Kepa Burusco Goni

As a member of the RSC, I have used in the past quite frequently ChemSpider. I also consult the RSC monographs, for example, the AI in drug design book edited by Nathan Brown. And I also receive monthly the Chemistry World subscription, where I find the new scientific developments, and it's a great opportunity to learn from very different areas of chemistry.

“I think that joining the RSC was a great decision, and I think that everyone in the area of chemistry should join. It's a fantastic option and it will help them in their careers and in their lives.

I work in the Discovery Science team, and in our team we take care of the software for drug discovery.

The RSC membership gave me the feeling of belonging to a wider community of chemists in different areas of knowledge and different stages of their careers.

And as part of this, I benefited also from the mentorship and the careers one-to-one consultation to help me progress in my professional career.

The RSC offers very good discounts in terms of attending RSC-organised events. So when you combine, for example, one or two of these events, the money you save attending these ones as a member covers the annual fees, so it's really worth getting the membership.

The most important thing the RSC membership gave to me recently was being awarded the Chartered Chemist Accreditation, which is a professional recognition of your professional quality.

So I started being, I think it was Associate Member initially, then I progressed to Member of the RSC, and then last year I started thinking that was the right moment to apply to Chartered Chemist Accreditation. Therefore, I started looking for information. I consulted internally here in the CCDC about the support.

So the accreditation is about the journey, it's not about the end result. The process was actually a self-reflection of your day-to-day activities and what you do, and then once you get it, you still need to continue that you are showing personal development all over your career to maintain it.

I would encourage anyone to apply for the Chartered Chemist Accreditation because if they already have the professional qualifications to obtain the accreditation, it will show the professional level. If they are not yet there, the process of going through the application will get them to develop the skills and experience to actually show that they are at that professional level.

So I would encourage anyone to join the RSC and be a member, regardless of what is their career stage, because there is always a position for everyone. You can always progress and benefit from the wider community to understand what your future could be and make decisions about your career and progress based on this.

To me, being a member of the RSC is a big honour and I feel proud of it. I also feel accountable for my decisions and I also feel the social responsibility of being a good professional to deliver to society what I got from them."