Mendeleev 2024: New horizons for young chemists

On the eve of the conference, Professor Irina Balova, Chair of the Organising Committee and Director of the Institute of Chemistry at St Petersburg University, spoke about the history of the conference, its traditions and new ideas. 

Professor Balova, could you please tell us how the Mendeleev Conference came about?

The idea was born in 2007 during my visit to Bowling Green State University (the USA), where we had a cooperation agreement with the Chemistry Department. I, at that time Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Chemistry at St Petersburg University, was invited to the annual report of students and doctoral students, which was held in the format of a conference. Watching what was going on, I realised how useful such events are for early-career researchers in terms of training their ability to present their results and answer questions. 

At that moment, I decided to organise a similar "workshop" for the University’s students. In the spring of 2007, the first conference of students and doctoral students of the Faculty of Chemistry at St Petersburg University was held. Every year, our sessions grew in size and attracted more and more young people. At first, we were joined by chemists from specialised universities of St Petersburg. In 2012, participants from other cities joined out conference. A few years later, the forum became international. In my opinion, it is now the largest youth platform for chemists in Russia. 

How has the conference changed over the years? Has it developed its own traditions? 

The conference Mendeleev 2024 will take place at St Petersburg University from 2 to 6 September 2024. 

Although the event is not held in the format of an educational conference, we have made it a rule to invite leading foreign scientists, representatives of the Russian Academy of Sciences and heads of research organisations as lecturers. This time, for example, the conference participants will be addressed by: experts from research centres in Brazil and China; Yulia Gorbunova, Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences; Academician Stepan Kalmykov, Vice-President of the Russian Academy of Sciences; Alexander Terent’ev, Director of the Institute of Organic Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences; and Artem Oganov, Professor of Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology. Two other elements that have remained unchanged since 2012 are the topics of the sections and English as the compulsory working language.

However, there will be some innovations at Mendeleev 2024. Together with the staff of the Department of Economics of Enterprise, Entrepreneurship and Innovation at St Petersburg University, we have organised a new section entitled "Economics of the Chemical Industry in the Context of Modern Challenges". It will be complemented by a panel discussion with the participation of leading representatives of academic science, members of the Coordinating Council for Youth Affairs in Science and Education of the Presidential Council of the Russian Federation, and Gazpromneft’s Centre for Industrial Innovation. 

What will this section be devoted to? 

This year, a new direction of the conference will be a dialogue between business and fundamental science. In this way, we want to show students the peculiarities of the modern chemical industry. Nowadays, in order to obtain support for major research projects, the results of which can be used for our own advanced production, we need not only a scientific background, but also an economic justification, so that the proposed concept becomes strategically advantageous for business partners.