Opportunities Abound

Chemistry, both as a basic as well as an applied science, is of fundamental importance to our society. From food to clothing, from construction materials to nanoelectronics, from drugs to dyes, from cars to molecular machines; nothing would be possible without modern chemistry. Although not fully recognized by most people, chemistry is clearly one of the major technologies that have improved drastically the quality of our daily life. Nevertheless, despite the advances made, our science still offers significant challenges for the coming years. I am convinced that chemistry will also play a major role to provide solutions for the crucial problems of the next century: