Well a brand new year has already started !
Many years are dedicated to a specific area by the European Commission. For example, 1996 was the European Year of Lifelong Learning and 2001 was the European Year of Languages. 2003 is the European Year of People with Disabilities. Next year is already assigned - 2004 will be the European Year of Education through Sport (2004 is the Olympic year!).

Maybe we should initiate an ECTN Year of .......
2003 could be the ECTN Year of EChemTest. With a dedicated team of computer experts we are seeking to advance rapidly this year, thanks in part to the creation of the ECTN Association.
Do you have any suggestions for an ECTN Year of....? Send them to Pascal Mimero.

This year will be dedicated to new ECTN projects and especially to the EChemTest, as we have been able to incorporate new members in the "IT
taskforce".

ECTN Association

by Anthony Smith

The ECTN Association Administrative Council will be meeting in Lyon, France on 8th February 2003. Please contact Tony Smith immediately if you have anything you would like discussed at this meeting.

L Bad news - the Grundtvig pre-proposal submitted by the Association was not successful. I will be sending the experts comments to Association members in the near future. We have not yet heard about the proposal submitted under the specific call for associations. A reply is expected in the very near future.

J Good news - the pre-proposal for a new 3-year project for the ECTN, 'ECTN3 - The New Generation of Chemists', was successful. We have been invited to submit a full proposal for the March 1st, 2003 deadline. There were a record number of 52 pre-proposals submitted under the Thematic Network action, of which 23 have been invited to make a full proposal. It is expected that 11 or 12 full proposals will be funded, so we still have much work to do.

Tony Smith, Richard Whewell, Hans-Gunther Schmalz, Arne van der Gen, and our host Terry Mitchell, held a preliminary meeting in Dortmund, DE on 25 January 2003, to prepare the full proposal. This will be discussed by the full ECTN Management Committee at their meeting in Lyon, FR on 8th February 2003. If anyone has any suggestions or comments about ECTN3 (contact your ECTN Institutional contact if you have not received a copy of the pre-proposal), please send them to Tony Smith immediately. All contributions will be gratefully received.

The ECTN Management Committee will also be discussing the plenary meeting to be held in Prague (see announcement above). Please note that you can register now for this plenary meeting - a link to the meeting website can be found on the ECTN home page.

As in the past two years, the ECTN will fund the accommodation and subsistence costs for all working group members, and for one person from each ECTN member institution that is not otherwise represented. This meeting is the highlight of the ECTN year, and I hope that you will all attend to make your contribution to our activities. There are a number of new aspects to the meeting this year, one of which is that there will be several plenary lectures. We are expecting that one of these will be given by Ettore Deodato, the person responsible for the Thematic Network programme at the European Commission. He will present his ideas for the future role of thematic networks.

I look forward to seeing you all in Prague.

Working Group Reports

Food Chemistry Report

by Ivonne Delgadillo, University of Aveiro - Portugal (received January 28, 2003)

The aim of the Food Chemistry Group is to set up a Network in Food Chemistry:

To facilitate the student exchange through the Socrates Program

To set up an European Master degree in Food Chemistry, by distance learning.

Read the first report on-line : 2003FoodChemRep.doc / 25 Kb

Image of Chemistry ...

by Hans Guenther Schmalz (received January 31, 2003)

Even though not very visible for the main part of the network so far, a lot of technical work has been done by the Image of Chemistry group. The materials collected and identified are now successively being entered into the frame of the web resource, which has been set up following the organisation scheme developed by the Image of Chemistry group. Even if the site is far from being complete, a first look at www.cheminsight.de may be of interest for various members of ECTN. Please note that the German version is currently more advanced as the English (as a consequence that the students involved in the technical set up of ChemInsight started with their mother tongue). Nevertheless, most of the entries (abstracts) will be translated and made available in the English version as well. Comments and suggestions for further contributions (materials etc) should be send to the leader of the Image group (Hagga Schmalz, Universität zu Köln, Institut für Organische Chemie, Greinstr. 4, D-50939 Köln, schmalz@uni-koeln.de).
Have a look on 2 screenshots (Acrobat format) :

2003IMAGCHEMshot1.pdf (204Kb)

2003IMAGCHEMshot2.pdf (204Kb)

Dissemination, Conference and more

Eurobachelor Application in Germany

from Dietmar Staderman, Iena University - DE (received January 23, 2003)

Prof.Dr.Helga Dunken (Institute of Physical Chemistry) and I compared our new curriculum with the proposals for a Eurobachelor in Chemistry by Terry Mitchell and Richard Whewell. You can find the result as an attachment, click on "2003EUROBACHGERM.pdf" to download the file (61 Kb).

