Chemistry International | April 2022 | AI and Chemistry

CHEMISTRY International The News Magazine of IUPAC

April-June 2022 Volume 44 No. 2

Artificial Intelligence and Chemistry

IUPAC from A Young Chemist’s Perspective Physical Organic Chemistry in the 21st Century

INTERNATIONAL UNION OF PURE AND APPLIED CHEMISTRY

Chemistry International CHEMISTRY International The News Magazine of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC)

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Cover: Artificial Intelligence was made the focus of the 2021 World Chemistry Leadership Meeting held virtually during the IUPAC Congress. The closing keynote presented by Jeremy Frey “How do we shape the future?” brought together the ideas raised by the speakers of the sessions and the highlights of the discussions held simultaneously in Malaysia, in The Netherlands, and with the panel in Montréal.

Ultimately, Frey even suggested directions for IUPAC to take the lead in the transformation of chemistry as a science in the digital age. See more p. 6.

Photo illustration by Stuart Wilson with photography by Trollinho-Ya and Kelly-Sikkema

Contents

CHEMISTRY International April-June 2022 Volume 44 No. 2 43 No. 4 October-December2021 Volume

Features IUPAC from A Young Chemist’s Perspective by Yvonne Choo Shuen Lann Artificial Intelligence and Chemistry: How do we shape the future?

What are the critical issues to be addressed by IUPAC?

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by Jeremy G. Frey

Physical Organic Chemistry in the 21st Century: A Q1 Progress Report by Ian H. Williams Hidden HERstory—Helen Stevens by Marina Wells IUPAC Wire The International Year of Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development proclaimed by the UN for 2022 Michael E. Jung is Awarded the 2022 IUPAC-Richter Prize Solvay awards €300k science prize to Katalin Karikó 2022 CHEMRAWN VII Prize for Green Chemistry— Call for Nominations Metrology in the Digital Era Chemistry In Japan Happy 100th birthday HIST! IUPAC Emeritus Fellows In memoriam Laudatio Corrigendum—Chemistry Teacher International entering its fourth year Project Place Conceptualization of definition and classification for humic substances NPU codes for characterizing subpopulations of the hematopoietic lineage, described from their Clusters of Differentiation (CD) markers Minimising Environmental Impacts of Tyre and Road Wear Particles Educational Workshop in Polymer Sciences 2022 Chemistry Education and Cultural Heritage—CTI Special Issue Safety Training Program e-learning Solubility data of alkanoic acids Making an imPACt Glossary of terms relating to electronic, photonic and magnetic properties of polymers Henry’s law constants Methods to evaluate the scavenging activity of antioxidants toward reactive oxygen and nitrogen species Did you say PFAS ?

IUPAC Provisional Recommendations Specification Of International Chemical Identifier (InChI) QR Codes for Labels on Chemical Samples Up for Discussion An Organizational Structure for the Future Conference Call IUPAC/CCCE 2021—Montréal, Canada IUPAC and IYCN: Working Together for a Globally Sustainable Future Environmental Chemistry and Sustainability CHEMRAWN XXII E-waste in Africa—a boost to take strong actions for a better future

10 14 18 19 19 20 21 21 22 22 23 23 25

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IUPAC from A Young Chemist’s Perspective

by Yvonne Choo Shuen Lann

W

hen you hear the name of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), you would naturally be reminded of the chemical nomenclature you learned in chemistry class or textbooks. At that age, you may have resented the people who created such “complex” naming system to make life difficult for you as a student but as you get older, particularly when you are pursuing chemistry as a career be it in academia or industry, you learn to appreciate the standards that have been put in place to make life easier for you.

Have you ever wondered who are the people behind all the chemical nomenclature and terminology, standardisation methods for measurements, etc.? What do these people do at the IUPAC biennial General Assembly (GA) and World Chemistry Congress (WCC), such as the recent virtual IUPAC 2021? And how did I get involved in IUPAC as a young chemist?

My IKM & IUPAC Journey – 10 Years’ Highlights 10 years ago, IUPAC celebrated the International Year of Chemistry (IYC) 2011 under the unifying theme of “Chemistry—Our life, Our Future”. Various activities were planned with the primary goals of eliminating the negative image of chemistry and bringing about a “Renaissance of Chemical Science in the century” [1].

One of them was the International Video and Essay Competition on “A World without Polymers?” organised by the IUPAC Polymer Division. Out of curiosity

and my love for chemistry, I stepped out of my comfort zone, took up the challenge to participate in the video category of the competition and won first prize [2].

With the sponsorship of the organiser, Institut Kimia Malaysia (IKM), Akademi Sains Malaysia (ASM) and the Malaysian Rubber Glove Manufacturers Association (MARGMA), I was able to travel to San Juan, Puerto Rico for the award ceremony held at IUPAC 2011. The exposure was enlightening and has opened up many opportunities for me in the years that follow.

Having graduated with my Bachelor’s degree (with Honours) in Pure Chemistry from Universiti Sains Malaysia in 2014, I went abroad to pursue my PhD in Chemistry at Newcastle University focused on the design and synthesis of fluorescent organic compounds and polymers for use in energy applications. Since I enjoyed communicating chemistry to the general public (particularly about Polymers) in various IKM events during my undergraduate, I actively involved myself in science outreach events as a STEM ambassador and a member of the Royal Society of Chemistry while I was in the UK. Upon graduation, I returned to Malaysia to embark on my academic journey as a chemistry lecturer based in the School of Energy and Chemical Engineering of Xiamen University Malaysia.

In celebration of both the IUPAC centenary (IUPAC 100) and the International Year of Periodic Table (IYPT) in 2019, the IUPAC and the International Younger Chemists Network (IYCN) announced the creation of a Periodic Table of Younger Chemists to showcase a diverse group of 118 outstanding younger chemists from around the world who embodied the mission and

International Younger Chemists Network (IYCN) General Assembly, 8th August 2021

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core values of IUPAC. I was very grateful to have been awarded the element Bohrium alongside two other Malaysians—Dr Magaret Sivapragasam (Ytterbium) and Dr Felicia Lim Phei Lin (Samarium) [3]. In the same year, I was given the opportunity to contribute in the preparation of IUPAC 2025 and MACRO 2026 bidding slides. IKM successfully won both bids to host IUPAC 2025 in Kuala Lumpur and MACRO 2026 in Kuching, Sarawak! The preparation for the events are underway.

In 2020, I was elected as the youngest council member in IKM history to serve its 2020/2021 term. It was a challenging experience having to take up new roles that come with greater responsibilities, yet not having as much time to adapt or contribute due to various reasons attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, I still learned a lot from the process, improved on my leadership skills, enhanced my understanding of the organisation, its international affiliations (e.g.

IUPAC) and its flagship events/activities. I was also actively involved in the Malaysian Young Chemists Network (MYCN) as the Media Ambassador Chairperson, which resulted in being nominated as one of the two International Younger Chemists Network (IYCN) Malaysian Delegates.

Eventually, it came full circle when I participated in IUPAC 2021 as an invited speaker, as a Malaysian Delegate in the IYCN GA, as a Young Observer (YO) in Division IV Polymer GA and as a National Representative (NR) (2022-2023) in the Committee on Chemical Research Applied to World Needs (CHEMRAWN) GA. Little did I know that 10 years after my first IUPAC encounter, I’d be given such privileges to serve both organisations (IUPAC and IKM) that got me to where I am now.

Virtual IUPAC 2021: Two Weeks Well Spent!

Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, IUPAC 2021 went virtual with meetings and live Q&A held in Zoom, social events/exhibitions hosted in Gather.Town, plenaries were live-streamed, oral presentations were pre-recorded and poster presentations were uploaded ahead of time on the conference platform. As the attendees were based around the world across different time zones, we all did our best to cope with the sessions, even if it meant having to sleep at 2 AM or to wake up a few hours later at 5 AM to catch the live stream/Q&A of a plenary.

51st IUPAC General Assembly My week started with the IYCN’s first online GA on August 8th, 8 PM MYT. Also in attendance were ChM Dr Shahrul Nizam Ahmad (Universiti Teknologi MARA, UiTM) – Malaysian Delegate and Assoc Prof ChM Dr Lee Hooi Ling (Universiti Sains Malaysia). Each represented country received one vote to reflect a stand in the proposed changes to the Statutes and Bylaws as well as in the voting of executive board candidates. As it was virtual, the voting was done via a secure and anonymous platform oversee by election observers.

Towards the end of the GA, we were given the opportunity to networking and connect with various IYCN subcommittees in separate breakout rooms. The public outreach subcommittee, in particular, had positive team dynamics which resonated with me.

The second meeting I attended was the GA of CHEMRAWN on August 10th, 5 AM MYT chaired

by Prof Francesca Kerton (Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada). In attendance were Datuk Chemistry International

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IUPAC from A Young Chemist’s Perspective ChM Dr Soon Ting Kueh (Institut Kimia Malaysia, National Representative, 2020-2021) and Assoc Prof ChM Dr Juan Joon Ching (Universiti Malaya, Associate Member, 2020-2021) while I was there as a YO. During the session, discussion leaders presented updates about their meaningful projects which revolved around the following six IUPAC goals: • Address global issues • Advance research through scientific discussion • Assist industry towards sustainable development, wealth creation and improvement of the quality of life • Foster communication among chemists and organisations with special emphasis on needs in developing countries • Enhance education and the application of chemistry globally • Increase the diversity in IUPAC bodies In an effort to reach out to the social-media active generation, CHEMRAWN made use of its Twitter and Facebook platforms to showcase its projects (e.g.

E-Waste Conference, Prize for Green Chemistry, etc.), re-tweeting of important issues/research areas (e.g.

Microplastic pollution, SDG, etc.).

On August 11th, 5 AM MYT, I attended the GA of Division IV Polymer chaired by Prof Christine Luscombe (University of Washington, USA). In attendance was Prof ChM Ts Dr Chan Chin Han (Universiti

Teknologi MARA, UiTM, Titular Member, 2020-2023) while I was there as a YO. It was apparent that the Polymer Division is one of the most active divisions within IUPAC as reflected by the high number of turn up (members/observers and the impressive number of completed, ongoing and upcoming projects. In addition to the GA, fellow YOs were invited to join in subcommittee task group (project) meetings and special sessions held concurrently with the IUPAC 2021. The Subcommittee of Polymer Terminology (SPT) had thoughtfully arranged a session after their opening to brief YO about the task group meetings they had planned within the 2 weeks and encouraged us to attend those we were interested in, to better understand them. I felt very welcomed and cherished in the meetings – given the chance to brainstorm new project ideas, share perspectives and contribute despite being new to the division. At the SPT closing session, the chair of the SPT subcommittee – Prof Dr Patrick Théato (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany) announced that I will be officially invited back to attend next year’s at MACRO2022 alongside several other YOs.

48th IUPAC World Chemistry Congress I was invited by the chairs of the (Society) - Challenges and Opportunities for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) in Chemistry—A Global Perspective Symposium to

Selected Slides from "A Young Malaysian's Perspective on The Challenges and Barriers for EDI in Chemistry" Invited Talk Showcasing Institut Kimia Malaysia (IKM)'s Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Efforts

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IUPAC from A Young Chemist’s Perspective

During the IUPAC2021 Virtual Social Session on Gather.Town on 16 August 2021, Yvonne met with Frank Sekeris who was hosting the IUPAC2023 booth. The encounter provided a first contact between the 2023 IUPAC Congress to be held in Netherlands and the following to be held in 2025 in Malaysia!

give a talk about my perspective of EDI within the Malaysian chemistry community at IUPAC 2021.

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion are three terms that may sound foreign to a lot of us in Malaysia simply because we have not been exposed to them as much as the West. According to Cambridge dictionary, equity refers to “the situation in which everyone is treated fairly and equally”, diversity refers to “the fact of there being people of many different groups in society, within an organisation, etc.” and inclusion refers to “the idea that everyone should be able to use the same facilities, take part in the same activities, and enjoy the same experiences, including people who have a disability or other disadvantage.”

As the world progresses to prioritise EDI and acknowledges its importance in our community/workplace, we must recognise IKM’s EDI efforts within its organisation – from the establishment of the Malaysian Young Chemists Network (MYCN) to the involvement of women in leadership roles in the council. Such key efforts have been showcased as part of my 15-minutes pre-recorded video. There was also a live Q&A (symposium discussion) session for speakers to interact with those in attendance. Many insightful stories/experiences were shared and possible solutions/progressive efforts were discussed.

