open for anyone and everyone and will feature both oral and poster presentations from early to mid-career chemists from a broad range of chemistry disciplines. We are proud to be hosting this event and invite you to follow the event hashtag #CHEM2021 on Twitter for follow the event.
Also being held next week is our Branch Trivia Night, which will be on the evening of Tuesday July 13th. There’s still time for you to register for the Trivia Night via the event page on our website. Once again this is an event open to everyone, and we hope it will provide some fun for members and non-members alike!
On the topic of memberships, a reminder that if you have not yet renewed your membership for this financial year, please arrange your renewal ASAP. Any questions can be directed to our membership officer at the RACI office at [email protected].
I am delighted to advise that the Victorian Branch Awards for 2021 are now open for applications. The Awards have undergone a bit of a makeover this year. We have new application forms and have created a new Award by turning the ‘Supervisor of the Year’ Award into two categories - one for early-mid career chemists, and another for established career chemists. This has been done to allow applications to be more easily assessed relative to opportunity. There is a total of ten Awards on offer for 2021– eight are for individuals and two for our RACI VIC Groups. Applications are open until September 16th and you can either self-nominate or nominate a colleague. Visit the website to view all the Awards on offer.
Finally, it is timely this month to mention that we are just under a year away from the next RACI National Congress event. The event is named “Chemistry: Catalysing solutions to Global Challenges” and will be held in Brisbane from July 3 – 8, 2022. More details will be announced in the coming months but I encourage you to visit and bookmark their website to stay informed.
Best wishes to you all!
Dr Susan Northfield
RACI VIC Branch President
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