The chemical, molecular, and material sciences are grounded in practical learning and experimentation. Throughout history, humans have interacted with and modified the physical and organic world, gaining a profound understanding of matter and life over various time scales. Knowledge has empowered us to exert significant influence over our environment. However, this power entails great responsibility and has given rise to ecological sensibility. In the field of chemistry, for example, the emergence of Green Chemistry, Environmental Chemistry, and Sustainable Chemistry are prominent examples of how ecological awareness has permeated policies, industries, and research. Further scientific spin-off disciplines have developed while our awareness of anthropogenic impact has either increased or been challenged.
Our session aims to investigate the connection between knowledge and environmental preservation in engineering, life, earth, and material sciences, often employing chemical and molecular methodologies. We invite scholars to submit papers that examine examples of implicit and explicit interactions between scientific research and sustainable thought in the last 400-plus years. This spans a wide array of branches and subfields within industry and science: geology, petrology, hydrogeology, palaeontology, archaeology, climatology, soil science, mining, botany, forestry, and other subfields interconnected with environmental research.
Please submit a title and an abstract, limited to a maximum of 250 words, to Christopher Halm (christopher.halm@ur.de) and Marcin Krasnodębski (marcin.krasnodebski1@gmail.com), along with a brief biographical description (50-150 words), by 19 December 2023. We especially encourage submissions from graduate students, early-career scholars, and contingent faculty. Limited funding will be available to assist with conference participation costs for early-career and independent scholars.
The symposium is organized by Christopher Halm, Marcin Krasnodębski, and Brigitte Van Tiggelen and is sponsored by the Commission on the History of Chemistry and Molecular Sciences (CHCMS) and the Working Party on the History of Chemistry of the European Chemical Society (EuChemS).