Thirty Years Ago. Thirty Years From Now.

In this opening conversation, Paul Anastas will help frame the session by looking back across three decades of green chemistry and asking what the field has truly accomplished, where it has fallen short, and what challenges now demand the greatest urgency. The discussion will set the stage for the fireside chats that follow by exploring how scientific discovery, technological change, and broader societal forces have shaped green chemistry’s evolution over the past 30 years.

Looking ahead, the conversation will also invite attendees to consider what chemistry could look like in 2056, what actions are needed now to build that future, and how shared frameworks such as the Stockholm Declaration on Chemistry for the Future might help guide the field toward safer, more sustainable, and more effective practice. In keeping with the spirit of the session, the opening will establish a tone that is reflective, candid, and forward-looking—grounding the day’s conversations in both the progress already made and the work still ahead.

These fireside chats invite leaders from across generations, disciplines, and sectors to reflect not only on the science that has shaped green chemistry over the last 30 years, but also on the personal journeys, hard-won lessons, and future-facing choices that will define the next 30.

Juliana Vidal offers a vital perspective on how the future of green chemistry will be shaped not only by new molecules and materials but by education, community, and who feels empowered to participate in the field. Drawing on her research background in waste valorization and biorefinery approaches, as well as her leadership at Beyond Benign, this conversation will focus on how green chemistry is taught, shared, and embedded across institutions and borders. Vidal’s fireside chat will invite attendees to think about what the field must do right now to prepare the next generation for 2056—and how frameworks such as the Stockholm Declaration can become lived practice through curriculum, mentorship, and collective action.

Representing a newer generation of green chemistry leaders, Thomas Freese brings a perspective that connects discovery, entrepreneurship, and day-to-day scientific practice. From sustainable catalysis and biomass-derived materials research to his work advancing greener laboratory operations and leading Circolide, this conversation will explore what it means to build a circular chemical future from the bench outward. Freese is especially well suited to discuss what today’s emerging scientists need most, what barriers still slow adoption of better chemistry, and how the field can move from promising ideas to scalable, credible impact by 2056.

Adelina Voutchkova-Kostal brings a perspective that connects cutting-edge green chemistry research with the institutional leadership needed to move the field forward. As Director of Sustainable Development at the American Chemical Society and leader of the ACS Green Chemistry Institute, with prior research appointments at George Washington University and the Yale Center for Green Chemistry and Green Engineering, she has worked across the scientific, educational, and community-building dimensions of the field.
This fireside chat will explore how green chemistry can continue evolving from a research framework into a broader engine for safer chemicals, smarter catalysis, and more intentional systems of adoption. Drawing on her background in supported catalysis and predictive approaches for identifying chemicals of toxicological concern, Adelina can help illuminate both what the field has accomplished over the past 30 years and what gaps remain between scientific progress and widespread implementation.
Her conversation will be especially valuable in considering what actions are needed now to prepare for a 2056 future in which chemistry is more inherently safe, more circular, and more fully aligned with sustainability goals—and how broad calls to action such as the Stockholm Declaration can be translated into meaningful practice across research, education, and the chemical enterprise

Julie Zimmerman brings a systems-level perspective that broadens green chemistry into green engineering, planetary solutions, and the design of technologies that work in the real world. As a pioneer of the Twelve Principles of Green Engineering, a leader at Yale, and Editor-in-Chief of Environmental Science & Technology, she is well positioned to discuss how the field’s biggest successes have emerged when molecular design, engineering, and policy align—and where fragmentation has limited progress. Her fireside chat will help attendees think beyond invention alone, asking what infrastructure, decision-making frameworks, and institutional commitments are needed now to realize a 2056 future in which chemistry is not only innovative, but truly restorative and just

Peter Licence offers a particularly timely lens on the transition from green chemistry as a powerful scientific philosophy to sustainable and resilient chemistry as a model for implementation. A leader in alternative solvents and sustainable chemistry, Head of Chemistry at Nottingham, Editor-in-Chief of ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, and a visible voice around the Stockholm Declaration, Licence can speak directly to the tension between breakthrough science and slow uptake in the broader chemical enterprise. This conversation will explore what the field has learned over 30 years, where it has failed to move fast enough, and how a shared roadmap—grounded in resilience, practicality, and collaboration—might help chemistry reach a more sustainable 2056

Walter Leitner’s career reflects how deeply green chemistry has been shaped by advances in catalysis, carbon utilization, and reaction design. As Director at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion, Chair at RWTH Aachen, and a longtime editorial leader for Green Chemistry, Leitner brings both scientific depth and long-view perspective to the conversation. His fireside chat will examine how catalysis has helped redefine what is possible in sustainable chemistry—from carbon dioxide valorization to biomass conversion—while also asking what scientific, industrial, and societal shifts are still required to transform these advances into the chemistry landscape of 2056.