Despite being virtual, IUPAC 2021 successfully hosted several social sessions on Gather.Town. It is a fun platform that enabled attendees to mingle in the virtual conference space as personalised avatars. I got to talk to Dr Fabienne Meyers – the Associate Director of IUPAC and Mr Frank Sekeris – the Congress Manager of IUPAC 2023 at their virtual booths. We reminisced about IYC 2011, IYPT 2019, talked about IUPAC 2023, IUPAC 2025 and anticipated the day when conferences could be in-person.

All in all, these two weeks have been extremely fruitful as I have learned a lot about IUPAC from its people and through participation in various task group (project) meetings and GAs. I have also made many new connections and got to be involved in some of the projects. If I had to briefly describe IUPAC in my own words, I would say it is a welcoming organisation that is made up of inspiring individuals from very diverse backgrounds and areas of expertise but they all had a common goal—to contribute and advance chemistry for the betterment of society!

It was meaningful to look back on my last 10 years with IKM and IUPAC through the preparation of this report. Time to look forward to the next decade contributing to chemistry education, research and the community. Thank you IKM and IUPAC for entrusting me with these responsibilities, I promise to serve to the best of my ability.

References: 1.

2.

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Jin, J.-I. (2011), Significance of the International Year of Chemistry 2011. Chem. Eur. J., 17: 9-11. https://doi. org/10.1002/chem.201003326 [Anon.] (2011), A World without Polymers: Chem Int., 33(6), 24-25. https://doi.org/10.1515/ci.2011.33.6.24 Choo, Y.S.L. (2019), The Three Malaysians in IUPAC’s Periodic Table of Younger Chemists: Berita IKM, 136, 18-20.

Article first published in Chemistry in Malaysia, BERITA IKM September 2021 Issue No. 144, pp. 26-28 and reprint with permission.

Yvonne Choo Shuen Lann <yvonne.choo@xmu.edu.my> is Associate Professor of the School of Energy and Chemical Engineering, Xiamen University Malaysia. Her blog is at https://yvonnechoo.tumblr.com/

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Artificial Intelligence and Chemistry How do we shape the future? What are the critical issues to be addressed by IUPAC?

by Jeremy G. Frey IUPAC first 100 years and the World Chemistry Leadership Meeting

F

ollowing the 100 Year Anniversary of IUPAC celebrated in Paris in 2019, Artificial Intelligence was made the focus of the following global 2021 World Chemistry Leadership Meeting (WCLM).1 Once it was clear the prevailing COVID-19 conditions would mean that the 2021 WCLM would be virtual, the planning committee decided to take advantage of an online setting to have a truly global meeting and to have the event follow the sun round the world using three time zones and “visiting” the next two IUPAC Congress sites, i.e. The Netherlands 2023 and Malaysia 2025.

As the form of the meeting took shape, I was asked to give the closing talk bringing together the ideas raised by the speakers in their recorded talks, the highlights of the discussions in Malaysia and The Netherlands, the panel led from Montréal, and perhaps even suggest directions for IUPAC to take the lead in the transformation of chemistry as a science in the digital age. Which is why the title of my closing keynote was, “How do we shape the future?”.

Pure and Applied Chemistry It is very important to remember that IUPAC stands for and represents both Pure and Applied Chemistry; perhaps this is not a distinction that should be made in an age where we all need to justify the relevance of our work and with such critical global issues around sustainability (UN Sustainability Goals [1]) abounding, in which Chemistry and Chemists can clearly play such an important role.

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It is also an interesting or significant fact that many of the fundamental developments in the field of digital chemistry, the use of Artificial Intelligence, and Machine Learning in chemistry are being driven by industry. In some cases, industry could certainly be considered to be in the forefront (Deep Mind AlphaFold2) of these areas. So, as we move forward into IUPAC’s second century, into the digital age, what should we be doing to address these challenges and maximise the effectiveness of new technologies in Chemistry?

Digital i-UPAC As is probably clear from what I have said above and for those who may have read my earlier article on the Digital IUPAC (i-UPAC) [2], my vision of the future comes from the intersection of the idea that what we do is to use scientific approaches to chemistry, and the way we increasingly do this is using a digital technoscape.

Chemists work in Chemical Space! We may start our navigation round this space from different places and take different paths depending on our specialities and aims, from molecules to drugs, compounds to formulations, materials to devices. We are increasingly aiming to be more specific, more precise, whether for personalised medicine or precision agriculture, seeking energy efficiency or enhancing the circular economy.

The chemical space we inhabit is vast, and chemistry is also about change so we must not forget the time dimension; we really live in a world of Chemical SpaceTime. Chemistry is not just about the properties of molecules, it is also about their transformations and the rates at which these transformations take place— time is important.

How have we coped with this vast, largely unexplored space? Do we need to explore it all? In many cases chemists have been inspired by nature. Nature has had somewhat longer to explore regions of chemical space, by trial and error. But nature is also (probably) restricted by paths traversed long ago. I think most of us also believe that our own imagination and inherent creativity have enabled us to reach out into different regions of chemical space but—do we create or explore or simply navigate paths that already exist? [3]

The Tyranny of Molecules We need to design and synthesize new molecules and new structures which have new properties. These

Note: The program of WCLM 2021 is available online. A detailed account of WCLM2021 will follow in the next issue of Chem Int. at https://iupac.org/event/wclm2021/.

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may be intended as drugs to hit specific targets, or assembled to give new materials desired properties to increase the efficiency of devices, etc. One of the hopes of computational chemistry has been that with the ability to predict theoretically and computationally the properties of a molecule, (and materials, which is even more difficult), in advance of making it, then we can be more efficient in directing the huge synthetic effort to molecules that are more likely to be successful candidates. However, even with the massive increase in computing power and better algorithms, we cannot yet make these predictions on a sufficiently accurate basis at sufficient scale.

With ideas that trace back to at least the 19th century, of atoms in molecules, functional group additivity, we realise that we may not need to devote all this computational power to all molecules, working with some, and using the experimental data available, and extending the reach of the complex calculation, using types of statistical correlations to unearth and make use of chemical patterns. The key here is that we do need some experimental data, but how much?

How much data is needed to achieve these aims?

Sometimes the chemist already has a very good idea about what aspects of the molecular structure influence the desired properties. These features may be relatively easy to correlate with activity of function. For example, the activity of a drug may be directly related to the solubility in water and lipids. This means the now well-developed and quick calculations of LogP (the partition between octanol and water) can be used, and correlates well with the measured activity. This is where

simple Quantitative Structure Activity Relationships (QSAR) models win: simple, easy to understand, and fast.

So, what is the difficulty? Most problems of interest are much more complicated, and no simple obvious descriptors are known in advance. A wellknown dictum about unknown unknowns can be used to distinguish between QSAR and Machine Learning models. We have known descriptors, properties that by long experience we know affect the activity of a molecule from which we can build useful and understandable QSAR models. Next in the sequence, we have known unknowns, properties we know could affect activity, but we don’t have a clear idea of what types of descriptors we could use. Finally, we have the unknown unknowns where the underlying patterns are not obvious. Perhaps the machine can help, where we use unsupervised learning and reinforcement learning to find models without any specific idea about what the patterns might be.

Machine Learning has shown great promise by producing models that give excellent predictions and this means we can hope to use Machine Learning to make use of underlying chemical patterns. Indeed, generative models can make use of these underlying patterns to ‘invent’ suitable molecules so that the models become more than just filters of the likely useful one from a pre-existing list. Models for synthetic pathways can then be incorporated so that suggested molecules are likely possible to make.

However, to train the (current) Machine Learning models require lots of data. To train image recognition Chemistry International

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Artificial Intelligence and Chemistry models requires thousands of images, to train language models, millions of words, (but a human child learns these with much less input) and AlphaGo [4] has played more games than any human has ever played (I am slightly guessing here but with the speed AlphaGo can play itself I am pretty sure it is a good guess).

To get good predictions about which molecules to make from our ML model we are likely to need data on lots of molecules. So here is the tyranny—to be selective about the molecules we make, and make more of the “right ones,” we need a good model. To have a good model we need experimental data and to obtain the necessary experimental data, we need to make more molecules. We need to make more molecules, different molecules, to be able in the end, to make fewer molecules.

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Research Data, Big Data, and Chemistry

The Way Forward Nevertheless, the situation does not look to be impossible. Chemical knowledge, physical principles, prior knowledge can help here. But we do need to get accurate data and realistically, this means we need to get even better at making small amounts of lots of different molecules and have highly effective ways to characterise them and measure their properties on perhaps nanoscopic amounts in an automated and in a highly reproducible manner. It is therefore important that both research in synthetic and characterisation methods continue in step with the developments of Machine Learning.

From the perspective of a chemist who wants to understand the principles, we can ask what can we learn from ML models? How do we extract understanding from the complexities of a neural network? The rise of explainable AI is driven by the need to be able to understand the reason for the prediction, driven in part by the needs to ensure the model can be trusted and biases (as there will almost always be bias) understood.

Many of the successful graph-driven ML models lead to an internal representation of molecules in a chemical space, but will we be able to codify these representations and give them names as we do for the observed molecular structure? Perhaps we do not need to, but if we are to reliably use these systems then we must be able to accurately describe the way the models operate to convey them to others; defining the standards to ensure we can do this is another critically important role for IUPAC. Should students give up with traditional chemistry? Will all chemical problems be solved by computer as a data-driven ML exercise? To quote Derek Lowe in his article for Chemistry World: “And do you know who will find those things out?

Not our AI and ML systems, although I’m sure they’ll help whenever possible. No, it’s going to be us. Just like it always has been”. [5] But the culture of chemistry is changing and as far back as 1950 Robert Heinlein suggested that:

The Future of Chemical Information Is Now INTERNATIONAL UNION OF PURE AND APPLIED CHEMISTRY

The Rise of Primary Research Data

The emergence and development of digital information technologies have inspired a new look at how research outputs are managed and disseminated. In 2017, CI released a special issue on Big Data. This year, the special issue on Cheminformatics is about to be published in Pure and Applied Chemistry.

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“When chemistry becomes a discipline, mathematical chemists will design new materials, predict their properties, and tell engineers how to make them—without ever entering a laboratory”. [6] We’ve still got some way to go on that one!

Chemistry may be changing but understanding chemistry is still a worthwhile objective and a challenge. We simply have new tools, and the necessary skills to use

Artificial Intelligence and Chemistry these tools will require changes in the way we train the next generation of chemists.

This is an exciting future but what does IUPAC need to do?

As a global community we must have the standards to describe the data, the related provenance and uncertainty of the data and the systems to enable computers to ‘understand’ the relationships between the data. That is, we need a comprehensive digital ontology to describe the data as only then can we be more certain that automatically generated models will contain some elements of chemical sense.

IUPAC needs to take and is taking a central role in this effort, and it is and will be an enormous effort. It is not just an academic exercise, as I am sure industrial colleagues who need to integrate data will recognise, but without sustained effort and collaboration across the whole of the discipline we will not succeed, and others will try and do a poor job. However, the pace of change is such that the old ways of working find it hard to rise to these challenges. For more resources (human and funding) are needed and raising them, raising the profile, must be one of the most important challenges for the whole organisation. If we can convince the wider society of the need and the rewards then we have a chance to make a step change in the way we respond to the digital, machine learning age.

One of the most significant global challenges for IUPAC is sustainability. This often requires consideration of multiple disciplines and their complex interactions. IUPAC’s role in ensuring that chemistry can be clearly and reliably conveyed is extremely important in facilitating discussions that involve chemistry. With the involvement of AI/ML, the concepts used by chemists need to be even more precisely and unambiguously articulated and explained, and must be suitable for computational consumption.

We are still in a liminal period of the transition to digital chemistry and the rise of AI/ML. As these new techniques become imbedded to a greater and greater extent in our discipline, the key worry is that over-reliance on AI may put us in intellectual debt and less able to address the challenges ahead. But then, similar things have often been said about new technologies, however, AI may be rather different. Nevertheless, as I hope I have made clear, the successful, trustworthy and useful adoption of AI/ML by the chemistry community needs the same careful considerations of nomenclature, terminology, units, symbols, and international standards that have been the core concerns of IUPAC in its first 100 years, the only difference (and it’s a big

Robert Heinlein, featured in this issue of February, 1952 Galaxy Science Fiction magazine, was pondering the meaning of artificial intelligence. ref.6, retrieved from <https://archive.org/ details/galaxymagazine-1952-02/page/n13/mode/2up>

one) is that now we have a computer audience as well as a human one.

