Don’t miss our 2023 AGM and open access panel
Join us virtually or in person on 12 July for an exciting discussion entitled “Imagining a fully open access future”, followed by our Annual General Meeting.
At the RSC we recently announced our commitment to making all of our journals fully open access within the next five years.
What are the steps needed to achieve that vision? And what will an open access future look like for researchers, students and publishers?
On 12 July we will be joined by a panel of researchers from a range of backgrounds and from around the world, who will discuss the challenges and opportunities in moving towards an open access future.
The panel discussion will be at 5pm UK time and will be accessible virtually, as well as in person at our headquarters at Burlington House, London.
The panel discussion will be open to all and you do not have to be an RSC member. You’ll have the opportunity to submit your own questions via the interactive platform. See below for how to join.
Meet the panellists
Chair: Sara Bosshart, Head of Open Access Journals, Royal Society of Chemistry
Sara Bosshart is Head of Open Access Journals at the Royal Society of Chemistry where she is responsible for driving the growth of Open Access across the organization. Previously, Sara was Open Access Publisher at IWA Publishing where she successfully transitioned the entire portfolio of 15 water-related journals to Open Access through a variety of different OA models including Subscribe to Open, Read & Publish and APCs. Originally a marine geologist, Sara began her career in publishing at Frontiers where she helped to launch a suite of new OA journals in the Life Sciences, including Frontiers in Marine Science, and was responsible for the expansion of Frontiers into the UK. Sara is half Swiss, half American and now calls London home.
Panellist: Dr Muhammad Safwan Akram, Associate Professor (Biomanufacturing), National Horizons Centre, Teesside University
Muhammad Safwan Akram is working at School of Health and Life Sciences as Associate Professor in Biological & Process Engineering. He has previously worked as an Assistant Professor at University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan. Safwan obtained his PhD in Analytical Biotechnology from the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, University of Cambridge where he also did his post-doc developing low cost diagnostics. Prior to that he completed his M.Phil in Bioscience Enterprise under the auspices of Cambridge/MIT Partnership. His work has been published in reputed journals like Nature Biotechnology, Lab on a Chip & Annual Reviews of Analytical Chemistry. He has been awarded Medimmune Award and CambridgeSens Innovative Idea award for research excellence. He provides consultancy to venture capital funds, biotech and pharma companies. During his academic career, he has taught courses on Protein design and engineering, Recombinant DNA Technology and Stem Cells, Biosensors, Technology Enterprise and Pharmaceutical Biotechnology. Safwan was voted by the students to win university wide Star award for most outstanding teaching.
Panellist: Professor Duncan Graham, FRSC, Distinguished Professor, Associate Principal & Executive Dean of Science, University of Strathclyde
Duncan Graham is a Distinguished Professor, Associate Principal and Executive Dean of the Faculty of Science at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. He obtained his BSc Honours (1992) and PhD in Chemistry (1995) from the University of Edinburgh before joining the University of Strathclyde in 1996. In 1997 he secured a 5-year BBSRC Fellowship to start his independent research career, was appointed as a lecturer in 2002 and promoted to professor in 2004. In 2007 he was elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh then awarded the RSC’s Corday Morgan prize in 2009, a Royal Society Wolfson Merit Award in 2010, the Craver Award of the Coblentz Society, a Fellows Award from the Society of Applied Spectroscopy in 2012, the RSC’s Theophilus Redwood award in 2016 and the FACSS Charles Mann Award in 2017. He served as Editor in Chief of the RSC journal Analyst for 7 years and serves on several editorial advisory boards including Chemical Society Reviews and Chemical Science. He was president of the analytical division of the Royal Society of Chemistry (2017-2020), and chair of the analytical chemistry trust fund (2017-2020). He is currently a trustee of the RSC and chair of the Publishing Board for the RSC (2020-2024). He served as vice-chair of the multidisciplinary expert review panel for Cancer Research UK as well as serving on their Science Committee (2015-2021) which became their Discovery Research Committee as well as serving on the EPSRCs physical sciences strategic advisory team for 3 years. He has published over 275 papers with 17 patents and has supervised over 70 PhD students and 40 postdoctoral researchers. His scientific interests are in developing new diagnostic assays based on nanoparticles and spectroscopy with target molecules including DNA, RNA, proteins and small molecule biomarkers.
Panellist: Dr Lydia Rhyman, MRSC, AAS Affiliate, GYA Member, Computational Chemistry Group, University of Mauritius
Dr Lydia Rhyman is a research fellow in the Computational Chemistry Group of the University of Mauritius, Mauritius. She is also working as a part-time lecturer. She was awarded a PhD in Computational Chemistry in 2013. She is an Affiliate of the African Academy of Sciences, a member of the Royal Society of Chemistry and a Global Young Academy member. Her research interest lies in the use of Computational Chemistry to solve chemistry and interdisciplinary problems. She is involved in promoting Computational Chemistry in Africa and science education and she also raises awareness on responsible research practices and integrity. She is active in the organisation of conferences, seminars, workshops and outreach activities. To date she has 135 publications, 4 book chapters and 1 patent.
Panellist: Dr Dani Schultz, Director, Discovery Process Chemistry, Merck
Dani Schultz received her PhD from the University of Michigan working with Professor John Wolfe and was an NIH postdoctoral fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison with Professor Tehshik Yoon. Since joining Merck in 2014, Dani has been a member of Process Chemistry and Enabling Technologies in Rahway, NJ and as of 2021 became the Director of the Discovery Process Chemistry group in Kenilworth, NJ where she leads a group of process chemists in support of the Merck small molecule and peptide portfolio. Throughout her time at Merck, Dani has been involved in the development of synthetic routes for drug candidates spanning HIV and oncology – forging meaningful collaborations, both internally and externally, to address the synthetic challenges that occur during pharmaceutical development.
How to join the meeting virtually
Visit LUMI platform on your smartphone, tablet or computer.
If you are an RSC member, click the 'I am a member' option. You will be asked to enter your username and the following password: RSCAGM2023
If you are joining as a guest, you will need to click the 'I am a Guest' option and fill in the required details.
You will need the latest version of Chrome, Safari, Edge or Firefox. Please ensure your browser is compatible. An active internet connection is required at all times to participate in the meeting.