Prestigious science honour for Bourne

University of Cape Town (UCT) Interim Dean of Science Professor Susan Bourne has been honoured with a prestigious Distinguished Women in Chemistry award from the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC).

Announced on 11 February to mark the 2019 International Day of Women and Girls in Science, the awards programme was created to acknowledge and promote the work of women chemists and chemical engineers worldwide.

Bourne was among 12 awardees, selected based on excellence in basic or applied research, distinguished accomplishments in teaching or education, or for having demonstrated leadership or managerial excellence in the chemical sciences.

“The awards programme was created to acknowledge and promote the work of women chemists and chemical engineers worldwide.”

Boosting gender equality

The awards ceremony will take place during the IUPAC World Chemistry Congress in Paris, France, in July, coinciding with a special symposium on Women in Chemistry and a reception in honour of the recipients.

The International Day of Women and Girls in Science is a global day celebrating achievement and promoting full and equal access to and participation in science for women and girls. The day also marks a call to action to boost gender equality even further, and to effect the empowerment of women and girls.

The IUPAC is the world authority on chemical nomenclature and terminology, including the naming of new elements in the periodic table, on standardised methods for measurement, and on atomic weights and many other critically-evaluated data.

The union has also, for almost a century, contributed to the diverse and interdisciplinary field of chemistry, uniting chemists worldwide and fulfilling their mission by fostering sustainable development, providing a common language for chemistry, and advocating the free exchange of scientific information.