References 1.

2.

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4.

5.

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The 17 Goals, United Nations: https://sdgs.un.org/goals Frey, J.G. “Digital IUPAC: A Vision and a Necessity for the 21st Century”, Chem. Int. 2014, vol. 36, no. 1, pp.

14-16; https://doi.org/10.1515/ci.2014.36.1.14 Jansen, M. and J. Christian Schön “”Design” in Chemical Synthesis – An Illusion?”, Angewandte Chemie, International Edition 2006, 45(21), 3406–3412; https:// doi.org/10.1002/anie.200504510 AlphaGo, DeepMind making history: https://deepmind. com/research/case-studies/alphago-the-story-so-far Lowe, D. “The law of conservation of data, Derek Lowe”, Chemistry World, 11 Jan 2022 https://www. chemistryworld.com/opinion/the-law-of-conservationof-data/4014927.article Heinlein, R.A. “Where to?” Galaxy Science Fiction, February 1952, pp. 13-23 <https://archive.org/details/ galaxymagazine-1952-02/page/n13/mode/2up>

Jeremy G. Frey <j.g.frey@soton.ac.uk> is Professor of Physical (and Digital) Chemistry at the University of Southampton, UK. In IUPAC, he is a member of the Physical and Biophysical Chemistry Division, of the Commission on Physicochemical Symbols, Terminology, and Units (responsible for the IUPAC Green Book), the Interdivisional Committee on Terminology, Nomenclature and Symbols, the Committee on Publications and Cheminformatics Data Standards; and the Joint Subcommittee on the IUPAC Gold Book; ORCID.org/0000-0003-0842-4302; @Profechem

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Physical Organic Chemistry in the 21st Century: A Q1 Progress Report

by Ian H. Williams

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n 1997, a collection of twenty personal perspectives from eminent chemists was published in Pure and Applied Chemistry to mark the centenary of physical organic chemistry [1]. This Symposium in Print, entitled Physical Organic Chemistry in the 21st Century (POC21C), was organized by the IUPAC Commission on Physical Organic Chemistry, which was chaired at that time by Tom Tidwell, who contributed a historical prologue in which he suggested Stieglitz’s 1899 proposal of carbocations as reaction intermediates as (unwittingly) having given birth to the discipline. The principal authors were Edward Arnett, Daniel Bellus, Ron Breslow, Fulvio Cacace, Jan Engberts, Marye Anne Fox, Ken Houk, Keith Ingold, Alan Katritzky, Ed Kosower, Meir Lahav, Teruaki Mukaiyama, Oleg Nefedov, George Olah, John Roberts, Jean-Michel Savéant, Helmut Schwarz, Andrew Streitwieser, Frank Westheimer, and Akio Yamamoto. Tidwell noted that, whereas they were not all known as physical organic chemists, yet they had all used the tools of this discipline in their work and were able to comment upon the utility of physical organic chemistry for the practice of other areas of chemistry as well. The theme that ran through all the essays was that the future of the field lay in an interdisciplinary approach, that physical organic chemists would use all the tools available to them, and that they would not be fettered to narrow views.

A quarter of a century later, it is timely to reflect briefly upon what has happened in the intervening 25 years.

Is physical organic chemistry still alive? Does it serve a useful purpose any longer? Have the predicted directions for future research been followed? What unexpected developments have there been?

Glossary of Physical Organic Chemistry 2022 sees the publication in Pure and Applied Chemistry of the Glossary of Terms used in Physical Organic Chemistry (IUPAC Recommendations 2021) [2], a major update of the 1994 version and the result of a lengthy project involving a task group, led by Charles Perrin, under the auspices of the IUPAC Subcommittee on Structural and Mechanistic Chemistry. Besides the redrafting and improvement of entries for many existing terms, the updated Glossary contains numerous new entries. Among these are terms relating to biological chemistry (e.g. catalytic antibody, molecular recognition), computational chemistry (e.g. activation strain model, bifurcation, coarctate),

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materials chemistry (e.g. ionic liquid, nanomaterial, photochromism), supramolecular chemistry (e.g. dendrimer, self-assembly), techniques (dynamic NMR, FRET, high-throughput screening), and fundamental concepts (e.g. frustrated Lewis acid-base pair, halogen bond, organocatalysis). The task group was strongly of the opinion that an up-to-date compendium of terms is an essential tool for use by all chemists and not a superfluous extravagance of interest to a small minority. The introduction to the updated glossary includes a pertinent quote from Lavoisier: “Comme ce sont les mots qui conservent les idées et qui les transmettent, il en résulte qu’on ne peut perfectionner le langage sans perfectionner la science, ni la science sans le langage” (As it is words that preserve ideas and convey them, it follows that one cannot improve language without improving science, nor improve science without improving language.”) If this observation was true in 1789, it is certainly no less true today: all interdisciplinary endeavours depend upon clear understanding of language and terminology across whatever disciplinary borders are being crossed.

What’s in a name?

During the time of Charlie Perrin’s chairmanship of the Commission on Physical Organic Chemistry, not only did it become a Subcommittee (of IUPAC Division III, Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry), but “physical organic” was replaced by “structural and mechanistic” in its name. Why? Several of the contributors to POC21C had commented to the effect that, as the techniques employed in physical organic chemistry would become generally accepted as the routine way of approaching problems in chemical reactivity, so the need for a special name for a distinct subdiscipline would disappear. The name might be evanescent, but the influence would be transcendent: developments in physical organic chemistry belong to all of chemistry. As structure and mechanism are common themes throughout the whole of chemistry, so the change of name for the Subcommittee was a deliberate move away from being regarded as a (possibly dying) niche area to something of wide and vital significance.

In 2005 the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) held a workshop to bring together the academic and industrial chemistry community to discuss the way forward for physical organic chemistry, which was defined as “studies of the dynamics, reactions and interactions of organic molecules and systems leading to quantitative understanding of the interplay between structure, function and reactivity.”

This led to a focused funding initiative in the years that

Figure 1. Asymmetric organocatalysis of Diels-Alder cycloaddition by a chiral nucleophile.

followed, but also—indirectly—to the Organic Reaction Mechanisms Group (a special interest group within the Royal Society of Chemistry) confidently renaming itself as the Physical Organic Chemistry Group!

The definition of physical organic chemistry suggested by EPSRC would probably be acceptable to many, except—perhaps—for its inclusion of the word “organic.” Several of the POC21C authors had noted the fruitful application of “physical-organic” techniques to other areas beyond the traditional realm of organic chemistry. Undoubtedly there are reasons why the pioneering kinetic studies of Lapworth, Orton, and Lowry at the start of the 20th century involved investigations of organic rather than inorganic reactions, not least that their observed rates were compatible with the timescales of the experimental techniques they employed. It was entirely natural that Hammett should coin the phrase “physical organic chemistry” and use this as the title of his influential 1940 book, and that Ingold should entitle his 1953 monograph as Structure and Mechanism in Organic Chemistry. However, in 2022 it is much less obvious why the discipline should take its name from the interface of only one of the several possible branches of chemistry.

What’s happened since 1997?

An important function of the Subcommittee on Structural and Mechanistic Chemistry is to maintain the continuity of the biennial International Conference on Physical Organic Chemistry (ICPOC). Covid19 interrupted the regular pattern, but the rescheduled 25th

edition of ICPOC is now due to take place in July 2022 in Hiroshima, Japan [3]. Since 1998, plenary lectures at these meetings have covered a very wide range of topics. Biological, computational, materials, and supramolecular chemistry, along with “traditional” physical organic chemistry, have been represented in roughly equal proportions, accounting for over 70 % of the lectures, while organometallic mechanisms, radicals, and new techniques have made up most of the balance. Of course, some lecture topics cannot be simply categorised as they are in themselves multidisciplinary: for example, there have been numerous presentations of joint experimental and computational work. Essentially all the topics mentioned by the POC21C contributors have featured during this period.

So what developments were not explicitly foreseen by that group of “seers” in 1997? One notable example is the field of asymmetric organocatalysis (see Figure 1), for which the 2021 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded jointly to Benjamin List and David MacMillan, whose seminal but independent papers were published in 2000 [4,5]. Although some could quibble that this development was merely the application of well-known principles of covalent catalysis, by either nucleophiles or electrophiles (as enunciated 60 years ago by Bender [6] and Jencks [7]) to asymmetric synthesis, many might enviably muse “why didn’t I think of that?” Does it matter that this hugely significant development came from synthetic chemists rather than physical organic chemists? No, of course not! This is an example of the assimilation of ideas and Chemistry International

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Physical Organic Chemistry in the 21st Century: A Q1 Progress Report techniques, that were once the preserve of specialists, into “mainstream” organic chemistry and chemistry in general which was indeed foreseen as a welcome consequence of maturity.

Whilst reflecting on Nobel Prizes in Chemistry, it may be noted that about half of the awards since 1997 have been made for developments involving advances in structure and mechanism, broadly construed, and which therefore may be considered as falling within the wide scope of physical organic chemistry.

Possibly none of these Nobel laureates would describe themselves as a physical organic chemist, but that is irrelevant. However, perhaps more than a few of them might acknowledge that their work was influenced to some extent by consideration of the “dynamics, reactions, and interactions of…molecules and systems leading to quantitative understanding of the interplay between structure, function and reactivity.”

What about any other developments that were not predicted by the POC21C contributors? Any selection is bound to be subjective, but I venture to suggest a couple. First, the realization that many thermal reactions do not behave according to transition-state theory but instead follow non-statistical dynamics [8].

Unexpected results may arise in experiments due to the presence of a specific features on the potential-energy surface governing a chemical reaction. For example, a bifurcation occurring after the transition state has been traversed, or a shallow energy-minimum in which vibrational energy is not equilibrated before a transient intermediate may proceed to alternative products.

Computational simulations of reaction dynamics are required to reveal the causes of these effects, which may be found, for example, in gas-phase SN2 reactions and in pericyclic reactions in solution.

My second personal choice is the application of experimental measurements of multiple kinetic isotope effects, in combination with computational modelling and organic synthesis, to characterize the transition-state structure of an enzyme-catalysed reaction, which enables the design and generation of transition-state analogues as effective enzyme inhibitors and successful therapeutic drugs (Figure 3) [9].

Textbooks and teaching One of the 1997 POC21C contributors (Arnett) commented that “the modern sophomore organic chemistry textbook may be regarded as an unqualified triumph of physical organic chemistry!.” [10] By this he meant that most of the current textbooks were organised around the fundamentals of structure and mechanism. This remains the case with today’s

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Figure 2. A post-transition-state bifurcation on a potential-energy surface may give rise to nonstatistical dynamical effects. (Reproduced from A.E. Litovitz, I. Keresztes, B.K. Carpenter, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 130:12085-94, 2008.)

generation of textbooks, but with varying degrees of success. For several years I used an excerpt from one modern text as a revision exercise for students to spot the errors in the printed account of the kinetics of nucleophilic substitution reactions! There is a danger that the insights of physical organic chemistry might become assimilated too much within mainstream organic chemistry as to be unrecognisable, and they may then be treated with a lack of rigour and due diligence. Two very different modern textbooks [11,12], which both attempt to build upon a solid foundation of physical organic chemistry, certainly avoid that danger, but the field is now so broad that each is inevitably selective in its range of included topics.

It has often been recognised that physical organic chemistry is not always taught as a distinct component of undergraduate degree courses and that, when it is taught, it is not always done so by specialists. When I was appointed to a lectureship in Bath, over thirty years ago, I was asked to introduce physical organic chemistry into the curriculum. I relished this challenge and thoroughly enjoyed teaching my own idiosyncratic selection of topics to students at all levels. For most of time, I was less concerned that they should remember specific details than that they would have been

Physical Organic Chemistry in the 21st Century: A Q1 Progress Report A last word I close with a personal anecdote. A junior colleague, with a background in synthetic organic chemistry, once came to me to discuss some recent research observations. After some time, and with the whiteboard full of structures and diagrams exploring concepts of physical organic chemistry, he turned and exclaimed, “Now this is real science!”

