The Encontro sobre Enxofre, Selênio e Telúrio - ESSeTe - is a biennial event that has been held in Brazil since 2006 and brings together the fields of organic, inorganic, physical chemistry, analytical chemistry, and biochemistry of selenium, sulfur, and tellurium compounds. It is characterized as an opportunity to critically reflect on strategies for advancing the field and set goals for developing innovative products and processes. This event is a meeting point for senior and junior scientists, graduate and undergraduate students, all of whom have sulfur, selenium, and tellurium as the focus of their research. During the event, research topics in the field are extensively and deeply discussed, as well as new frontiers of knowledge, with the presence of emerging talents and internationally established researchers from Brazil and abroad. The selection of speakers is based on the excellence of the invited experts and their areas of expertise, bringing participants face-to-face with topics at the forefront of knowledge and current scientific challenges in the field.

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Considerable expansion has occurred in the area of organoselenium and organotellurium chemistry in Brazil over the past two decades. Still, continued contributions are needed further to advance our research field with innovative and challenging ideas, adequately training our students and preparing future generations to contribute to the progress of scientific knowledge and foster cooperation between Brazilian and international research groups.

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Event History

 

Studies on the chemistry of selenium and tellurium began in Brazil in 1933, when the German professor Heinrich Rheinboldt started his activities at the newly established University of São Paulo-USP. From Rheinboldt’s pioneering work, several research groups were created in the country to study these two elements. This fact influenced many Brazilian researchers, to the extent that selenium and tellurium chemistry became widely disseminated in Brazil's most important research centers, making our country a reference in this field at an international level. A quick search on the Web of Science using the keywords "selenium" and "Brazil" reveals 1700 articles in the last 10 years, illustrating Brazil's contribution to research in different areas related to this topic.

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Despite its current importance, the chemistry of these two elements was, for a long time, little explored due to the alleged toxicity and sensitivity of some of their derivatives. Furthermore, the pioneering works of Wöhler and others in the 19th century yielded dubious results and the products were obtained with low purity. In the 1950s, Professor Nicola Petragnani completed his doctorate under the supervision of Professor Rheinboldt. Professor Marcelo de Moura Campos was advised by Professor Hauptman, who had been an assistant to Professor Rheinboldt. Professor Hauptman introduced sulfur chemistry in Brazil. After securing his chair in Organic Chemistry, Professor Marcelo hired Professor Petragnani as his assistant, and together they developed the first organic reactions using selenium and tellurium reagents. At that time, organic compounds of selenium and tellurium were considered mere chemical curiosities, as no practical applications were known for them—simply because nothing was yet understood about them! Today, the chemistry of these two elements remains at the forefront of advancements in organic, inorganic, and materials chemistry, and several reactions discovered during that period at the Institute of Chemistry of the University of São Paulo have become classics in preparative chemistry, featuring in virtually all basic textbooks on these elements.

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In the year 2000, Brazil hosted the 8th International Conference on Selenium and Tellurium Chemistry in Águas de São Pedro, São Paulo. At that time, countries like Sweden, England, France, Japan, Germany, and the USA had already hosted the conference. Brazil was chosen based on the contribution of the local scientific community to this branch of chemistry. "We can say that research involving selenium and tellurium is one of the few groundbreaking contributions Brazil has made to the international scientific community in the field of chemistry," said Professor João Valdir Comasseto, organizer of the conference and member of the International Organizing Committee of the International Conference on the Chemistry of Selenium and Tellurium (ICCST) since 1991, which also included Professor Antonio L. Braga (UFSC, Brazil). Brazil's prominence in this area led to the country hosting the 15th International Conference on the Chemistry of Selenium and Tellurium again in 2022 in Florianópolis, organized by Professor Antonio L. Braga.

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Significant progress has been made in this field over the past two decades, with a growing community of researchers in Brazil with diverse academic backgrounds, including chemists, physicists, and biochemists. It's important to highlight the role of organic chemistry in the person of Professor Comasseto in the emergence of a generation of biochemists studying the pharmacology and toxicology of selenium and tellurium-containing compounds. In this regard, the first Brazilian study in this field was published in 1998 under the supervision of Professor João B.T. da Rocha at the Federal University of Santa Maria (UFSM). This work positioned UFSM as a reference in the pharmacology and toxicology of selenium and tellurium compounds, making it an international leader in this field.

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Currently, several research groups in this area are well-established in Brazil, regularly publishing in national and international journals, and are recognized by their peers in Brazil and abroad. These developments give us the reassuring sense that the generation that initiated this event did a good job, and that those who follow will continue to strengthen Brazil's scientific community with the same or greater enthusiasm.

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The first meeting bringing together the scientific fields working with selenium and tellurium took place in 2006 with the I Encontro sobre Selênio e Telúrio - I ESSeTe - Brazil. This initiative, led by several researchers, was coordinated by Professor Dr. Ernesto S. Lang from the Department of Chemistry at the University of Santa Maria, Santa Maria/RS. The table below details the events held up to the present date.

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History of ESSeTe Events Held to Date