The Royal Flemish Chemical Society
The Royal Flemish Chemical Society (KVCV) is a professional organisation for all chemists studying/working in Flanders, regardless of their degree. By organising and supporting scientific events, KVCV aims to build a bridge between education, industry and community. To popularize science among youngsters, KVCV assists in the organisation of the annual Chemistry Olympiad and chemistry-related activities for secondary school students.
KVCV consists of several subdivisions, one of them being “Jong-KVCV”. This division, driven by young enthusiastic chemists focusses its attention mainly on young chemists. Each year, Jong-KVCV organises several lectures, visits to chemical companies and participates in larger events organised by KVCV. Because the board of Jong-KVCV mainly consists of PhD students and young post-docs, other students or colleague students can easily come into contact with the society. Apart from the regular lectures and activities, Jong-KVCV organises a chemistry conference tailored to young chemists (formerly Flemish Youth Conference of Chemistry, now renamed to ChemCYS) every two years.
History of ChemCYS
1976: First record of the Young Chemists Day organised by the Flemish Chemical Society.
1992: Jong-KVCV organises its first one-day symposium: the Flemish Youth Conference of Chemistry.
1994-2008: Number of participants grew rapidly.
2010: English was introduced as the conference language and the conference was turned into a two-day symposium with an overnight stay.
2012: The conference was renamed to ChemCYS - Chemistry Conference for Young Scientists.
2014: The internationalisation set in motion in 2010 was accelerated as ChemCYS was officially endorsed by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) and the European Chemical Society (EuChemS).
2016: To accommodate the increasing amount of participants, ChemCYS was extended with a third day and relocated to the Floréal Conference Centre.
2018: ChemCYS welcomes it's first Nobel prize winner: Prof. Dr. Ben Feringa.
2022: Due to the uncertainties of the pandemic we joined forces with Chemical Research in Flanders (CRF). A special edition of ChemCYS was the result: CRF-ChemCYS 2022.
Facts & Figures
The ChemCYS conference typically attracts around 300 participants, the conference is well attended by researchers from academia, research centers and a number of industrial representatives (chemical and life sciences). Due to the increased visibility associated with an official endorsement by IUPAC and EuCheMS, ChemCYS has moved international, welcoming participants from over 30 different countries.
The target audience of the conference, with respect to active participation (poster or oral communication), are young scientists working on a PhD and early postdocs, but master students have the opportunity to present their results as well.