Peter Kündig is the New SCS President

Peter Kündig is Full Professor at the Department of Organic Chemistry at the University of Geneva. He became member of the SCS Committee (Vorstand) in 2008. Kündig thanked Frater for his achievements for the Swiss Chemical Society, notably the creation of the SCS Foundation, which was set up in 2008. The Foundation has raised over half a million Swiss francs by end of last year. It funds science projects, particularly in the field of chemistry. Former ETH Zurich Organic Chemistry Professors Duilio Arigoni and Albert Eschenmoser were awarded SCS Honorary Membership for their extraordinary and fundamental achievements in the chemical sciences. Eschenmoser cited Arigoni to illustrate their long-lasting friendship by saying that in some instances, one plus one is more than two... Maurice Cosandey, a retired high school teacher, was awarded the SCS Medal for his outstanding achievements in stimulating the young generation for chemistry. Cosandey thanked the SCS by performing an after-dinner song, "le jardin extraordinaire" by Charles Trenet, with a modified text that expressed his own love for chemistry. MER Dr Sandrine Gerber (EPFL) received the Werner Price, awarded annually to a promising young scientist for outstanding independent chemical research. The award ceremony was part of this year's SCS Spring Meeting, entitled "Functional Nanostructures: From Condensed Phases To Surfaces". The well attended conference was organized by Thomas Wandlowski, Peter Broekmann and Silvio Decurtins from the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Bern (see http://www.scg.ch/events/event.cfm?ID=121&ar=1).