CfP: 13th International Conference on History of Chemistry (ICHC), Vilnius 18-22 May 2021

Since 1991, when the first meeting was organized in Veszprem (Hungary), the Working Party on the History of Chemistry (WPHC) of the European Chemical Society (EuChemS) organizes an international conference on the history of chemistry, open to colleagues from all over the world. Thirty years later, the 13rd International Conference on History of Chemistry (13ICHC) will be held in Vilnius (Lithuania), from the 18th to the 22nd of May 2021. See:

The ICHC aims to bring together historically interested chemists, chemistry educators and historians of chemistry from all over Europe and beyond. For more information on the WP, see the website:

The conference will be hosted by Vilnius University (established in 1579), in the premises of the old city. The Department of Chemistry was established in 1797, still holding a position of one of the most popular departments at the University. The conference will include scientific sessions, key-note lectures, the WP business meeting, a poster session as well as social events such as excursions, receptions, and a conference dinner banquet. It is a pleasure to inform that the plenary lectures by Marta Lourenço (Director of the National Museum of Natural History and Science of Lisbon), Rimantas Vaitkus (President of the Lithuanian Chemical Society), and Rimvydas Baranauskas (Prime Partners), are already approved, and other keynote speakers will be announced soon. Some useful information on the city, the excursion organised on 22 May 2021 to Kernavė and the Trakai History Museum, and accommodation can be found on the conference website, and the Facebook page.


The 13ICHC in Vilnius will be organised in conjunction with the Belorussian-Lithuanian-Polish Jędrzej Sniadecki Memorial Conference “Frontiers in Molecular
Life Sciences” – JSMC2021. Jędrzej Sniadecki was the first head of Chemistry Department at Vilnius University (during 1797–1822). The conference JSMC2021 will continue to commemorate the 250th anniversary of Sniadecki's birth.

Important Dates*:
-Deadline for submitting proposals: 1 December 2020
- Notification of acceptance: January 2021
-Provisional program: Early February 2021
-Final program: April 2021
-Conference dates: 18th to the 22nd of May 2021.
*Due to the worldwide sanitary crisis, it might be necessary to alter some of these dates at a later stage.

Proposal guidelines:
The Steering Committee encourages the submission of panel/session proposals, but also accepts the submission of stand-alone papers. The 13ICHC welcomes proposals on any topic on the history of chemistry, broadly understood, including historical works on molecular sciences, life sciences, industry, technology, and education. We will also welcome papers on the teaching of history of chemistry, in order to reach out to the wider community and to the younger generation.

All proposals must be in English, the language of the conference. Submitted abstracts and session proposals (max. 200 words) will be subject to review by an international Advisory Committee. Sessions should include about 3–5 papers, and no more than one session can be proposed by the same organizer. There is a limit of one paper per presenter (including the papers listed inside a panel or a session). All paper proposals must use the templates provided on the conference web site.

The Steering Committee consists of Ernst Homburg, Maastricht University, and Ignacio Suay-Matallana, IILP-Universidad Miguel Hernández, (chairs of the Steering Committee), Brigitte Van Tiggelen, Science History Institute, (chair of the WPHC), and Rimantas Vaitkus, Vilnius University, (co-chair of the Local Organising Committee, president of the Lithuanian Chemical Society).