The first "French-Czech Vltava Chemistry Meeting" was launched in Dijon in 2010, following a call of the Embassy of France in the Czech Republic in the frame of the "Vltava" exchange programme. Since then, these meetings have been organized alternatively in academic institutions of the Czech Republic and France: University of Pardubice (Pardubice, 2011), University of Bourgogne (Dijon, 2012), Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences (Prague, 2013), Institute of Chemistry of Natural Substances of the CNRS (Gif-sur-Yvette, 2014), Masaryk University (Brno, 2015), University of Orléans (Orléans, 2016), Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences (Prague, 2017), University of Strasbourg (Strasbourg, 2018), and Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences (Prague, 2019) with continuous support from the Embassy of France and the French Institute of Prague. In 2020 and 2021, both meetings were cancelled. The 2022 edition took place in Dijon and the 2023 one in Olomouc. This year, the 2024 edition will take place in Reims.

The aim of the Barrande-Vltava French-Czech Chemistry Meetings is to offer French and Czech junior and senior researchers a yearly forum in molecular and supramolecular chemistry in order to reinforce existing and foster future collaborations between academic institutions of France and of the Czech Republic, and implement them in the frame of bilateral programmes, such as: Hubert Curien "Barrande" exchange Program (PHC), PhD cotutelle fellowship of the Embassy of France in the Czech Republic, International Project of Scientific Cooperation of the CNRS. The meetings comprise a two-day scientific programme, usually starting on Monday, in order to allow the participants to arrive on Sunday afternoon, a welcome party being organized in the evening. They combine plenary and invited lectures delivered by senior faculty members and oral communications delivered by graduate students of both countries. In addition, a poster session organized in a convivial atmosphere allows the participants to meet with each other and establish the first contacts.

Topics of contributions cover all aspects of molecular chemistry, and reflect the diversity of the chemistry that is performed in both countries: Organic chemistry, inorganic chemistry, coordination chemistry, organometallic chemistry, electrochemistry, photochemistry, theoretical chemistry, with applications in synthetic methodology and natural product synthesis, catalysis, molecular recognition and sensing, biochemistry, materials science, molecular electronics and photonics, and medicine (imaging and therapy).

To emphasize the long history of the fruitful French-Czech scientific cooperation, the name of Joachim Barrande, a French palaeontologist who studied the fossils of central Bohemia was joined to the original name of the conference, which is since 2018 « Barrande-Vltava French Czech Chemistry Meeting ».

Joachim Barrande

Joachim Barrande was born at Saugues, Haute Loire, and educated in the École Polytechnique and École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées at Paris. Although he had received the training of an engineer, his first appointment was that of tutor to the duc de Bordeaux (afterwards known as the comte de Chambord), grandson of Charles X, and when the king abdicated in 1830, Barrande accompanied the royal exiles to England and Scotland, and afterwards to Prague. Settling in Prague in 1831, he became interested in the fossils of the region, and, when he realized the striking similarity between the strata of Britain, as described by the noted British geologist Sir Roderick I. Murchison, and the strata in Bohemia, he began an intensive geological study. His primary work, Système silurien du centre de la Bohême (1852–1894), complete with excellent drawings, is still used as a reference work. In it he identified and analyzed more than 4,000 new fossil species. In recognition of his important researches the Geological Society of London in 1857 awarded to him the Wollaston medal. In 1870, he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. He was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1875.

Barrande died at Frohsdorf on October 5, 1883. His extensive collection has been stored in National Museum in Prague on grounds of his testament. In 1884 the Barrande Rocks in Prague was named in honor of the scientist and massive plaque with Barrande's name was added at the rocks. On February 24, 1928 all district of Prague, Barrandov, was named after him...

[Excerpted from Wikipedia and Encyclopædia Britannica; more on trilobit.biz]