Recently in celebs in chemicals Category

Peter Mandelson was confronted by an inebriated audience member as he sped away from the platform after delivering his speech at last night's Chemical Industries Association (CIA) dinner at London's Grosvenor House hotel, according to our own Will Beacham, deputy bureau chief of ICB.

Mandelson's speechwriters had been keen to stress reliance the chemical industry has on the automotive sector, and perhaps laboured the point, he remembers.

A furious chemical salesman contact told him afterwards that Mandelson was a fool for neglecting all the other key industry sectors, especially the product he works in. It showed his ignorance of how the industry functioned.

He told Will: "I happened to be coming back from the gents when I saw Mandelson was leaving the event and walking towards me. I went up to him and told him he knew nothing about the chemical industry and was an idiot to be coming here spouting all this nonsense."

Needless to say Mandelson's minder whisked him swiftly away from the ranting man.

The ICIS contingent at last night's Chemical Industries Association (CIA) dinner has now recovered sufficiently to be able to string a few words together about the event...

A great time was had by all in the Great Room at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London on Thursday evening at the CIA's annual dinner. The CIA had made something of a coup in attracting UK Business Secretary Lord Mandelson to speak. He was a little late and it was generally assumed that he had been involved in the horse trading which saw Baroness Ashton of Upholland (what a great title) become the EU's first High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy and Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy EU President. Mandelson had also been a potential UK candidate for the High Representative post.

He gave a good speech vowing support for the industry in innovation and skills while warning of the "huge challenge of decarbonising industrial chemistry." (Says chemical engineer Simon: "Just how we're going to do that in an industry based on organic chemistry is beyond me, but where there's a will and unlimited science budget there could be a way.")

Numbers were down, but that had to be expected given the dire year we've had. What was noticeable was that a lot of diners stayed in the Great Room to chat after the meal rather than dash off to company hospitality suites (of which there were pitifully few), and it only thinned out at close to 1.00 am.

The CIA used its most important gathering of the year to launch a new "blueprint" for UK chemical and pharmaceutical manufacturing. The £60 billion industry helps support 600,000 jobs and makes a big positive contribution to the UK balance of trade and, the CIA feels, deserves wider recognition.

(Event coverage by Nigel Davis, Will Beacham, Simon Robinson, Franco Capaldo.)

Click here for ICIS news articles:

UK chemicals face total re-invention

UK chemical industry at risk - CIA

Polyester producer Teijin is to stage a free jazz concert in Bangkok on 6 December 2009 starring the famous saxophone player, Koh Mr Saxman, the company announced in a press release today, spotted by my fellow blogger Doris.

The concert is expected to attract two to three thousand people, and will reflect the company's green philosophy. On stage, Koh Mr Saxman will wear the company's environmentally-friendly recyclable casual jackets. After the jackets are worn out, they can be collected and recycled into new polyester materials through Teijin's "Eco Circle" closed-loop recycling system.

(photo: Koh Mr Saxman)

At last, the official EPCA photos we were all looking forward to. EPCA posted them on the website on Wednesday, where delegates are able to download them by using their conference username and password. A few selected highlights have been chosen for the Blog's readers (photos copyright EPCA).

Late into Thursday night, they were posting a string of photos of models wearing plastics and a possible journalistic first: an interview with a catwalk model on the benefits of wearing plastics.  

According to the American Chemistry Council's new website which launched today, plastic is the newest trend in couture, and to make the point the site will present the Gen Art "Fresh Faces in Fashion" Los Angeles Show on 29 October, hosted by actress Kaley Cuoco, star of the popular CBS sitcom, The Big Bang Theory.

"From Paris to Milan to New York, plastics are showing up in a variety of innovative and unusual ways on the runway including funky jewelry, 10-inch platform shoes and even sequined mini-dresses made from recycled plastic bottles."

The Blog was particularly entranced by this link to "How Many Bottles to Make a Handbag."

(photo: plasticsmakeitpossible.com)

I had to laugh yesterday when I saw a leaflet for a local stand-up comedy gig starring an up-and-coming comedian called Stuart Goldsmith. Just why it should be so amusing to picture olefins trader Stuart Goldsmith as a stand-up comedian is hard to explain to those readers who don't know him.

I remember being impressed to see a review of a new Picasso biography by art historian John Richardson, when we all know the more famous John Richardson, blogger of Asian Chemicals Connections.

A simple Google search shows that very few of us have sole rights to our own name.

My namesake is a Viennese opera singer, my daughter's is a supermodel, and my husband's is busy scoring goals for Port Vale when he can take time off from being an Australian surfing champion.

For more on same, see: Two John Mitchells

(photo: EPCA 2009)

Beth Tweddle, new world champion in the gymnastic floor exercises was being interviewed on the radio as I drove in this morning, and very charming she was, but I didn't realise how closely she was connected to the world of petrochemicals.

Now my North of England Chemicals correspondent Judith tells me that Beth lives in her village and is the local celebrity. Another young girl in Judith's son's class at high school is following in Beth's footsteps and doing exceptionally well.

And in another freakish chemicals connection, it turns out that fellow blogger Paul Hodges used to work with Jerry Tweddle, Beth's father, now at INEOS, and posted a video of Beth on his own blog this very morning.

The Blog traded free tickets to the Goodwood Festival of Speed with Max Kingsley Jones, editor of  Commercial Aviation, in return for this posting on chemicals in Formula One racing ...

It may be a surprise to hear that among the many varied roles found within a Formula 1 Grand Prix racing team, there is one for a fully qualified doctorate of polymers and plastics.

At Renault F1 - based in Enstone near Oxford - that person's name is Dr Gary Hall and he is the Team's "composites scientist", says the team's operations director John Mardle.

With Formula 1 racing car designers having to obey three masters - regulation, weight and aerodynamics - it is not surprising that carbonfibre - thanks to its high strength and low weight properties - has long been a fundamental of car construction. It is used for everything from brakes and suspension parts to bodywork and heatshields.  

The Blog's "Celebs in Chemicals" category has been a bit short of sightings recently, so hats off to Joe Chang who spotted Jessica Biel, star of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre at the launch of the Dow Live Earth Run for Water  -  at The Lighthouse at Chelsea Piers in New York City.

For more details on the event, see Doris's blog.