Some extraordinary exhibits – including a first edition of Mendeleev’s Principles of Chemistry – were on display when alumni came along to our March 2019 annual reunion.
This year, the Alumni Reunion was themed around the International Year of the Periodic Table, marking the 150th anniversary of Mendeleev’s famous table.
At the event, over 100 alumni joined us to hear Teaching Fellow and chemistry history enthusiast Dr Peter Wothers talk about the history of the periodic table. They then enjoyed a drinks reception hosted by the Department of Chemistry before being treated to a private view of an exhibition that also included the lesser-known but rarer ‘telluric screw’ devised by de Chancourtois seven years earlier, which displays the elements as a continuous spiral around a metal cylinder.
The evening concluded with a three-course dinner for alumni who had been in the department up to and including 1979.
The next Chemistry Alumni Reunion will be held in March 2020, on a date to be confirmed.