Last week an epic mission of sharing chemistry knowledge began at the University of Leeds – and will finish six weeks and 7000km later in Nairobi, Kenya.
Three thousand textbooks from the university library were shipped out and will be distributed through the RSC’s Pan Africa Chemistry Network (PACN).
The Head of the School of Chemistry, Professor Philip Kocienski, came down to lend a hand loading the huge haul of books into boxes and onto the van.
Prime Logistics International of Baildon, Shipley, are undertaking the massive journey to deliver the books to the chemistry department at the University of Nairobi, the African central hub of the PACN. From there they can be distributed to other learning centres that need them.
As the library undergoes redevelopment, it’s seen as an opportunity to support the growth of chemistry in Africa by providing these high-quality teaching aids such as textbooks.
The RSC’s Pan Africa Chemistry Network allows students, teachers and academics across Africa to access a wide range of support, including online science resources, networking opportunities and teaching materials.
Thu 28 May 2009 at 12:32
What about a competition for the best ever Chemistry textbook? We could have two categories: school and university.
My favourite school textbook is (unsurprisingly) the one that I used at school: Chemistry in Context by Graham Hill and John Holman. The school textbooks being published today are often tied in so closely to Exam Syllabuses and written in such a short space of time, that they end up looking like a nicely illustrated and slightly more detailed version of the Syllabus.
University textbooks are a different kettle of fish. This time I have no allegiance to the ones I read (or tried to read!) at university, namely Atkins, Cotton and Wilkinson, Greenwood and Earnshaw and March. Has anyone in the world read all four of these monsters cover-to-cover. One very good university textbook that I have read cover-to-cover is the American text ‘Braving the Elements’ by Gray, Simon and Trogler. It gets my vote in the university category.