''Société Royale de Chimie Belgique'' or the Belgian Royal Society of Chemistry, Walloon Royal Society of Chemistry, is a

learned society A learned society (; also learned academy, scholarly society, or academic association) is an organization that exists to promote an discipline (academia), academic discipline, profession, or a group of related disciplines such as the arts and s ...

and

professional association A professional association (also called a professional body, professional organization, or professional society) usually seeks to advocacy, further a particular profession, the interests of individuals and organisations engaged in that professio ...

headquartered in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

, Belgium. The society published the academic journal

Bulletin des Sociétés Chimiques Belges The ''Bulletin des Sociétés Chimiques Belges'' (, CODEN BSCBAG) is the Belgium peer-reviewed scientific journal in chemistry. Originally it started under the name * ''Bulletin de l'Association Belge des Chimistes'' ol. 1 (1887/88) to Vol. 17 ...

from 1904 to 1987, before it was absorbed into the Europe-wide chemistry journals. Since 1983, the society also publishes the journal Chimie Nouvelle (English: New Chemistry).

History

The society was founded in 1887 by Edouard Hanuise as the ''Association Belge des Chimistes'' (English: Belgian Association of Chemists). In 1904, it changed its name to ''Société Chimique de Belgique'' (English: Belgian Chemical Society) until its final name change so far in 1987 at its one-hundredth anniversary to its present name. In 1939, the society split into a French-speaking and a Dutch-speaking branch. The French-speaking branch kept the existing name (later the Société Royale de Chimie Belgique) and was still based in Brussels. The Dutch-speaking branch was founded with the name ''Vlaamse Chemische Vereniging'' and later in 1987 became ''Koninklijke Vlaamse Chemische Vereniging'' (English: Royal Flemish Chemical Society), which was based in

Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,

. Its past members includes famous chemists within the country such as

Ernest Solvay Ernest Gaston Joseph Solvay (; 16 April 1838 – 26 May 1922) was a Belgian chemist, industrialist and philanthropist. Born in Rebecq, he was prevented by his acute pleurisy from going to university. He worked in his uncle's chemical factor ...

Walthère Victor Spring Walthère Victor Spring (6 March 1848 – 17 July 1911) was a Belgian experimental chemist and a professor at the University of Liège who contributed to ideas on carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and the Greenhouse Effect. As a physical chemist he ...

, Theodore Swarts,

Jean Timmermans Jean Émile Charles Timmermans (8 January 1882 – 27 August 1971) was a Belgian physical chemist and educator. He was known for the discovery of plastic crystals and the published books on physical chemistry constants and experimental data of pu ...

, etc.

Presidents of the society

Presidents of the society throughout history include early pioneers of chemistry and pharmacy in Belgium.

''Association Belge des Chimistes'' (1887–1904)

* 1887–1895 Edouard Hanuise * 1894–1896 Jean-Baptiste Depaire * 1897–1898 Achille Herlant * 1899–1900 Lucien Louis De Koninck * 1901–1902 Léon Crismer * 1903–1904 Albert van de Velde

''Société Chimique de Belgique'' (1904–1987)

* 1910–1911 René Lucion * 1914–1921 Georges Chavanne * 1925–1926 Henri Wuyts * 1927–1928

* 1929–1930 Pierre Bruylants * 1958 Lucia de Brouckère * 1961–1962 Albert Bruylants

''Société Royale de Chimie Belgique'' (1987–now)

* 2014 Claudine Buess-Herman * 2020–2021 Laurent Provins * 2023 Anne-Sophie Duwez

References