Once again, as the year before, I woke to my phone resembling a slot machine from any Vegas casino. #LatinXChem became a Trending Topic on Twitter early from it’s start on september 20th 2021, this year the Twitter poster session was divided into eleven categories (Ana, Bio, Comp, Edu, Eng, Env, Inorg, Mat, Nano, Org, Phys) with Nano and Comp being the ones with the most participants.

Last year, due to the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, most if not all scientific conferences were cancelled and in some cases replaced by an endless stream of webinars, some with virtual spaces for hanging out and networking with colleagues around the world. Poster sessions on massive platforms like Twitter aren’t new, the yearly #RSCPoster session was already a popular event even before the many lockdowns, but only a few have amassed the number of participants #LatinXChem has. From its conception, #LatinXChem was thought not to be exclusive for the Latin community, but rather as an event created from Latin America for the world; it’s now time to move it forward into the next level, making it a brand, not just a yearly event. Through #LatinXChem many activities could be sponsored, students could be promoted, and courses could be taught, all covered under the same flag of a global identity with one core goal in mind: showcasing and promoting the chemistry work done by underrepresented groups anywhere in the planet. As this pandemic has clearly shown, science illiteracy is dangerous at various levels, from the health choices we make in our homes to the policies imposed by governments.

To check all the fantastic works presented in this edition just go to Twitter and add the name of the category as described above to the hashtag #LXChem (e.g. #LXChemComp will hash all the posters registered in the computational chemistry category), make sure you like and share your favorite pieces of research but above all make sure you engage with the people behind the research, you won’t regret making new acquaintances who share your scientific interests.

A cool new feature of this year’s edition is the video interviews 8 Minutes with, featuring very personal and inspiring interviews with Latin scientists like Adrian Roitberg, Alan Aspuru-Guzik, and my good friend Javier Vela, but also with awardees from the previous edition. These interviews are also available on YouTube where new videos are uploaded continuously. Although we know people is kinda overloaded with webinars after so many months of distancing, we wanted to keep a tradition of having lectures from Nobel Laureates within the framework of our event. Last year we had the honor of having Prof. Frances Arnold gave the last lecture and this year we’ll have Profs. Roald Hoffmann and Rudolf Marcus.

At #LatinXChem we know chemistry, and we prove it day in and day out sharing our work, our experiences, and our joy for doing exciting scientific research.

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