References 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

Figure 3. Application of kinetic isotope effects (KIEs), computational modeling and organic synthesis in drug design. (Adapted from ref. 9.)

encouraged to think logically and critically about data and its significance. Earlier in this article, I mentioned the importance of language in science, and reflected on the possible unimportance of the name by which physical organic chemistry is known. In my opinion, the essential characteristic of those who practise the discipline is the willingness and ability to communicate across the language barrier that too often separates different communities within chemistry and its allied subjects. Historically, the divide was between physical chemists and organic chemists, and may have involved more than just jargon and terminology; other, deeper differences were also exposed. Nowadays the challenge remains to use appropriate language to enable quantitative understanding of the interplay between structure, function, and reactivity to be gained in the study of reactions and interactions of molecules and systems, not only in organic chemistry, but also in biological, materials, supramolecular, and other developing branches of chemistry. I hope that the updated Glossary of Physical Organic Chemistry will help many in this endeavour.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

12.

Pure Appl. Chem. 69(2):211-292, 1997; https://www. degruyter.com/journal/key/pac/69/2/html C.L. Perrin, S.E. Braslavsky, I.H. Williams, Glossary of terms used in physical organic chemistry. Pure Appl.

Chem. in press, 2022; https://doi.org/10.1515/pac-20181010 25th IUPAC International Conference on Physical Organic Chemistry. https://icpoc25.jp/ (accessed 25 January 2022).

B. List, R.A. Lerner, C.F. Barbas, Proline-catalyzed direct asymmetric aldol reactions. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 122(10):2395–2396, 2000.

K.A. Ahrendt, C.J. Borths, D.W.C. MacMillan, New strategies for organic catalysis: the first highly enantioselective organocatalytic Diels–Alder reaction.

J. Am. Chem. Soc. 122(17):4243–4244, 2000.

M.L. Bender, Mechanisms of catalysis of nucleophilic reactions of carboxylic acid derivatives. Chem. Rev. 60(1):53-113, 1960.

E.H. Cordes, W.P. Jencks, Nucleophilic catalysis of semicarbazone formation by anilines. J. Am. Chem.

Soc. 84(5):826–831, 1962.

D.J. Tantillo, Beyond transition state theory—nonstatistical dynamic effects for organic reactions. Adv. Phys. Org. Chem. 55:1-16, 2021.

V.L. Schramm, Enzymatic transition states, transitionstate analogs, dynamics, thermodynamics, and lifetimes. Annu. Rev. Biochem. 80:703–732, 2011.

E.M. Arnett, Physical organic chemistry in the 21st century, will it be recognizable? Pure Appl. Chem.

69(2):217-221, 1997.

E.V. Anslyn, D.A. Dougherty, Modern Physical Organic Chemistry, 2006, Sausalito, CA: University Science Books.

P. Vogel, K.N. Houk, Organic Chemistry: Theory, Reactivity and Mechanisms in Modern Synthesis, 2019, Weinheim: Wiley-VCH.

Ian H. Williams <i.h.williams@bath.ac.uk> is Emeritus Professor of Chemistry at the University of Bath, UK. He is Chair of the IUPAC Subcommittee on Structural and Mechanistic Chemistry, an Associate Member of the Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry Division (Div III), and a former editor of Advances in Physical Organic Chemistry. ORCID.org/00000001-9264-0221

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Hidden HERstory—Helen Stevens

by Marina Wells

H

elen Stevens, Boston University B.A. Class of 1905, was a chemist and educator who taught at Boston University for over four decades. She offered stern guidance to students and helped shape the department as it came into being in the early twentieth century.

In her first years at BU, Stevens most likely took chemistry courses with other students in the sciences across the river at MIT. Eventually, in 1904, she likely attended BU’s inaugural chemistry classes when they were first offered at a “cramped” location at 12 Somerset Street in Boston [1]. This was part of a number of changes that took place in her final months as an undergraduate in 1904. In that year, Lyman C. Newell also joined the faculty, who many cite as the founder of the department. Stevens would work with Newell until 1933, and during this period they would play an important role in incorporating chemistry into the College of Liberal Arts. As part of the nascent department’s growth, it moved to the roomier building at 688 Boylston Street, which featured several working laboratories from having been the former site of Harvard Medical School. In 1935, the Biology department moved out of the same building, opening up further space so that Stevens and others gained further access to offices and labs.

In these years, according to BU’s annual report in 1919, “The chemical laboratory has accommodations for over two hundred students and is adequately equipped for both elementary and advanced work.

The chemical museum connected to this department contains more than five hundred specimens suitable for lecture illustrations.” [2] Stevens, Newell, and other chemists benefitted from a growing respect for the discipline and its necessary equipment during these years at BU. Stevens was a part of several different types of changes at the university. In 1904, she led one of the promenades as part of the very first “faculty-sanctioned” dance at BU. The Boston Globe reported in 1904 that this was a new feature, and that the college had previously been known for its strictness as a Methodist institution. The Globe reported that Stevens wore a gown of pink silk muslin and pink roses. It was quite an affair to have such an event at the formerly conservative Methodist university, and it seems that Helen Stevens marched at the forefront.

Amid all of the changes of the early aughts, Stevens graduated from Boston University with her AB degree in 1905. In the following years, she taught in the

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Helen Stevens helped create the Chemistry Department at Boston University.

surrounding area, in Granby, MA; North Brookfield, MA; Nashua, NH; and Somerville, MA. She also began working as an assistant to Professor Newell in the Chemistry Department at BU. Hired as the second employee in the department in 1909, she and Newell built up the department over the next decade––she is listed as “Assistant in Chemistry” within the College of Liberal Arts—until the department’s second faculty member was hired in 1920 [3]. In 1921, she received her M.A. degree from the university, completing her thesis, “A Scheme for the Identification of the Carbohydrates.”

She cites Newell in her acknowledgments as having suggested this idea and consulted on every step, in addition to several other professors. Despite her integral role within the department, she would never be promoted to full professor.

Yearbooks from the 1920s suggest Stevens had a strong interest in both chemistry and the success of her students, with an exacting approach that surely lent itself to chemistry. In the 1921 BU HUB Yearbook, her profile is accompanied by the quote, “For if she will, you may depend on it.” In several yearbooks over the next decade, she was described in the following words: “When we were freshmen we used to be ‘scared’ of Miss Stevens till one day we simply could not do a thing in lab. We went to her in fear and trembling and discovered we had been all wrong. After that, did we go to her to solve our difficulties? Well-l-l.” [4]

Helen Steven's portait is featured in this reproduction of the 1929 Boston University yearbook.

“Behold the guardian angel of reagent bottles, the skillful wielder of mortar and pestle, the cool, clear-eyed arbiter of the unbalanced equation.

May those who through her tuition have found the means to acquiring chemical equilibrium, project their discovery as successfully as she, into their extra-chemical existence.” [5] “Miss Stevens is a thorough-going scientist, and employs laboratory methods even in her hours of leisure. It is reported that she raises geraniums according to the strictest schedule, and we are wondering if those geraniums ever have a fervent wish, occasionally, to indulge a little in irregularity.

However, it appears that flowers flourish marvelously under her deft supervision, and we hence infer that students are much akin to blooming rosebuds.” [6]

and the New England Association of Chemistry Teachers. Elsewhere in the community, she was active in the Needham Evangelical Congregational Church at least until 1932, when she and her sister Marion Stevens donated furniture in 1932 in honor of their late parents.

Eventually, Helen would retire from her position at BU in 1953 after 44 years of work for the university. She also spent many of her years at BU as the advisor to BU’s chapter of Alpha Phi, one of the oldest women’s fraternities in the nation. In the final decade of her career, she reached the level of Associate Instructor.

Surely an unsung hero, Helen Stevens might be credited with leading the Chemistry Department into its success at midcentury, placing her emphasis on students, and laying the foundations for its status as a rigorous research institution today.

References 1.

“Under Miss Stevens’ tutelage, the workers in the Chem Lab are taught to walk the straight and narrow path. Id est, exactness seems to be her motto.

Things run with amazing clockwork behind those forbidding glass doors on the second floor of our establishment, and it is due, we are sure, to her ceaseless vigilance. Somehow she doesn’t seem to fit with chlorines, salt solutions and sodium nitrate, but there surely is no accounting for tastes.” [7] Clearly, the judging but affectionate writers of these yearbook profiles knew Stevens as a tough teacher who held her students to a high standard, and who throughout her meticulousness always had their success in mind. Clearly an enthusiastic chemist, she was also a member of the American Chemical Society

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

Norman N. Lichtin, Boston University’s Department of Chemistry: A Brief History of the Period (1989).

Boston University The Year Book 1919 (Boston University, 1919), 121. Accessed Aug 2 2021. https:// www.google.com/books/edition/General_Catalogue/ bSZFAQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=stevens.

Boston University The Year Book 1919 (Boston University, 1919), 32. Accessed Aug 2 2021. https:// www.google.com/books/edition/General_Catalogue/ bSZFAQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=stevens.

BU Yearbook, (1924), 32.

BU Yearbook (1927).

BU Yearbook (1928).

BU Yearbook (1929).

Marina Wells <mdwells@bu.edu> is a PhD Candidate in the American & New England Studies Program at Boston University, and the primary researcher about the five women celebrated in the 2021 BU ARROWs Hidden Chemistry International

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Hidden HERstory—Helen Stevens

Helen Steven's portait is featured in this reproduction of the 1921 Boston University yearbook.

HERstories project at https://www.bu.edu/arrows/art-rfp/.

Reprint wih permission from https://www.bu.edu/ arrows/art-rfp/helen-stevens/ In November 2021 Boston University’s ARROWS: Advance, Recruit, Retain & Organize Women in STEM (https://www.bu.edu/arrows/about/) program did seek proposals from visual artists in all media for five site-specific projects to be installed in different STEM departmental spaces around campus. One of these installations is to honor Helen Stevens and her hidden story became part of that project aiming to recognize

and celebrate women in the STEM fields who are associated with Boston University.

For a “brief history” of the department, see Norman N. Lichtin, Boston University’s Department of Chemistry: A Brief History of the Period 1904-1973 (1989).

Helen Stevens' thesis for her MA in chemistry is accessible through Open BU, “A Scheme for the Identification of the Carbohydrates.”

Helen Stevens is also mentioned briefly in the Campus History of BU by Sally Ann Kydd, but which features some incorrect information.

Feature Articles Wanted Contact the editor for more information at <edit.ci@iupac.org>.

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Hidden HERstory—Helen Stevens

Registration and Abstract submissions are now open

IUPAC Wire

News and information on IUPAC, its fellows, and member organizations.

See also www.iupac.org/news

The International Year of Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development proclaimed by the UN for 2022

W

e need more basic sciences to achieve Agenda 2030 and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals. This is the message sent to the world by the United Nations General Assembly on 2 December 2021: Member States approved by consensus the resolution 76/A/L.12 promulgating the year 2022 as the International Year of Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development (IYBSSD2022).

With this resolution, the Nations General Assembly:

United

“invites all [its] Member States, organizations of the UNs system and other global, regional and subregional organizations, as well as other relevant stakeholders, including academia, civil society, inter alia, international and national nongovernmental organizations, individuals and the private sector, to observe and raise awareness of the importance of basic sciences for sustainable development, in accordance with national priorities.”

The United Nations General Assembly motivated its decision with “the high value for humankind of basic sciences,” and with the fact that “enhanced global awareness of, and increased education in, the basic sciences is vital to attain sustainable development and to improve the quality of life for people all over the world.” It also stressed that “basic sciences and emerging technologies respond to the needs of humankind by providing access to information and increasing the health and well-being of individuals, communities, and societies.” The successes and difficulties of the global fight against the COVID-19 pandemic have been for two years a stark reminder of this importance of basic sciences, such as (but not limited to) biology, chemistry, physics, mathematics, and anthropology.

The vote is the result of the mobilization of the international scientific community, led since 2017 by the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP),

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CERN (The European Laboratory for Particle Physics), and 26 other international scientific unions including IUPAC, and by research organizations from different parts of the world, under the auspices of UNESCO. Christopher Brett said: “The proclamation of the International Year of Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development is the culmination of a process in which IUPAC, as a founding partner of IYBSSD, has been involved since the beginning. It will give a unique opportunity for promoting the basic sciences and their importance, emphasising the crucial role of Chemistry and Chemistry’s interdisciplinary nature at the cutting edge of fundamental research through to education and outreach.

The IYBSSD2022 will be officially inaugurated with an opening ceremony 1 July 2022 at UNESCO headquarters in Paris. Events and activities will be organized around the world until 30 June 2023.

Read the full release from the UN at https://www. un.org/press/en/2021/ga12391.doc.htm.