Urgent ! Doctoral fellowship position in Lyon (France)

by Anthony Smith - Advert from the IRC (Catalysis Research Institute) - University Claude Bernard Lyon 1 (received January 27, 2003)

RECHERCHE DE CANDIDATS POUR UNE BOURSE DE THESE
SEEKING DOCTORAL FELLOWSHIP CANDIDATES
(Région Rhône-Alpes / Rhône-Alpes Region)

Sujet : Formulations de solutions de précurseurs de supraconducteurs à haute Tc et de leurs couches tampons pour le dépôt de couches minces par MOD (Metal Organic Deposition)
Subject : Formulation of supraconducting precursor's solutions at high Tc, and their buffer layers for the MOD thin layer deposit.
Read the offer > 2003BourseRA.doc (25 Kb)
Submission deadline : February 8th, 2003

International exchange : Cologne (Germany) and Kabul (Afghanistan).

from Hagga Schmalz, University of Cologne - DE (received January 31, 2003)

The University of Cologne, Germany is engaged in supporting the recovery of the University of Kabul, Afghanistan. An official partnership agreement has recently been signed by the rectors of both institutions. The departments of chemistry and geology are particularly active within this bilateral activity, which is part of a larger program sponsored by the DAAD (the german academic exchange service). After Prof. Hagga Schmalz had visited Kabul university in April 2002, a group of ten chemistry lecturers from Kabul (including two women) came to Cologne in September to participate a four week „summer school“ organized by members of the chemistry department.

It is hard to imagine, how difficult the situation at the University of Kabul has been during the past decade (and still is). Therefore, the participants were very grateful receiving a basic training in general skills such as the use of computers (incl. e-mail and internet), use of the english language for communication etc. A main goal, however, was to overcome the long isolation and to establish some bridges between the cultural spaces. All in all, the summer school was very successful and another group of chemistry lecturers from Kabul will come to Cologne soon.
It should be mentioned that some of the materials developed in the working groups of the ECTN network proved to be of great value for the Afghan colleagues, for instance, the documentation of the curricula on „Core Chemistry“ throughout Europe.

Is ECTN mentionned in other websites ? Citation index ...

from Pascal Mimero (January 2003)
A quick overview of the websites having a link or a webpage dedicated to the ECTN activities or the ECTN global purposes. Using simply an Internet search engine such as Yahoo, Google or Altavista. Please find below some of the answers from official bodies, to Thematic network pages via Journal on Chemical Education ...

Suiss Society of Food and Environmental Chemistry (SGLUC/SSCAE/SSCAA), under the label "Professional Information" at : http://www.sgluc.ch/francais/links.php

CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique / National Center on Scientific Research), under the item "CNRS / INIST / TitaneScience" at : http://www.inist.fr/titanesciences/lienchimieorga.htm

"European Chemistry Thematic network
http://www.cpe.fr/ectn/presentation.html Réseau de départements chimiques européens formant des groupes de travail sur différents thèmes actuels en chimie (législation relative à la sécurité, communication , environnement, enseignement,industrie...). Ce réseau fondé par la Commission Européenne fait partie du programme SOCRATES / ERASMUS. "

Université Paris 7 - Adminet network at http://www.adminet.com/min/uni/JG-ADMINET/P7-INFO000512.html
Report on three years’ activities of ERASMUS Thematic Network Projects / 43 fiches par projet - à voir - format PDF : http://europa.eu.int/comm/education/socrates/tnp/results3y.html

Quelques exemples
EQUAL - European QUALity Link
http://europa.eu.int/comm/education/socrates/tnp/projects/01.pdf
MED-NET - Medical Education and Didactics NETwork
http://europa.eu.int/comm/education/socrates/tnp/projects/06.pdf
ECTN - European Chemistry Thematic Network
http://europa.eu.int/comm/education/socrates/tnp/projects/07.pdf
En français - format PDF - Changer l’Université : le rôle d’accompagnement des Réseaux Thématiques ERASMUS (trois années d’expérience) :http://europa.eu.int/comm/education/socrates/tnp/3yfr.pdf

