Today, a memorial plaque was unveiled on the wall of the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport to Jędrzej Śniadecki, a physician and teacher, who was the founder of chemical science in Lithuania. In the building here, he founded and headed the first Department of Chemistry at Vilnius University (VU), from which chemistry as a separate discipline began.
Professor Jędrzej Śniadecki was a scientist at Vilnius University in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, who came to Vilnius from Cracow to teach. Considered by Lithuanians and Poles alike to be the discoverer of the chemical element ruthenium, J. Śniadecki was also a physician, lecturer and orator, teaching chemistry to pharmacists and writing books that attracted the attention of his contemporaries as well as later scholars. According to Dr Birutė Railienė, the creator of the memorial plaque and a researcher in the history of science, it is not only Śniadecki's achievements that are impressive, but also his personality: "What impresses me the most is his stability, his determination to work hard, to go deep into his field, and to not be distracted. Although there were offers to work in the royal palace and other, more lucrative jobs, he chose university, where he taught the younger generation, and did not get distracted. He gave almost forty years to the University of Applied Sciences."
The project for a memorial plaque to Jędrzej Śniadecki was supported by the Lithuanian Chemists' and Lithuanian Biochemists' Societies. The plaque was designed by designer Vilma Dmitrijevienė and sculptor Antanas Šėmis. A sculptural portrait of Jędrzej Śniadecki, created by Kazimieras Jelskis and cast by Jonas Ostrovskis in 1863, was used for the design, which is kept in his personal collection. The plaque was produced by Alpera UAB and the project, which was approved by Vilnius City Municipality, was financed by Thermo Fisher Scientific.
The unveiling of the plaque is not the only event dedicated to the history of science this week. A joint International Conference on the History of Chemistry will take place from 23-27 May, comprising the 13th International Conference on the History of Chemistry (13ICHC2023) and the Śniadecki Memorial Conference on 'Frontiers in the Molecular Life Sciences'.
Presentations in English will be available at the Centre for Physical Sciences and Technology and the VU Life Sciences Centre. Organised by the Vrublevskis Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences, the Faculty of Chemistry and Geosciences of Vilnius University, the Life Sciences Centre of Vilnius University, the Lithuanian and European Chemical Societies, the event will attract more than 60 speakers from Europe, the USA and other countries.
According to the organisers, the event aims to showcase Vilnius as a city of importance for the history of science, to demonstrate the contribution of Vilnius University of Technology and its scientists to the formation of the world's life sciences and the development of the biotechnology sector, and to stimulate local scientists to take an interest in chemistry history.
