This congress was significant as its presents the latest in research, development and innovation relating to the chemical sciences in Malaysia and others part of the world. Besides, this congress was held once time in every two years (biennial) and this year theme was “Research, Innovation, Development and Entrepreneurship in Chemistry: Towards a High Income Economy by 2020”.
The aims of this congress was to exposed the young chemists, undergraduate and postgraduate about the recent research and the successful research that had been done by the researchers or the presenter that will build a high income to an individual and also to the country. Besides that, this scientific programme concern towards the issues of sustainable development, climate change, food safety and security, and energy and water crisis and hoped that through this congress the problem will be solve and provide the solutions.
Furthermore, this programme had attracted more than 300 participants all around the world include of undergraduates and postgraduates and especially eminent scientists as speakers. The oral presentations that will be given by the speakers include of theoretical chemistry, environmental green chemistry, food and medicinal chemistry, materials and polymers, biomolecular chemistry and computational chemistry.
INPUTS OF 16th MALAYSIAN CHEMICAL CONGRESS (MCC)
Throughout this chemical congress, there were some input I gained during the session that can be applied in my final project and future research. Firstly, the vital thing that I got from this programme is the ways how to communicate with other people who were an eminent scientists and postgraduate chemists respectively. There were many session such as robinson memory lecture and plenary speakers, keynote and presentation session.
The first presenter for memory and plenary session, Michael Norman Royston Ashfold, from University of Bristol, had given an extraordinary speech which was unraveling the growth mechanism for diamond by chemical vapour deposition. Diamond was an ultimate engineered material which were hardest, highest elastic modulus, stiffest, less compressible, and highest thermal conductivity (300K).
Besides that, the last speaker for plenary session had attracted so many participants to give full attention about the research had been done by her about the contribution of chemistry in food – emphasis on food safety. She is the professor at UPM. Her research focused on the regular type of food that had been eaten by Malaysian people and she discovered that the fish called “ikan tongkol” have the highest of mercury content. Thus, she advises for people to take this type of fish in small amount only if want.
In addition, from this scientific programme the fields that I thought attracted me a lot were environmental green chemistry (EGC) and materials and polymer chemistry (MPC). The title for MPC is Distribution and Characterization of Surfactants in Atmosphere from Natural and Anthropogenic Sources. The speaker for this research was Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mohd Talib from UKM. This research study conveyed about the new discovery in atmosphere known as particulate matter (PM10) or specific name was surfactants. Surfactants have the potential in influencing the global climate because it capable to alter the physical and chemical properties of aerosol.
Furthermore, the most experience professor who is the representative of UTM, Prof. Marsin Sanagi delivered such an informative and creative research. He carried out the research about the liquid phase microextraction (LPME) for the analysis of water pollutions. What made this so creative was the shape of the LPME bottle sample was inspired based on the shape of ice – cream cone. This method has emerged as powerful tool to pre – concentrate compounds from aqueous sample prior to chromatographic and electrophoretic analysis besides to minimize the traditional liquid – liquid extraction (LLE) method.
On the other hand, for organic and biomolecular chemistry (BMC) field, the speaker was a lecturer from UPM; Bimo A. Tejo had presented his novelty about the synthesis of structure – functions of antifreeze peptides from Leucosporidium antarticum protein. The research study focused on the antifreeze activity of short peptides derived from the sequences of L.antarticum antifreeze proteins. This study was inspired when the researchers observed that fish, insect, plant, bacteria and fungi in Antarctic are able to survive in an extreme habitat or sub – zero temperature. Through this study the researchers found that the antifreeze in the microorganism made them able to survive.
Finally, the representative from UTM for organic and biomolecular chemistry, Dr Bakri Bakar had deliver such a wonderful presentation because he had come with his research about the synthetic strategies in porphyrin chemistry. This research study had been done during his PHD which finished last year. The research was about the how to synthesis the porphyrin through the simple and modest method since there were some ways to synthesis it and one of the method was condensation. The applications of porphyrin include of photoactive molecular devices, electro – optic materials and in photodynamic cancer therapy.
ADVANTAGES OF THIS SCIENTIFIC PROGRAMME
1. This congress such a good programme for undergraduates’ students because its expose us with the current research and also the ways to deal to other people such as an expert or experience scientists.
2. From this congress also, there so many new knowledge for fresh graduates because its shown us how to present our research in front of educated or experience people like scientists and professors and also how to answer the questions uttered by the audience.
3. It trained us how to do the research in the right ways and to apply the result of the research in real world or industrial field.
RECOMMENDATIONS
From this programme I would like to recommend a few things to the faculty and department of chemistry such as:
· 1. Give an opportunity for undergraduates students to participate in the chemical congress so that they will be exposed to the world of research.
· 2. Hopefully, there are more undergraduates student will be chosen to attend this kind of programme, because this programme will make the students in what field they want to do the research, either in the environmental, organic and biomolecular, polymer, inorganic and etc.
Students were sponsored by Malaysian Chemistry Institute, Lee Foundation and Faculty of Science UTM
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