University of Patras - a special page entitled "An Established Forum for European University Chemists" is dedicated to the ECTN at : http://www.chemistry.upatras.gr/dep/announcements/ectn/ECTN.htm - Abstract in English (.doc) ; full version in greek (.doc)

TNTEN - Thematic Network on Teacher Education in Europe website at : http://tntee.umu.se/links/erasmusprojects.html

TEBE - And from another Thematic Network website ... on TEBE (Teaching Biology at European Level) led by our colleague and friend Prof. Maria-Pia Viola-Magni (University of Perugia, Italy) : http://www.unipg.it/~uri/tebe/useful_links.htm

CERAPIE - A contribution from Terry Mitchell was published in CERAPIE and is available at : http://www.uoi.gr/conf_sem/cerapie/2002_February/09.html or downloadable in PDF format.
Also translated by Mudis Salkauskas in lithuanian (http://ic.lms.lt/ml/209/forumas.htm)
and in czech by Pavel Drasar (http://www.uochb.cas.cz/Bulletin/bulletin312/bulletin312.html).

CTC / IUPAC website
a contribution (html format) from Paolo Todesco at : http://www.t.soka.ac.jp/chem/iupac.ctc/CTCga/Todesco.doc+ectn&hl=fr&ie=UTF-8 (Downloadable in both DOC and PDF format)

Mentioned in a new IUPAC/CTC Current Project
"Committee on Chemistry Education and Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry Division (III)"
Number: 2002-010-1-050
Title: Toward a core organic chemistry curriculum for Latin American universities
Task Group Chairman: Norma S. Nudelman at : http://www.iupac.org/projects/2002/2002-010-1-050.html

MKE / Hungarian Chemical Society talking about the FECS - Chemical Education Division
http://www.mke.mtesz.hu/02szervezet/021szo_kemtan/221113.beszamolo.htm

SCI / Societa di Chimica Italiana website (copy of a letter sent by Gustavo Avitabile) at http://sci-list.ing.unitn.it/letter253.html

University of Napoli (Italy) - in the webpage "La Chimica a Napoli" at
http://chemistry.unina.it:8080/servlet/Chimica?run=run.Pagina.visualizza&sys_page=links

TU Wien (Austria), with a webpage dedicated to the Multimedia Group at : http://www.chemie.tuwien.ac.at/ECTN_MMChem/

In brief ...

FACE project in Spain

relayed by Michel Duclot, University Jospeh Fourier, Grenoble - FR (received December 12, 2002)

If Institut Químic de Sarrià (IQS) located in Spain is one of the core partners from FACE project, and is responsible of the european zone that includes the countries of Spain, Portugal, France and Italy, and is also responsible of the compilation and communication of this information to the other levels of this poject (visit www.face.net.tc for more information) We are looking for universities of your country that include alternative studies (practises in chemical industry) included in its plans of studies on an university level. If you've got some information about your university or some others from Italy,
please send an e-mail to Javi <jl093172@iqs.url.es>.

Schedule and Index on your Handheld organizer

from Pascal Mimero

Few months ago, I started to list the various flight index schedules available on-line, in PDF or for your handheld organizers.

Star Alliance / Lufhansa (www.lufthansa.com)

Delta Airlines (www.delta.com)

United Airlines (www.ua.com)

The Newcomers are :

Air Canada (French or English) : Pocketfly Palm OS Timetable
www.aircanada.ca : 1. select your language ; 2. choose the "Timetables" item ; 3. then select your option (Acrobat PDF, PC/Win OS, Palm OS/Mac)

Via Rail (Canadian Train Timetable)
www.viarail.com : select download timetable and your option (Win PC / PalmOS / Acrobat PDF)

Another application is really useful on your Palm : called "Metro", it is a full database with Underground "Metroliners" from all over the world - the actual version 4 is available in several language and wordings even in Chinese and Cyrillic. Metro is downloadable from most of the Handheld dedicated websites, or on CDRom often provided with printed Journal editions talking about Handhelds.
I wish you a good trip !

News flash