Contact Michel Spiro, <michel.spiro@iybssd2022.org> president of the Steering Committee for IYBSSD2022, or Luc Allemand, <luc.allemand@ iybssd2022.org> secretary general of IYBSSD2022 IUPAC Representatives: Laura L. McConnell, <laura.mcconnell@bayer.com> and Zhigang Shuai <zgshuai@tsinghua.edu.cn> https://iupac.org/tag/iybssd2022/ https://www.iybssd2022.org/

Michael E. Jung is Awarded the 2022 IUPAC-Richter Prize

Michael E. Jung, recipient of the 2022 IUPAC-Richter Prize, in recognition of his research which has afforded new drugs for the treatment of advanced prostate cancer.

M

ichael E. Jung, of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at UCLA, has been awarded the 2022 IUPAC-Richter Prize in recognition of his research, which has afforded new drugs for the treatment of advanced prostate cancer. The acceptance lecture will be held in New York, NY, USA (2629 June 2022) at the 37th ACS National Medicinal Chemistry Symposium and Jung will present a second lecture at the XXVII EFMC International Symposium on Medicinal Chemistry in Nice, France (4-8 Sept 2022).

In 1978, Michael Jung began a career as a synthetic organic chemistry consultant for many industrial firms, mostly pharmaceutical or agricultural firms, in both big pharma and biotechs. At one point, he consulted at the same time for more than 25 industrial companies. From the start at UCLA, he was involved in the total synthesis of natural products and the development of new synthetic methods. He published extensively in those two areas and was honored with several awards, e.g., the Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award in 1995. In 2003, and after a career as a synthetic organic chemist, he made a career shift and decided to become a medicinal chemist in order to try to get a drug for some human disease out of the lab. He had never studied or practiced medicinal chemistry but he figured he had learned something consulting all those years in pharma. He quickly hired

a postdoc and let everyone in biology and the medical school at UCLA know that they were ready to help, if chemistry could somehow move their project forward.

In close collaboration with Charles Sawyers, Jung designed and synthesized two different compounds for the treatment of castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). The first compound, enzalutamide (Xtandi), was approved in August 2012 for the treatment of both metastatic post-chemotherapy and pre-chemotherapy CRPC. His second drug, apalutamide (Erleada), was approved in February 2018 for pre-metastatic CRPC. Just recently, it was reported to also work for metastatic castration-sensitive prostate cancer.

In honor of his drug discovery work which has led to two FDA approvals, he was named the University of California Presidential Chair in Medicinal Chemistry in 2018. In his career, he has supervised 94 PhD students, 9 MS students, 47 undergraduates, 134 postdoctoral associates, and 21 research associates. Over the years, he has co-founded 14 biotechs, 10 of which are still operating.

This year marks the ninth occasion of the IUPACRichter Prize, which was established in 2005 by the IUPAC and Richter PLC. Awarded biannually, the awardee is announced following nominations and the decision of an independent international selection committee. The awardee is expected to give two lectures, one in Europe and one in the United States, at international symposia on medicinal chemistry. The lecture in which the prize is awarded occurs alternatively in Europe and in the United States. The awardee receives an award of $ 10,000, which is sponsored

by Richter PLC, and a plaque, which is presented by IUPAC. The previous awardees are: 2006, Malcolm FG Stevens (UK); 2008, Jan Heeres (Belgium); 2010, Arun Ghosh (USA); 2012, Stephen Hanessian (Canada); 2014, Helmut Buschmann (Germany); 2016, Michael Sofia (USA); 2018, Peter Grootenhuis (USA); and 2020, John Macor (USA).

https://iupac.org/what-we-do/awards/iupac-richter-prizemedicinal-chemistry/

Solvay awards €300k science prize to Katalin Karikó

T

he 2022 Science for the Future Solvay Prize has been awarded to Katalin Karikó, adjunct professor at the University of Pennsylvania (USA) and professor at the University of Szeged (Hungary), for her work on the biochemical modification of synChemistry International

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IUPAC Wire Katalin Karikó, recipient of the 2022 Solvay Prize for her work on the biochemical modification of synthetically produced messenger RNA.

thetically produced messenger RNA (mRNA), which has enabled the rapid development of vaccines. Her research was most notably used by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna to build COVID-19 mRNA vaccines, which have saved many lives. It could also help fight other diseases like cancer, infection from influenza, malaria or HIV in the future. Professor Karikó has dedicated her 40-year career to using RNA as a therapeutic, with chemistry as a key element to modify the mRNA to avoid the risk of rejection by the immune system.

“I am thrilled and honored by this recognition,” said Professor Karikó. “I look back on my long journey with gratitude to all those who helped me to get there: my supportive family, my inspirational teachers, mentors and colleagues.” mRNA is the genetic script that carries DNA instructions to each cell’s protein-making machinery, directing them to make their own medicines. In 2005, professor Karikó, co-discovered that when a modified uridine such as pseudo uridine, which is present in the tRNA (transfer RNA), was incorporated into the in-vitro synthesized mRNA made it non immunogenic.

This was the start of subsequent studies leading to generating the optimal mRNA for therapies, and the potential for many applications in human health care.

“Professor Karikó is truly reinventing scientific progress,” said Ilham Kadri, CEO of Solvay. “As the second woman to win the award, she is such an inspiration and I am so proud to grant her this prize on behalf of Solvay, whose founder actively promoted science for the good of humanity and future generations. Through her incredible determination, she has achieved a major advancement for humankind that will revolutionize the

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treatment of many diseases.

Created in 2013, the Solvay Prize recognizes a scientist for major discoveries that highlight the essential role of science and chemistry in helping to solve some of the world’s most pressing challenges.

The 2022 award continues the legacy of Ernest Solvay and marks the 100-year anniversary of the first Solvay Conference on Chemistry. Solvay has convened the brightest scientific minds for over a century and this year’s winner was selected by an independent jury of renowned scientists, including two Nobel Prize laureates. Science-based innovation drives Solvay’s strategy and is an integral part of the company’s DNA. The award ceremony was held at the Palais des Académies in Brussels on March 29th in the presence of His Majesty King Philippe of Belgium, and included a livestream option.

https://www.solvay.com/en/innovation/encourage-science/chemistryfuture-solvay-prize

2022 CHEMRAWN VII Prize for Green Chemistry—Call for Nominations

T

he CHEMRAWN VII Prize of USD 5000 is granted to a young investigator (less than 45 years of age) from an emerging region and who is actively contributing to research in Green Chemistry. The Prize was first announced in August 2008 and since it has been awarded every two years at the IUPAC International Conference on Green Chemistry. Nominations for the 2022 Prize must be submitted by 31 May 2022.

Each nomination should include a CV and two

IUPAC Wire letters of support, plus a brief summary of accomplishments illustrating the contributions of the applicant to research in Green Chemistry. Examples of research topics that are covered by the prize include: – Atmospheric Chemistry – Use of Alternative Feedstocks – Use of Innocuous Reagents – Employing Natural Processes – Use of Alternative Solvents – Design of Safer Chemicals – Developing Alternative Reaction Conditions – Minimizing Energy Consumption The Selection Committee comprises the Chair of CHEMRAWN, i.e. the IUPAC Committee on Chemical Research Applied to World Needs, and the Chair of the Interdivisional Committee on Green Chemistry for Sustainable Development. The Award will be presented at the 9th IUPAC International Conference on Green Chemistry, organized 5-9 September 2022 in Athens, Greece, and where the winner will be asked to give a lecture.

The Prize has been awarded to Noureddine Yassaa (Algeria) in 2010, Rashimi Sanghi (India) in 2012, Vania G. Zuin (Brazil) in 2014, Ali Maleki (Iran) in 2016, Mirabbos Hojamberdiev (Uzbekistan) in 2018, and Huizhen Liu (China) and Banothile Makhubela (South Africa) in 2020.

For information and link to nomination form, see https://iupac.org/whatwe-do/awards/chemrawn-vii-prize/

Metrology in the Digital Era

T

he World Metrology Day Team has confirmed that the theme for World Metrology Day 2022 is “Metrology in the Digital Era”.

World Metrology Day

20 May 2022

www.worldmetrologyday.org

© BIPM-OIML 2022

Metrology in the Digital Era

The OIML and the BIPM are pleased to announce that the 2022 World Metrology Day Resource Website is now live: https://www. worldmetrologyday.org The theme this year is “Metrology in the Digital Era.” This theme was chosen because digital technology is revolutionising our community, and is

one of the most exciting trends in society today.

The 2022 poster was designed in association with COOMET and the National Scientific Centre Institute of Metrology, Ukraine.

On the resource website, you may download the press release, the directors’ message, and the poster; the poster is available in PDF format in English and in French, and in Photoshop format in English. The COOMET poster is also published on the posters page.

Last year’s World Metrology Day was a huge success; we hope to build on that success in 2022.

Please help us to spread the word about World Metrology Day and let the World Metrology Day Team know by email about the events you are organising in your country so that we can include them on the website. For inspiration, you can see the events organised by other NMIs in previous years on the website.

https://www.worldmetrologyday.org/

Chemistry In Japan

A

siaChem’s Editor-in-Chief has started a tradition of focusing on chemistry in specific member countries within the Asia-Pacific expanse and which echoes the Federation of Asian Chemical Societies (FACS). With the December 2021 edition, AsiaChem covers the wealth of Chemistry in Japan.

AsiaChem Editor-in-Chief Ehud Keinan prefaced the issue by recalling that Japan has always been a science powerhouse. He noted that of the 29 Japanese Nobel Prize Laureates, 21 received the prize since 2000, and that the rapidly increasing trend of awarding Asian scientists with major prizes parallels other trends: “First, the center of gravity of the global scientific activity follows the apparent shift of the world economy from North America and Europe to Asia. Second, Asian countries notoriously known for their brain drain have become increasingly attractive to their scientists, Chemistry International

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IUPAC Wire thus, shifting the balance between brain drain and brain gain.”

The issue comprises a broad variety of articles on cutting-edge science, history, essays, and interviews, serving a wide readership worldwide.

Read all at https://www.facs.website/asiachem-2-1-december-2021

Happy 100th birthday HIST!

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he Division of the History of Chemistry of the American Chemical Society (HIST) is 100 years old in 2022. To celebrate, a special issue of the Bulletin for the History of Chemistry has been prepared and made available open access to anyone. Prominent chemist historians and historians of chemistry were invited to contribute essays on the theme “Novel Insights in the History of Chemistry: Looking Back Yet Mostly Looking Forward.”

This theme led to a wide variety of responses, which the editors Carmen J. Giunta and Jeffrey I. Seeman, have collected together into the following six topics arranged after Roald Hoffmann’s thoughtful foreword and a preface: • Expansive Approaches to the History of Chemistry • Foci on Specific Topics • Multidisciplinary Approaches and Tools • Thriving, Inclusivity, Diversity, and Equity and the

History of Chemistry Relationships of Historians and Chemist-Historians • The Past, Present and Future of History of Chemistry You are invited to peruse this commemorative issue, Bulletin for the History of Chemistry, Volume 47, Number 1, 2022, HIST Centennial Issue online at http://acshist.scs.illinois.edu/bulletin_open_access/ bull22-vol47-1.php •

IUPAC Emeritus Fellows

E

meritus Fellows are former members of IUPAC Divisions and erstwhile Commissions and Subcommittees, who have made outstanding contributions to IUPAC and, through chemistry, to the chemical sciences in general.

Emeritus Fellows may be appointed during each Biennium, the number of appointments reflect the current Subcommittee structure of the Division. Fellows are kept abreast of Division activities and are encouraged to remain active with the Divisions as ad hoc consultants. While this program was initiated in 2010 by the Chemistry and Human Division, it has been expended across all Divisions in 2020.

The Emeritus Fellows awarded in the last two years are listed below by Divisions. Links to their biographical record are available online.

