Discovering Chemistry
01 April 2008
The UK has a thriving chemical and pharmaceutical industry that needs talented scientists to keep it competitive. As the needs of businesses change, so must the skills of its employees. To help, the RSC has launched a joint educational project with Pfizer, the world's largest research-based pharmaceutical company.
Discover Chemistry is a science education initiative that has come with Pfizer's major investment of up to £1million over the next 3-5 years.
The aim is to secure a pool of talented, motivated and appropriately skilled scientists to meet the future needs of employers, and ensure a sustainable science base in the UK.
As Tony Wood, Vice President, Head of Chemistry and Exploratory Medicinal Sciences, PGRD, Sandwich explains, "It's not just about the stream of graduates, it's about the nature of the training and their attitude to future learning and problem solving that is important."
Pfizer employs approximately 90,000 people, including 12,000 professionals working in six major R&D sites worldwide. Its major European R&D facility is in Sandwich, Kent.
Simon Campbell, Chair of the RSC Fundraising Campaign and a former RSC President, is very pleased at the new link: "I am delighted that Pfizer and the RSC are working together to meet educational challenges of fundamental importance to the UK's future international competitiveness and I very much appreciate the major investment the company is making in the next generation of innovative scientists."
Project Aims
The overall goal of Discover Chemistry is to attract the most talented students into studying chemistry. This will ensure a sustainable pool of chemists who can compete in the market to meet the future and changing needs of employers. The activities and programmes will seek to help excite and inspire students at all levels about the subject, emphasise the importance of problem-based learning, demonstrate multiple career paths and options open to chemists and complement existing RSC programmes such as Chemistry for our Future.One aspect of the project will be to work with universities to help ensure undergraduate courses cover an appreciation of emerging areas such as chemical biology and flow synthesis.
Richard Pike, RSC CEO says: "The partnership with Pfizer complements our commitments from other corporate partners: Shire, INEOS, Reckitt & Benckiser, Shell, Syngenta and the Wolfson Foundation. As well as the financial commitment we are thrilled that there will be the direct involvement of the Pfizer chemistry department in the implementation of the programme."
Taking time out to help
David Fox, Senior Director in the Research Chemistry Department at Pfizer, Sandwich, will start a 15 month secondment with the RSC later this month. He will help refine and embed the Discover Chemistry programme and take a leading role in the delivery of some components.
"A number of things have come together to drive my involvement", he says. "Over the last few years, there has been an increasing focus on the numbers and quality of students studying chemistry and the factors that are behind this. This coincides with a shift in the pharmaceutical industry - at Pfizer at least - towards the outsourcing of conventional, reliable chemistry to external providers.
David Fox is being seconded from Pfizer to the RSC |
"This means that we are asking much more of our permanent colleagues in terms of problem-solving, innovation and development of new technologies and in order to be successful, we need to play our part to ensure there is a sustainable pool of talented chemists emerging from our education system."
Fox has been at Pfizer for 15 years and has led teams of up to 35 chemists, most recently in the Anti-Virals area. Over the course of his career he has contributed to 10 development drug candidates including three Phase 2 compounds.
"I have always been fascinated by teaching," he says. "I particularly enjoyed working with undergraduate students in practical labs whilst I was a postgraduate at Bath University, helping them relate what they were doing to what they had learnt in lectures." One change he made a few years ago was to reduce his weekly working hours to four days-per-week, allowing him to spend time as a parent helper at his son's primary school.
Fox has been working with the RSC over the last few months to put together a programme of activities across the spectrum of chemistry education activities from schools' outreach, continuing professional development for teachers through to university undergraduate courses and training for academics. "There will be a particular emphasis on addressing a likely future skills gap and lifelong learning approach to education," he says.
