For more than 50 years, the SECO has aimed to gather young researchers in a friendly meeting
In 1962, Professor Guy Ourisson had the idea of creating a new conference, called SECO (in French Semaine d’Etudes de Chimie Organique: Week of Study in Organic Chemistry), which was organised for the first time in 1963.
Since the 1980s, the SECO has been dedicated to late stage PhD students. In 1985, the SECO- association was created in Clermont-Ferrand, and its goal is to facilitate the exchange between young researchers (academic as well as industrial).
the SECO is a scientific event for PhD students from all over France and European countries. This is an opportunity to gather, to present their work with an oral communication and exchange with other PhD students, academic and industrial researchers. These meetings provide an occasion for students (2nd and 3rd year) to step back on their topic, to keep a critical eye on their work and refine their scientific mind.
Several renowned researchers have participated in the past few years: Oppolzer (1995), Knochel (1997), Castro (2001), Alexakis (2003-2007), Evano (2010), J. Zhu (2013). Well-known chemical companies also took part in this conference, by giving us grants, and allowing some of their employees to give lectures.
The event consists of short presentations given by every PhD student outlining their research, and plenary lectures given by invited academic and industrial researchers. Lectures, free time and meals allow students and senior researchers to get in contact more easily in order to promote fruitful exchanges.