Physical and Biophysical Chemistry Division (Div I) • Prof. Ian M. Mills (UK) • Prof. Tomislav Cvitaš (Croatia) • Prof. Ron Weir (Canada) Polymer Division (Div IV) • Prof. Michael Buback (Germany) • Prof. Bob Gilbert (Australia) • Prof. Jung-Il Jin (Korea) • Prof. Richard (Dick) G. Jones* (UK) • Prof. Pavel Kratochvíl (Czech Republic) • Prof. Jean-Pierre Vairon (France) Chemistry and the Environment (Div VI) • Dr. Laura L. McConnell (US) • Dr. John B. Unsworth (UK) • Dr Yehuda Shevah (Israel) Chemistry and Human Health (Div VII) • Prof. Michael Schwenk (Germany)

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IUPAC Wire Chemical Nomenclature and Structure Representation (Div VIII) • Prof. G. Jeffery Leigh* (UK) • Dr. Alan McNaught (UK) • Dr. Warren Powell (USA) * recently deceased

https://iupac.org/who-we-are/emeritus-fellows/

In memoriam IUPAC is saddened to learn the recent passing of the following members and fellows: • • •

•

•

•

Igor Pletnev (Russia) (passed 9 Nov 2021) – InChI subcommittee Dick Jones (UK) (Sept 1939 – 23 Dec 2021) – Polymer Division, Emeritus Fellow Nancy Jackson (USA) (passed 3 Jan 2022) – Affiliate, former President of the American Chemical Society Marcelle Gaune-Escard (France) (passed 11 Jan 2022) - Subcommittee on Solubility and Equilibrium Data Janet Scott (UK) (passed 23 Jan 2022) Interdivisional Committee on Green Chemistry for Sustainable Development (ICGCSD) Jeffery Leigh (UK) (Sep 1934 – 1 Feb 2022) – Inorganic Chemistry Division and Chemical Nomenclature and Structure Representation Division, Emeritus Fellow

Laudatio Professor Jung-Il Jin

by Michael Hess

I

t is a good and old Korean tradition to honour the 80th birthday of a person by a ceremony called 팔순 (palsoon): All family members and friends come together to honour and pay homage to the person celebrating the anniversary. This year, Professor Jung-Il Jin— Emeritus Professor Korea University Seoul—celebrates

his 80th birthday, looking back to an outstanding career in Polymer Science, including 31 years of diligent and fruitful service to IUPAC. He started in 1991 as National Representative of the Republic of Korea in the Macromolecular Division (now Polymer Division, Division IV), rising to President of the Polymer Division in 2006, and he became IUPAC President during the years 2008 and 2009. This ‘palsoon’ is a perfect opportunity for the scientific community to pay tribute to Prof. Jin as a distinguished scientist with exceptional contributions to the scientific community, the society in general, and to honour Prof. Jin as a gifted teacher, a mentor and leader, and last but not least, to highly esteem him as a friend.

Prof. Jin was born April 19, 1942 in Seoul, South Korea.

He studied chemistry at the Seoul National University, BS 1964, MS (1966) in Organic Chemistry under the supervision of Prof. Chang, Sae-He. He received his PhD in Polymer Chemistry (Polymerization and Copolymerization of Divinylbenzene Isomers) in 1969 at the City University of New York, USA, (Prof.

Richard H. Wiley). After working as Senior Research Chemist (Stauffer Chem. Co. USA) from 1969 to 1974, he became professor of the Chemistry Department of the Korea University, Seoul, South Korea. From 1998 to 2007 he was also Director of the Centre for Electroand Photoresponsive Material. There were interludes as visiting professor/visiting scholar at the University of Massachusetts, USA (1987, 1997). It was also at the University of Massachusetts where Prof. Jin met Zhou Qifeng (also now one of the Past President of IUPAC), who was a PhD student of Prof. Bob Lenz. Jung-Il Jin worked together with him and Chris Ober on polymer liquid crystals and they became close friends. Prof.

Jin then spent one term at Clare Hall/College at the University of Cambridge, UK (1997) as visiting scholar working on conductive and polyconjugated polymers with Prof. Andrew Holmes (Chemistry Department).

From 2002 to 2004 he served as Dean of the Graduate School of Korea University and 2003/2004 as VicePresident of Korea University, Seoul. In 2008 and 2009 Prof. Jin received the Samsung Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, Korea University. He became President of the Korean Council of Science Editors (KCSE) (2011–2014) and Dean of KU-KIST Graduate School of Converging Science and Technology, then Distinguished Professor (2013–2019). In October 2017, Prof. Jin became Professor Emeritus of the Korea University, Seoul.

Prof. Jin’s research activities concentrated on polymer liquid crystals, conducting and optically Chemistry International

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IUPAC Wire

Professor Jung-Il Jin meets with Ban Ki-moon, then Secretary-General of the United Nations. Jin recently celebrated his 80th birthday. He dedicated his career to Polymer Science, including 31 years of diligent and fruitful service to IUPAC.

responsive polymers, and the electromagnetic properties of DNA. Until his retirement he has supervised more than 150 graduate students, among them at least 50 doctoral students. In addition, 25 postdoctoral students, research assistants and visiting professors were members of his team. His scientific work has resulted in about 420 refereed papers, which gained more than 10,000 citations, and more than 30 patents in South Korea and the USA. Consequently, he was frequently invited as plenary speaker to many international conferences and until now he has received 17 domestic and international awards, honouring his excellent scientific and educational work.

IUPAC Activities Beside his remarkable success as a scientist, Prof. Jin has left his mark on IUPAC with his decades of service in the Polymer Division, culminating in his election as IUPAC President in 2008/2009. In 1991 he was elected as National Representative of the Republic of Korea for the Commission on Macromolecular Nomenclature

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(Commission IV.1, now as the Subcommittee on Polymer Terminology). In 2002 his diligent work resulted in his election as Division Vice President 2002-2005 and as Division President 2006-2007. During his Presidency he played a leading role in the committee, which organized the International Year of Chemistry in 2011.

In 2009 he visited the UN in New York, where he met the 8th UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon, giving rise to a cooperation between United Nations and IUPAC aimed at sustainable development. Consequently, IUPAC received the status of a United Nations NGO. His decades of service for IUPAC included involvement in the Bureau, the Executive Committee, the Committee on Chemical Research Funding, reviews of the IUPAC Strategy and Project Financing Report, and, the Editorial Advisory Board of Pure and Applied Chemistry. He was active in many projects of Division IV and beyond that he cooperated with the Committee on Chemistry and Industry, with CHEMRAWN (the Committee on Chemical Research Applied to World Needs), and the Committee on Chemistry Education.

IUPAC Wire Prof. Jin was also involved in IUPAC Conference activities. In 1996, he was one of the leading organizers of IUPAC MACRO SEOUL and involved in the IUPAC General Assembly/World Chemistry Congress 2015 Busan, Republic of Korea. He was also member of numerous organizing committees and advisory boards of IUPAC sponsored conferences and meetings.

Negotiations with SAMSUNG resulted in the first grant of a fund from industry to IUPAC, the SAMSUNG Fund (now HANWHA–TOTAL Fund). This USD 125,000 grant from 2004 endows the biennial HANWHA–TOTAL–Young Scientists Award for outstanding polymer scientists not older than 40 years and is awarded on the occasion of the IUPAC MACRO Conferences.

In the year 2020, his standing as a scientist and continuing service to IUPAC and the Polymer Division has been expressed by awarding him the status of Emeritus Fellow in Division IV [1].

Present Days These days Prof. Jin is still keeping a personal office within reach of Korea University (Seoul), however, with reduced activities. Occasionally, he gives lectures for students and the general public and he is still an active member of the boards of a couple of foundations. He has recently published two volumes of essays about his past and thoughts in Korean. Otherwise, he enjoys life and the progress of his children and grandchildren with his beloved wife Sun-Ja. It is my great pleasure and honour having been asked to write this laudatio for my dear friend, whom I have known for 26 years as an outstanding scientist and excellent teacher. As excellent teachers usually are, he also was a tough teacher. Loved and respected by his students, he shared with them his knowledge and pushed them to the highest levels. The best precondition is to become a good scientist and find appropriate employment in industry or academia, and in this way contribute to the reputation of his university by carrying on his spirit. His kind, friendly and empathic manner, expressed by great hospitality and generosity, is reflected by the number of friends he has and the honours he has received.

Reference 1.

Tabular materials including domestic and international awards, Honorary Positions, Academic Societies and Foundations, Editorial Advisory Boards, and Books have been added in the following page: https://iupac. org/who-we-are/divisions/emeritus-fellows-2000/ emeritus-fellow-jung-il-jin/

Corrigendum— Chemistry Teacher International entering its fourth year submitted by J. Apotheker In the article ‘Chemistry Teacher International entering its fourth year’ (J. Apotheker, Chem Int, vol. 44, no. 1, 2022, pp.

37-41. https://doi.org/10.1515/ci-2022-0125) the content of an editorial written by Keith Taber about good practice papers in the journal Chemistry Education Research and Practice (CERP) is cited and quoted. The conclusion could be drawn from the way that this work has been cited that CERP does not accept good practice papers. The author would like to stress that the journal does accept papers of this nature.

Another quotation from the cited editorial makes that clear: "CERP welcomes papers reporting high quality chemistry education research relevant to practitioners, and this certainly includes those where manuscripts report studies carried out into the researchers’ own practice…CERP … publishes strong examples of research carried out both by external researchers and also by practitioner researchers. As long as the work meets the journal’s usual criteria for publication, in principle, there is nothing wrong with practice papers".

We value the role of Chemistry Education Research and Practice as a journal that publishes about research in chemistry education, including research in chemical practices in the classroom. Chemistry Teacher International was conceived as an intermediate step between national journals in chemistry education and international journals like CERP and the Journal of Chemistry Education. In that sense the editors of CTI see the journal as an instrument for capacity building, and a platform for teachers. Chemistry Teacher International publishes reports of good practices in chemistry education at all levels as well as reports about developments in chemistry education etc, that are not research based. These should be evaluated in an educational setting.

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Project Place

Information about new, current, and complete IUPAC projects and related initiatives.

See also www.iupac.org/projects

Conceptualization of definition and classification for humic substances Carbon accounting is crucial for reliable estimates of anthropogenic impact on climate change. Organic carbon is the most labile carbon pool composed predominantly of humified non-living organic matter.

It is the major natural emitter of carbon dioxide and methane. At the same time, ill-defined isolation protocols and a lack of rigorous chemical definition of the humic systems provide for large uncertainties in assessing the rate of natural degradation and turnover of non-living organic matter. The humic systems exist both in soils, water, and organic rocks. While in all solid substrates, such as soil, coal, peat, etc., they are referred to as humic substances (HS), the non-living organic matter in waters is referred to as natural organic matter (NOM). Both HS and NOM play crucial ecological roles, in particular, under conditions of global climate change and represent different varieties of humic systems. The development of molecular systematics for these complex chemical systems is a prerequisite for reliable carbon accounting on different scales. The major problem is that in contrast to living systems, the synthesis of humic systems has no genetic code. It proceeds stochastically being constrained by the specific environmental parameters such as temperature, pressure, concentration of oxygen, humidity, the presence of aqueous, mineral, or organic matrices, etc. As a result, both definition and classification of humic systems are operationally defined according to the protocols of their isolation and fractionation. There is ample experimental evidence that behind this operational classification are structural regularities governing this behavior. However, they are not used yet for developing molecular systematics of HS and NOM, which are the different varieties of humic systems.

The specific objectives of this project are as follows: • critical evaluation of recent developments in the field of systems chemistry aimed at conceptualization of HS and NOM as complex chemical

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photo by Johannes Plenio/Unsplash

•

•

•

•

• • •

system critical evaluation of existing analytical methodologies for investigation structural and molecular space of humic systems critical evaluation of existing approaches to classification of non-living organic matter (e.g., humic substances, natural organic matter, dissolved organic matter, soil continuum, soil organic matter, aquatic continuum) evaluation of recent developments in the field of quantitative description of structure of HS and NOM aimed at recommendations of best structural descriptors elaboration of algorithm to compile the existing (reported) data on molecular composition of HS and NOM into chemical library of humic systems elaboration of principles of molecular systematics of humic systems elaboration of chemical definition and classification of humic substances clear descriptions of relatively simple and inexpensive analytical measurements by which a sample could be properly classified for a use by small industrial companies – humate producers.

A Thematic session is planned for at the 21st International Conference of the International Humic Substances Society – Sept 17-22, 2022. <http://www. humus.ru/ihss-21/>

For more information and comments, contact Task Group Chair Irina Perminova <iperm@org.chem.msu.ru> https://iupac.org/project/2021-032-3-600

NPU codes for characterizing subpopulations of the hematopoietic lineage, described from their Clusters of Differentiation (CD) markers Numerous diseases are associated with alterations in peripheral blood lymphocyte subpopulations, including primary, secondary, and congenital immunodeficiency’s, autoimmune diseases, infections and cancer. Identification of lymphocyte subpopulations is necessary in these clinical conditions to establish diagnosis and as a criterion for disease progression and treatment optimization.

