Queen’s University recently hosted two significant international gatherings of chemistry researchers.

More than 150 scientists whose research interests involve the chemical element boron and its compounds travelled to Queen’s for the biggest-ever Boron in the Americas (BORAM) conference June 25-28. Held for the first time ever outside of the United States, the conference provided a forum for researchers to share their discoveries and ideas in boron-related chemistry with other scientists and partners. BORAM also gives students and post-doctoral researchers the opportunity to discuss their work with faculty members and industry representatives.

Queen’s Professor Suning Wang, a leader in the field of boron research, organized the conference with assistance from Professors Cathleen Crudden and Victor Snieckus. The conference featured 57 oral presentations and 55 poster presentations as well as several networking events on campus and around Kingston.

One day following the BORAM conference, Drs. Wang and Crudden hosted the inaugural Canada-Japan-Germany joint symposium, where researchers presented their latest discoveries related to catalysis and materials chemistry based on main-group elements. Seven research teams from Japan, three from Germany, and four from Queen’s gave 19 oral presentations in total at the symposium, which received support from the Queen’s Research Opportunities Fund.

This joint symposium developed as a result of the research network established between Nagoya University, Kyoto University, Münster University, Technische Universität Berlin and Queen’s. The research networks serves to facilitate joint research activity and support student exchanges to partner laboratories to gain valuable international experience.