International Year of Chemistry 2011

Year 2011 is declared as the International Year of Chemistry (IYC 2011) by UNESCO and International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry. The celebration of this year as chemistry year is aimed to help understand the usefulness of Chemistry and its role in human life. The slogan selected for the year is "Chemistry – Our life, Our future".

Man started using chemistry, perhaps without knowing or naming it as chemistry, from the very beginning. May be, he had its applications in preparing perfumes. Certain races developed chemical compounds to preserve mummies. Later started to apply chemistry in melting metals, making medicines, preparing colours, etc..

Then again after hundreds of years some people started studying the possibilities of making gold from other metals, knowing the value of gold. This later developed into a subject called Alchemy. Now chemistry as a subject has developed into a very important one with its applications in almost every field including the space research. Chemistry itself has branched out as Applied chemistry, Analytical chemistry, Pure chemistry, Biochemistry, etc.

Madame Curie was awarded Nobel Prize for Chemistry in the year 1911, hence this year happens to be the 100th year of her winning the topmost honour in the field of Science. Similarly this is the 100th year of the formation of the Union of chemical societies internationally at Paris. These also were the causes for choosing this year as the year of chemistry.

The celebration of the chemistry year also signifies the importance of this science branch in the future development of the world and its useful applications for mankind. The word 'useful' is important since the knowledge of chemistry has also helped in the development of chemical weapons and such other destructive means.