Prior to antigen stimulation, B- and T-lymphocytes appear morphologically similar. Therefore, no consistent method to differentiate functionally unique lymphocyte populations was present before the development of monoclonal antibodies specific to Clusters of Differentiation (CD) markers present on the lymphocyte cell surface. Today, more than 350 different CD antigens have been discovered, which identify the cell type populations and the stage of differentiation.

Currently, the NPU codes for lymphocyte subpopulations have established NPU concepts, which are based on common names, like “helper”, “memory”, “naïve” etc. However, due to a rapid discovery of new subpopulations and no concise understanding of the common names, a “helper, memory T-lymphocyte” (as shown in the example below) can potentially be defined with different sets of CD-markers.

Example:

Minimising Environmental Impacts of Tyre and Road Wear Particles Tyre wear particles are considered as microplastics (MP). Huge amount of such MPs are released in the environment in the form of Tyre and Road Wear Particles (TRWP) on roads globally. In Europe alone >1 million tons of TRWP are released per year.

Recent studies (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.

2020.137823) show that the annual emissions of tyre wear for numerous countries show per-capita-masses ranging from 0.2 to 5.5 kg/(capita).

MP particles are ingested by various organisms such as aquatic species. Chemicals associated with tyre wear their ecological as well as human health risks (via food chains) are of concern. A recent (2020) article in Science (https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abd6951) highlighted that a tyre-rubber chemical 6PPD (N-(1,3dimethylbutyl)-N'-phenyl-p-phenylenediamine), which is globally ubiquitous in road runoff, is highly toxic

To avoid misclassification based on different understanding of the terms for lymphocyte subpopulations, the CD nomenclature has been universally adopted by the scientific community and is officially approved by the International Union of Immunological Societies (IUIS). It has also been sanctioned by the World Health Organization (WHO). Due to the role of IFCC-IUPAC in the development of NPU terminology, this project seeks to formalize the use of the CD nomenclature as valid term reference for creating NPU codes.

For more information and comments, contact Task Group Chair Evita Maria Lindholm <Evita.Maria.Lindholm@ehelse.no> https://iupac.org/project/2021-022-1-700 photo by Shadrach Warid/Unsplash

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Project Place to salmon fish. This explained the so-called “urban stream syndrome”—an acute mortality phenomenon that has affected Pacific Northwest coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) for decades. This has triggered global effort towards better understanding of the fate and effects of tyre wear constituents and chemicals.

Baensch-Baltruschat et al. (2020) reported (https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.137823) that typically tyre tread contain 40 to 50 mass % as natural and synthetic rubber, 30 to 35 mass % as fillers (e.g. soot/ black carbon, silica and chalk) and about 15 % softeners (oil and resins), and remaining 5 to10 mass % as vulcanisation agents and additives including plasticiser, preservatives and other chemicals. Therefore, potentially the tyre wear particles can release a range of chemicals in the environment.

The Chemistry and the Environment Division of IUPAC (Division VI) along with the Polymer Division and the Analytical Chemistry Division have been making timely and authoritative contributions towards solutions to the interactable problems associated with waste materials including microplastics and chemicals associated with waste materials, e.g. IUPAC project 2019-026-2-600 which will serve as an excellent platform to build this project on.

Therefore, the IUPAC Division VI and Korean Society of Analytical Science sponsored conference (APCE & CECE & ITP 2022) at Angkor Wat (Cambodia) on 6-10 November 2022 (www.APCE2022.org; www.

CE-CE.org; www.ITP2022.org), offers an excellent opportunity for a symposium aiming at highlighting how chemistry play a significant role in reducing environmental impacts of chemicals associated with wastes such as tyre chemicals and tyre wear particles.

For more information and comments, contact Task Group Chair Divina Navarro <Divina.Navarro@csiro.au> https://iupac.org/project/2021-028-3-600

Educational Workshop in Polymer Sciences 2022 In bringing researchers from different backgrounds and different levels of access to opportunities together, international conferences are ideal venues for educational activities to improve the practice of science, particularly in the emerging nations. A first series of four educational workshops in Polymer Sciences has been organized between 2016 and 2020: the themes were synthesis (2016), characterization (2017), processing (2018) and applications (2020+). A second

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series is now being planned, with first a workshop with element of laboratory work, second with lectures covering modeling / simulation, and third with lectures around the theme of artificial intelligence (AI).

This second series of interactive annual educational workshops (2022-2028) in polymer sciences are intended primarily for students or active researchers from emerging regions. One topic will be focused on each educational workshop, which are planned to be held one day before each of the major international meetings MACRO2022, MACRO2024, MACRO2026 and MACRO2028, lasting for half a day. Rather than be confined to a half day of oral presentations, it is intended that the workshop material will be made available on the IUPAC project webpage.

Proposed program in 2022: 1/2 day in conjunction with MACRO2022 Theme: Polymer synthesis | Date: Sunday, 17 July 2022 For more information and comments, contact Task Group Chair Melissa Chan <cchan_25@yahoo.com.sg> | https://iupac.org/project/2021-021-1-400

Chemistry Education and Cultural Heritage—CTI Special Issue Many countries throughout the world are now providing considerable resources to preserve their cultural heritage. Chemistry plays a crucial role in this area, especially with respect to conservation and restoration of paintings, frescoes and other historical artefacts. Chemical imaging and the improved capabilities of spectroscopic and other analytical techniques contribute enormously to this field. Furthermore, Chemistry students at all levels are already being introduced to the importance of cultural heritage through their coursework and research activities. Career paths in conservation and restoration are opening up to undergraduate and graduate students, especially those who have combined Chemistry and Art History in their university studies.

Chemistry Teacher International (CTI) is a peer-reviewed, open-access journal sponsored by the Committee on Chemistry Education that has been published by De Gruyter since 2019. Its aim is to be a platform for chemistry teachers of all levels that bridges the gap between research and education. It’s stated motto is “Best Practices in Chemistry Education”. The website is https://www.degruyter. com/journal/key/cti/html.

From time to time, CTI publishes special issues on topical areas and it is now planning to publish a special issue entitled “Chemistry Education and Cultural

Project Place

Reproduced from Melo, Maria J., Nevin, Austin and Baglioni, Piero. “Chemistry and Cultural Heritage” Chemistry International, vol. 40, no. 2, 2018, pp. 20-25; https://doi.org/10.1515/ci-2018-0205. That feature article makes reference to a 2018 special issue of Pure and Applied Chemistry dedicated to Chemistry and Cultural Heritage.

Heritage”. It is hoped that there will be contributors from around the globe.

If you are interested in contributing to this Special Issue, please send a provisional title, together with the name and email address of the submitting author to one of the guest editors (see below). The deadline for submission is August 31, 2022, and the special issue will be published in late 2022 or early 2023.

Guest Editors: •

•

•

Ian S. Butler, <ian.butler@mcgill.ca.> Professor Emeritus, Department of Chemistry, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Kenza Dufourmantelle, <kenza.dufourmantelle@pch.gc.ca.> Senior Director, Research, Conservation and Scientific Services, Canadian Conservation Institute, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

Eleanor (Nelly) von Aderkas, <nelly.vonaderkas@ gmail.com> Conservator, The National Gallery, London, UK.

For more information and comments, contact Task Group Chair Ian S. Butler <ian.butler@mcgill.ca> | https://iupac.org/project/2021-030-1-050

Safety Training Program e-learning The first ONLINE OPCW-IUPAC Safety Training Program (STP) Course for Latin America and the Caribbean Region took place between 4 October and 3 December 2021. The course in Spanish was jointly

run by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and the Chemical Industries Association of Uruguay, with assistance from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Uruguay.

The coordinator of the STP, Mr Fabián Benzo, highlighted: “A lack of information and a poor safety culture constitute significant barriers to effective management of chemicals, accident prevention, and successful emergency responses in the GRULAC region. The e-learning program is designed to eliminate these hurdles through capacity building in the industry, government, and academic institutions related to chemistry.”

The Senior Programme Officer from the OPCW’s International Cooperation Branch stated: “This programme develops the competence of chemistry professionals, furthering their ability to promote safe and responsible handling of chemicals in all stages of the life cycle. Creating such capacity in OPCW Member States is part of our mission under Article XI of the Chemical Weapons Convention on advancing peaceful applications of chemistry.”

The training provided an update on the current standards, policies, and best practices in occupational safety, chemicals hazards, handling, storage, and transport of chemicals and waste management. Participants had access to a wealth of training materials available Chemistry International

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Project Place Professionals embrace the importance of workplace safety culture in chemical facilities to better protect health and lives of personnel; see https://www.opcw.org/ media-centre/news/2021/12/ opcw-builds-chemical-safetyskills-experts-latin-americaand-caribbean

on a dedicated e-learning platform, and consisting of five modules covering safety, chemicals, security, emergencies, and management and culture.

The trainees who pass the final test are awarded a certificate, while those who successfully complete the final project will become STP Associate Fellows and recognised on the IUPAC/STP website.

In 2021, participants included 15 chemistry experts specialised in environment, health, safety, and security related to the use of chemicals. They represented the following 13 countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, and Uruguay.

Translation in English is being prepared. Also in 2022, the second edition of the IUPAC-OPCW STP e-learning will be organized from August 1st to October 7th.

For more information and comments, contact Task Group Chair Fabián Benzo Moreira <fbenzo@vera.com.uy> https://iupac.org/project/2021-003-1-022

Solubility data of alkanoic acids More than 100 years of chemical, engineering, and pharmaceutical literature have been reviewed to deliver an updated compilation of solubility data for various alkanoic acids dissolved in organic and aqueous–organic solvent mixtures.

Volume 105 of the IUPAC-NIST Solubility Data Series extends the coverage of the series to include crystalline alkanoic acids, alkenoic acids and alkanedioic acids, and incorporates measurement uncertainty into the compilations to the extent possible. The

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fore-mentioned classes of carboxylic acids are used in the manufacture of soaps and skin cleansing creams, cosmetics, lubricants, pharmaceuticals and in photographic and food packing materials.

Part I of the volume reports the solubility of 15 alkanoic acids: W. E. Acree, Jr. and W. E. Waghorne, J. Phys. Chem. Ref. Data 50, 043103 (2021); https://doi. org/10.1063/5.0062574 Part II of the volume discusses the solubility of the following ten alkenoic acids: (E)-docos-13-enoic acid (also called brassidic acid), (2E)-but-2-enoic acid (also called trans-crotonic acid), (9E)-octadec-9-enoic acid (also called elaidic acid), (Z)-docos-13-enoic acid (also called erucic acid), (9Z,12Z)-9,12-octadecadienoic acid (also called linoleic acid), octadecatrienoic acid (also called linolenic acid), 2-methylpropenoic acid (also called methacrylic acid), (9Z)-octadec-9-enoic acid (also called oleic acid), (6E)-octadec-6-enoic acid (also called petroselaidic acid), and (6Z)-octadec-6enoic acid (also called petroselenic acid). One alkynoic acid, 9-octadecynoic acid (also called 9-stearolic acid), is also included: W. E. Acree, Jr. and W. E. Waghorne, J. Phys. Chem. Ref. Data 50, 043105 (2021); https://doi. org/10.1063/5.0067051 The concluding part of the three-part series will consider the solubility for several alkanedioic acids and alkenedioic acids dissolved in both organic mono-solvents and binary solvent mixtures. In total, solubility data for 45 different carboxylic acids will be contained in this volume.

For more information and comments, contact Task Group Chair William E. Acree <acree@unt.edu> https://iupac.org/project/2021-007-1-500

Making an imPACt

Recent IUPAC technical reports and recommendations that affect the many fields of pure and applied chemistry.

See also www.iupac.org/what-we-do/journals/

Glossary of terms relating to electronic, photonic and magnetic properties of polymers (IUPAC Recommendations 2021)

Methods to evaluate the scavenging activity of antioxidants toward reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (IUPAC Technical Report)

Jiří Vohlídal, et al.

Pure and Applied Chemistry, 2022 Vol. 94, no. 1, pp. 15-69 https://doi.org/10.1515/pac-2020-0501

Reşat Apak, et al.

Pure and Applied Chemistry, 2022 Vol. 94, no. 1, pp. 87-144 https://doi.org/10.1515/pac-2020-0902

These recommendations are specifically for polymers and polymer systems showing a significant response to an electromagnetic field or one of its components (electric field or magnetic field), i.e., for electromagnetic-field-responsive polymer materials.

The structures, processes, phenomena and quantities relating to this interdisciplinary field of materials science and technology are herein defined. Definitions are unambiguously explained and harmonized for wide acceptance by the chemistry, physics, polymer and materials science communities. A survey of typical electromagnetic-field-responsive polymers is included.

