The Polish Chemical Society (Polish: Polskie Towarzystwo Chemiczne, PTCHem) is a professional learned society of Polish chemists founded in 1919 to represent the interests of Polish chemists on the local, national and international levels.
History
The society was founded of 118 Charter Members on 29 June 1919[1] on the initiative of Leon Marchlewski, Stanisław Bądzyński and Ignacy Mościcki, future President of Poland who was a chemist himself. The initial aim of the organization was to bring together Polish chemists previously working under different partitions as well as from abroad. It was founded in three Polish cities: Lwów (today Lviv in Ukraine), Kraków, and Warsaw and the first scientific meeting was organized in Warsaw on 1 November 1919 by the executive board of the society.[2]
The Polish Chemical Society initiated a series of scientific conferences as well as founded Poland's first chemistry journal Roczniki Chemii.[3]
After the Second World War, the society was reactivated in 1946 and continues its activities until today. It has 1,959 members, who work in 20 regional centres. In 2006, the Polish Chemical Society became a public benefit organization.[3]
The statute states that one of the goals of the society is ‘‘the encouragement of progress of chemical science and propagation thereof among the public, as well as representation of the professional interests of chemists, both researchers and those industrially employed’’.[1]
Currently, the offices of the society are located in the 18th-century tenement building at Freta Street 16 in the historic city center of Warsaw. The building is the birthplace of Marie Curie and also houses the Maria Skłodowska-Curie Museum (MMSC).[4]
^ abLichocka, Halina (2008). Creating Networks in Chemistry: The Founding and Early History of Chemical Societies in Europe. RSC Publishing. ISBN978-0-85404-279-1.
