In 2011, the United Nations General Assembly declared 2011 the International Year of Chemistry at the 63rd meeting in December 2008 with UNESCO as the leading UN Agency together with our partner, the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC).

The year 2011,  celebrated as the International Year of Chemistry, also provided the opportunity to celebrate the contributions of women to science on the one-hundredth anniversary of the awarding of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry to Maria Sklodowska-Curie.