The Inaugural Frankland Symposium and Lecture 2013

Professor Peter P Edwards FRS, University of Oxford (left) and Professor Nick Long, Sir Edward Frankland BP Professor of Inorganic Chemistry(right)

Held at Imperial College London on 8th May 2013

The inaugural Frankland Symposium was held at Imperial College London on 8th May 2013. The annual meeting has been established to be a celebration of inorganic chemistry at Imperial and around the world, taking inspiration from Sir Edward Frankland, the first 'Inorganic' chemist at the Royal College of Chemistry, later to become Imperial College London, and the many other great Imperial inorganic chemists over the past 150 years.

The event was hosted by Professor Nicholas Long, the current Sir Edward Frankland BP Professor of Inorganic Chemistry, and the inaugural Distinguished Frankland Lecturer was Professor Peter P. Edwards, FRS (University of Oxford) who delivered a lecture entitled "Metal-ammonia solutions: A discovery system for over two centuries".

Over 120 staff and students greatly enjoyed this, alongside supporting lectures from Phil Gale (Southampton), Bernt Krebs (Muenster), Charlotte Williams (Imperial) and James Wilton-Ely (Imperial). Prof. Edwards was presented with a commemorative certificate to mark the occasion. Prof. Edwards noted "I am absolutely delighted - and honoured - to be the inaugural Sir Edward Frankland Lecturer. Frankland has always been one of my academic heroes - a remarkable chemist with outstanding synthetic skills and a deep thinker also!".