Every two years, the Working Party on History of Chemistry (WPHC) of EuChemS organizes an international conference on the history of chemistry (ICHC), open to colleagues from all over the world. 13ICHC2023 was organized as a joint conference of the 13th International Conference on the History of Chemistry (ICHC) and the 2nd Jędrzej Śniadecki Memorial Conference “Frontiers in Molecular Life Sciences” in Vilnius, Lithuania. The local organizers were the Lithuanian Chemical Society (LChD), the Lithuanian Biochemical Society and the Faculty of Chemistry and Geosciences of Vilnius University (https://www.ichc2023vilnius.chgf.vu.lt/). About 180 participants from over 20 countries from the whole world attended the conference. Lithuania’s involvement with the WPHC of the EuChemS dates back to the 1990s. It is a historical event for LChD – the first international conference organized as an official member of EuChemS.
The Lithuanian Chemical Society was initially founded in 1959 and re-established in 2017. LChD aims to promote interest in chemistry, publicize and present chemistry and chemical technology to the public, develop relations with scientists from other countries, and organize conferences and seminars. Currently, the LChD unites 107 members from different Lithuanian scientific and educational institutions representing different areas of chemistry. Since 2023, the LChD has been an official member of EuChemS.
During the 13ICHC2023, a commemorative plaque dedicated to the famous Lithuanian and European chemist, physician and Vilnius University professor Jędrzej Śniadecki (1768-1838) was unveiled on the wall of the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport of the Republic of Lithuania. Prof. J. Śniadecki started to teach chemistry in 1797 and was the first head of the Department of Chemistry (est. 1797) at Vilnius University. Prof. J. Śniadecki issued the first textbook of the chemistry of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1800. He also published a book “Theory of Organic Beings” which is likely to be the first book on the fundamentals of biochemistry.
We appreciate Thermo Fisher Scientific Baltics Inc., the Science History Institute, the Center for Physical Sciences and Technology, the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry, the Commission on the History of Chemistry and Molecular Sciences, EuChemS, the Institut Francais Lituanie, the Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences, the VU Life Science Center and Library and R&R Baranauskas for the financial support to organizing the events.
