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Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen.
I am delighted to be here this evening at the
launch of the 2005 Chemistry Week and the presentation of a very special
award for services to chemistry.
I would like to begin by saying a few words
about the importance of Chemistry to wealth creation and the quality of
our lives, and how important initiatives such as Chemistry Week are in
raising the awareness and understanding of the chemical and
chemistry-using sectors.
The Government sees the chemical industry as
critical to wealth creation and to the quality of our lives in the 21st
Century. There are those who see the industry as part of the old
economy. We see it as part of the new Knowledge Economy and of central
importance to our future economic success.
We also believe that the chemical industry has a
key role to play in our transition to a more sustainable society. The
Chemistry Leadership Council has recently produced ‘A Vision for
Sustainable Production and Use of Chemicals’. As it says, “The Chemical
Industry is central to the pursuit of a sustainable society; without it,
the prospects of sustainably meeting the needs of nine billion people by
the second half of this century are zero.”
And chemistry is synonymous with innovation in
areas as diverse as aerospace and medicine.
If, however, we are to achieve ambitious goals
in this area we will need to inspire more of our brightest and best
young people to take up careers in the chemical industry. The Institute
of Chemical Engineers’ initiative, ‘Why not Chemical Engineering?’, has
already shown what can be done, and I think it is encouraging that the
latest UCAS data shows that there has been a 13.9% increase in students
applying for and accepting places to study undergraduate chemistry
degrees.
For all these reasons, I am delighted to have
been asked to launch the 2005 Chemistry Week as part of the British
Associations annual “Science Week” programme.
Chemistry Week is an excellent example of how to
raise awareness of chemistry and its importance to our everyday lives
amongst young people through innovative and creative means, which
captures not only their interest but also their imagination.
The title of this year’s events – “Know
Chemistry” is very fitting. This is the 400th anniversary of the
appearance of the word “chemistry” in the Oxford dictionary. This week
long series of events will provide an excellent opportunity to
illustrate how different our lives would be without chemistry.
I would now like to say a few words about our
guest, before handing over to the President.
Bill Bryson will be familiar to all of us as the
American author who brought real humour to travel writing. Bill has
given us his “African Diary”, his “Notes from a Big Country”, and a
“Dictionary of Troublesome Words”
He is our guest here tonight however, so we can
personally say thank you for helping to raise the awareness of science
through his outstanding book – “A Short History of Nearly Everything”.
“A Short History of Nearly Everything” is the
well-deserved winner of the 2004 Aventis Prize for Science Books. It is
an amazingly enjoyable and interesting book which poses all sorts of
questions, some of which I am sure we have been asked by our children or
have asked ourselves.
If we are to maintain our position on the global
market we need to ensure our present and importantly, future workforce
are equipped with the skills to meet the needs of industry. Only by
inspiring young people will we be able to encourage them to develop
knowledge and skills in the science disciplines as they pass though the
education system. For this reason I was delighted when the Society sent
a copy of Bill’s book to every secondary school in every constituency to
help to encourage them to think about a career in science.
Finally, can I say Bill without hesitation, that
of all the papers, reports and books I have had to read as Minister for
Science and Innovation over seven and a half years, it had the best
jokes and was the most enjoyable to read.
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