UK welcomes the IChO

I am delighted that the 41st International Chemistry Olympiad will be held in Cambridge, UK in 2009. This is the first time that the event has been convened in the UK and I am especially pleased that Cambridge is the chosen venue. Its reputation as a Scientific Centre is unsurpassed and I am very happy to have this opportunity to share the delights of my city with you.

Chemistry remains, as it must, at the very centre of scientific endeavour. It spans the Natural Sciences and provides a basis of so much of the progress in both the physical and life sciences. The International Chemistry Olympiad is second to none in its ability to communicate and explore chemistry with others and provides the ideal forum for a truly international occasion.

-Professor Brian Johnson, President of the 41st IChO

At this time when sustainability is the pre-eminent issue facing the future of mankind, the need for outstanding young scientists - in particular chemists - to solve the plethora of sustainability problems has never been more vital. Recently science has become so intimately cross-disciplinary that fields such as molecular physics and molecular biology, which once appeared rather disparate have coalesced into arguably the most exciting branch of chemistry - much of it re-packaged under a new name - Nanoscience and Nanotechnology. Whatever it is called, it is nothing other than the chemistry of the 21st century.

The Chemistry Olympiad promises to be a powerful catalyst of enthusiasm in bright young people to tackle what are not only vital humanitarian problems but excitingly fundamental scientific ones too. As my colleague the nobel laureate, Sir John Cornforth, has pointed out - "If you are a scientist, before long you realise that if the future is in anyone's hands, it's in yours."

-Professir Sir Harry Kroto, Nobel Laureate and Patron of the 41st IChO