The conference is devoted to
Chemistry is a very important branch of the Ukrainian industry, which provides one of the largest incomes to the country’s budget.
The large part of the chemical industry in Ukraine is large-tonnage, the technologies and equipments of the Ukrainian chemical plants in most cases are out of date.
On the other hand, the trend should be taken into account that Ukraine sees its future in the close cooperation with the European Union.
With a high probability this means that production of the west-European chemical concerns will be gradually moved to the east of Europe.
This will automatically bring new technologies in Ukraine and significantly increase the need for skilled specialists in chemistry.
At the same time, chemistry is a scientific area where Ukrainian scientists, despite the world economic crisis and poor financing from the state, still keep the high competitive ability. Many known Ukrainian chemists actively take part in the educational process as teachers or supervisors. However, the peculiarity of the science in Ukraine is its highly centralized structure, which was inherited by Ukraine from the former Soviet Union. The most research institutes and scientific centers are located in large cities like Kiev or Kharkov. The universities in the region centers are designed for a pedagogical education with a main specialty ‘schoolteacher’. Therefore, the education level in the regions, including the districts with a highly concentrated chemical industry, is significantly lower. This artificial division in the educational field makes the research activity for many gifted and talented young chemists from the province practically impossible.
The proposed Kolleg is forethought in format of a scientific conference and will arouse by these potential young scientists an interest to researches in chemistry and other fields of science in order to prompt them continuing their education in the scientific centers as aspirants (post-graduate). On the other hand, their participation in the conference could help them finding the future supervisors in the field of their interests among the Humboldt-fellows and guests of the action. This is an educational goal of the Kolleg.
In order to provide the highest scientific level for the Humboldt-Kolleg, the students and post-graduates will be accepted as participants of the conference only after a close inspection of their conference theses. Then their reports and posters will be heard by famous German, Ukrainian and foreign experts in chemical sciences. On the other side, the young chemists become a unique chance to become acquainted at the highest level from the first hands with scientific achievements in chemistry, to better imagine their future in research. This is the scientific goal of the Kolleg.
In this connection provides AvHumboldt-Foundation for young scientists a good chance for continuing in Germany at the higher level their scientific investigations in chemistry. After arriving home, as teachers, they could impart the modern chemistry knowledge to the next generation of students. Additionally, chemistry is the scientific field where Ukrainian Humboldt-fellows are well presented, that is why the Kolleg’s organizers consider the popularization of the activity and research programs of the AvHumboldt-Foundation as one of the aspect deserving a special attention. It is especially important in the regions of Ukraine, where the Ukrainian Humbold-Club is not presented yet and the activity of the AvH-Foundation is less known.
The Kolleg’s motto “Chemistry and Life” has a concern in many areas of human life such as foodstuffs, extraction of minerals and production of raw materials, environmental protection and pharmacology. As chemistry in the former soviet states, due to pollution of environment, still has a rather bad reputation, the proposed conference will serve the aim of popularization of the modern “green” chemistry, chemistry of the future. This concept fully agrees with the global humanitarian ideas of Alexander von Humboldt and the scientific heritage of the famous Ukrainian and Russian scientist Volodymyr Vernadsky, whose jubilee we will celebrate in 2013.
The following main subjects are foreseen as four separate sections of the proposed conference:
- Organic chemistry and biochemistry
- Physical, structural and theoretical chemistry
- Inorganic chemistry and geochemistry