Looking at the Greek origin, chemistry hails from the Greek word khemeia meaning cast together or pour together. From ancient Arabic, al-kimiyā refers to being extremely clever in bringing things together and doing tricks or a Wiz. Alchemy specifically referred to an ancient branch of natural philosophy that was practiced all over the world including Europe, China, India and the Muslim world. Alchemists then attempted to purify and perfect materials in order to transform base metals such as mercury and lead into precious metals such as silver and gold. The philosopher’s stone is a mythic alchemical substance that would allow this “magical” elements transformation to happen and so alchemists from all over the different parts of the known earth would converge and work together to achieve this “Magnus Opus” or great work that hold the elixir of life and immortality. In all fairness to the other branches of science, this boundaryless interaction between scientists without any regard to gender, race or religion is also there but for chemistry it is more special. Togetherness lies in the heart of the word Chemistry and so as chemists we will always be bonded together. These bonds can vary from strong ionic to weak non-covalent however, even if you cannot see them, they will always be there!

In this presentation, I will talk about my own journey in the world of chemistry and how togetherness and bonding helped me through. There was nothing close to a philosopher’s stone discovery, but for me to make it out from a very traditional family in the Middle East to the US to go to graduate school and then complete a postdoctoral training would have definitely benefited from some work of Wizardry and Magic!

Chemistry will always bring people together regardless of race, gender and ethnicity

Niveen Khashab

Appearances