<https://iupac.org/project/2006-028-1-400>

Henry’s law constants (IUPAC Recommendations 2021) Rolf Sander, William E. Acree, Alex De Visscher, Stephen E. Schwartz, and Timothy J. Wallington Pure and Applied Chemistry, 2022 Vol. 94, no. 1, pp. 71-85 https://doi.org/10.1515/pac-2020-0302 Henry’s law states that the abundance of a volatile solute dissolved in a liquid is proportional to its abundance in the gas phase. It applies at equilibrium and in the limit of infinite dilution of the solute. For historical reasons, numerous different definitions, names, and symbols are used in the literature to express the proportionality coefficient, denoted the “Henry’s law constant”. Here, a consistent set of recommendations is presented. An important distinction is made between two new recommended reciprocal quantities: “Henry’s law solubility constant” (Hs) and “Henry’s law volatility constant” (Hv). Eight recommended variants of Hs and Hv are described and relations among them presented.

<https://iupac.org/project/2019-025-1-100>

This project aids in the identification of reactive species and quantification of scavenging extents of antioxidants through various assays, makes the results comparable and more understandable, and brings a more rational basis to the evaluation of these assays and provides a critical evaluation of existing ROS/RNS scavenging assays to analytical, food chemical, and biomedical/ clinical communities by emphasizing the need for developing more refined, rapid, simple, and low-cost assays and thus opening the market for a wide range of analytical instruments, including reagent kits and sensors.

This report focuses on the applications and impact of existing assays on potentiating future research and innovations to evolve better methods enabling a more comprehensive study of different aspects of antioxidants and to provide a vocabulary of terms related to antioxidants and scavengers for ROS/RNS. The main methods comprise the scavenging activity measurement of the hydroxyl radical, dihydrogen dioxide, hydroxidochlorine, dioxidooxidonitrate(1–), and the peroxyl radical.

In spite of the diversity of methods, there is currently a great need to evaluate the scavenging activity of antioxidant compounds in vivo and in vitro. In addition, there are unsatisfactory methods frequently used, such as non-selective UV measurement of H2O2 scavenging, producing negative errors due to incomplete reaction of peroxide with flavonoids in the absence of transition metal ion catalysts. The report also discusses the basic mechanisms of spectroscopic and electrochemical nanosensors for measuring ROS/RNS scavenging activity of antioxidants, together with leading trends and challenges and a wide range of applications.

<https://iupac.org/project/2013-015-1-500>

Did you say PFAS ?

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) revises PFAS definition and recommends specific terminology for communicating about PFAS substances (OECD, 2021) Chemistry International

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Making an imPACt reviewed by Richard M. Hartshorn and Molly A. Strausbaugh Regulatory agencies, news media, and researchers report daily on new regulations, studies, and insights on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). These synthetic chemicals have been in use, in many locations across the globe, since the 1940s (U.S. EPA, 2021). PFAS substances are frequently selected for use because of their extreme heat stability and desirable surfactant properties (ECHA, 2021). With the vast range of industries and sectors involved in PFAS use and/or site remediation, together with the environmental persistence profiles of PFAS compounds consistent terminology and nomenclature becomes more critical for effective communication.

OECD Definition and identification process Recognizing Buck et al (2011) as a starting point for classification and harmonization of terminology,

Reconciling Terminology of the Universe of Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances: Recommendations and Practical Guidance

Series on Risk Management No. 61

This report summarizes recent efforts by the OECD/UNEP Global PFC Group in reviewing the universe and terminology of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) to provide recommendations and practical guidance to all stakeholders with regard to the terminology of PFASs.

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OECD’s recent publication seeks to close four identified gaps. These four gaps include classes and terms that relate to: • Acyclic systems with non-fluorinated functional groups on both ends of a perfluoroalkanediyl moiety • Compounds containing fully fluorinated aliphatic cyclic compounds • PFAS containing functional groups with aromatic rings • The ambiguous meaning and interpretations of “highly fluorinated” The revised PFAS definition is based solely on chemical structure, and the report itself features many structural examples.

Specific and descriptive PFAS terminology is critical Best practices for communicating about chemical substances are echoed by OECD: be specific, be cautious with generalizations, and be accurate. Table 1 (OECD, 2021) shows the pitfalls of ambiguity and provides examples of good practices with PFAS terminology. The OECD report also provides a diagram (Figure 11) tiered from general to specific that offers advice on when to use different levels of specificity and examples of best terms. The report refers its readers to Buck et al (2011), Barzen-Hanson (2017), CAS Registry, and other reports. As a best practice, it is recommended that, for clarity, when authors desire to leverage acronyms that the full name should be used with the acronym in the first instance.

Beyond chemical names, the importance of leveraging chemical identifiers is discussed. Specifically, the OECD report recommends that chemical identifiers including the CAS Registry Number, InChI (or InChIKey), or SMILES are presented along with the name. The usage of these identifiers, in combination with the chemical name and any relevant (and defined) acronyms, allows for additional review and confirmation of the chemical structure. For substances where a full structural representation is not possible, such as substances of unknown or variable composition, complex reaction products, or biological materials (UVCBs), an identifier may provide additional clarity on the substance identity.

OECD’s Planned future work As regulatory frameworks for PFAS around the world increase, the importance of consistently identifying and classifying PFAS substances becomes more critical.

Making an imPACt The OECD report identifies and proposes four areas for future work to support PFAS communication. Two areas specifically involve nomenclature and cheminformatics software for characterization of PFAS substances.

These two areas could potentially assist with harmonization of naming and classifying PFAS substances. The other two areas broaden the scope to re-evaluate the OECD definition of polymer and to review terminology for non-PFAS fluorinated aromatic compounds.

Related IUPAC Nomenclature resources Nomenclature and terminology can certainly be a challenge, but they are critical to successful communication. The OECD report stresses the importance of the chemical structure in identifying classifications and chemical names. The IUPAC Blue Book (formally Nomenclature of Organic Chemistry: IUPAC Recommendations and Preferred Names 2013) and the Brief Guide to the Nomenclature of Organic Chemistry can assist in determining correct IUPAC naming conventions for specific organic small molecules, including some PFAS substances (see https://iupac.org/whatwe-do/books/bluebook/). As more regulations around PFAS are developed and enacted, nomenclature and terminology will continue to be vital.

References •

•

•

•

•

Barzen-Hanson, Krista A., et al. 2017 “Discovery of 40 Classes of Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances in Historical Aqueous Film-Forming Foams (AFFFs) and AFFF-Impacted Groundwater.” Environmental Science and Techology 51(4): 2047-2057.

Buck, Robert C, et al. 2011. “Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances in the environment: Terminology, classification, and origins.” Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management 7(4): 513-541.

ECHA, 2021. Perfluoroalkyl chemicals (PFAS).

October 4, 2021. https://echa.europa.eu/hot-topics/ perfluoroalkyl-chemicals-pfas. *OECD, 2021. Reconciling Terminology of the Universe of Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances: Recommendations and Practical Guidance. OECD Series on Risk Management, No. 61, Paris: OECD Publishing; online as https://www.oecd.org/ chemicalsafety/portal-perfluorinated-chemicals/terminology-per-and-polyfluoroalkyl-substances.pdf U.S. EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), 2021.

Basic Information on PFAS. October 4, 2021. https:// www.epa.gov/pfas/basic-information-pfas.

https://www.oecd.org/env/ehs/risk-management/

IUPAC Provisional Recommendations Making Place Project an imPACt Provisional Recommendations are preliminary drafts of IUPAC recommendations. These drafts encompass topics including terminology, nomenclature, and symbols. Following approval, the final recommendations are published in IUPAC’s journal Pure and Applied Chemistry (PAC) or in IUPAC books. During the commentary period for Provisional Recommendations, interested parties are encouraged to suggest revisions to the recommendation’s author. https://iupac.org/recommendations/under-review-by-the-public/

Specification Of International Chemical Identifier (InChI) QR Codes for Labels on Chemical Samples This provisional recommendation discusses the ways of linking physical objects to digital information relevant to chemical entities, specifically those that can be described by the use of the IUPAC International Chemical Identifier (InChI). It makes recommendations on the form of the computer readable components of labels provided for chemicals and materials that are used on product/sample containers and on the associated documentation that is used when transporting these containers (either internally, or during export/

import). The focus is on specification of the content of the 2D Quick Response (QR) bar codes required to describe the molecular content of the containers and link to digital resources to supplement that provided on a physical label. The necessary technical and (possible) business infrastructure necessary to support the use of the InChI and InChIKey for rapid recall of relevant information is considered and suggestions made.

Corresponding Author: Richard <richard.hartshorn@canterbury.ac.nz>

Hartshorn

Comments by 31 May 2022

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Up for Discussion An Organizational Structure for the Future

by Mark Cesa, Ito Chao, Michael Droescher, Lori Ferrins, Zhigang Shuai, and Javier Garcia-Martinez On 4 June 2022 the National Adhering Organizations (NAOs) of IUPAC will make a critically important decision that will have a great impact on IUPAC’s role in the chemistry enterprise in the coming years. A new organizational structure has been proposed for IUPAC that is intended to position the Union favorably for its unique role in the rapidly evolving world of 21st century science. In this article the work of the IUPAC Organizational Structure Review Group is summarized, and the Group’s major recommendations are presented. Deliberations by the IUPAC Bureau and Executive Committee, in collaboration with the NAOs, have led to a series of proposed changes to the IUPAC Statutes, Bylaws and Standing Orders, building upon the Review Group’s principal recommendations. It is these substantive changes that the NAOs will decide upon in June this year.

The Tasks of the Review Group The IUPAC Organizational Structure Review Group was established with Council approval in 2019 to “undertake a complete review of the organizational structure of IUPAC” and to “develop proposals for the future organization of IUPAC” [Chem. Int., vol 42, no. 2, 2020, p. 22; https:// doi.org/10.1515/ci-20202025]. The Review Group began its work in 2020 [https://www.iupac.org/project/2020-007-1-020], and included the following members: Dr. Mark Cesa (USA, Chair, 2014-2015 President of IUPAC), Prof. Ito Chao (China/Taipei), Prof. Dr. Michael Droescher (Germany), Prof. Lori Ferrins (Australia, IYCN), Prof. Zhigang Shuai (China/Beijing), and Prof. Javier Garcia Martinez (Spain, IUPAC 2020-2021 Vice President, ex-officio).

Building on the 2016 IUPAC Strategic Plan [https:// iupac.org/who-we-are/strategic-plan/], the Review Group’s major tasks were to recommend: •

•

directions for the scientific work of the Union going forward, and how to structure the Union to achieve its scientific objectives; and ways of working that would reduce costs and improve efficiency.

Over several months in 2020, the Review Group

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gathered information through a survey of IUPAC stakeholders and interviews with Secretariat staff and volunteers, and carried out a review of emerging trends in the chemical sciences.

The stakeholder survey is the subject of a recent article in Chemistry International [Chem. Int., vol. 43, no. 2, 2021, pp. 36-39; https://doi.org/10.1515/ci-20210213]. The responses to the survey were revealing, with several common threads. Respondents suggested that IUPAC should: •

•

• • •

•

be more responsive, adjusting priorities in response to the rapidly changing scientific environment and culture; remain focused on the core activities of IUPAC but include an emphasis on emerging areas in the chemical sciences; embrace technology in the day-to-day operation of the Union; promote social equity and diversity in the chemistry community; increase the visibility of the Union such that we can recruit top chemists to contribute to the activities of the Union; be more communicative in all facets of IUPAC’s business, and increase communication with NAOs, Associate Organizations, and members.

Interviews and discussions with Secretariat staff and volunteers were productive, and they were largely consistent with the findings from the stakeholder survey.

Our examination of emerging trends and topics in research in the chemical sciences indicated that the field of chemistry is moving forward rapidly across all areas. It particularly showed the increasing importance of chemistry as a collaborative partner with physical, biological and social sciences, engineering and technology, and social sciences to address world needs; see IUPAC’s annual recognition of Top Ten Chemical Technologies (https://iupac.org/what-we-do/topten/). Additionally, the December 2021 issue of Pure and Applied Chemistry focuses on Emerging Technologies and New Directions in Chemistry Research (https://www.degruyter.com/journal/key/ pac/93/12/html). These findings underscore the value of an enhanced emphasis on science in the structure of IUPAC, particularly to encourage forward thinking and collaboration, as an integral part of the work of the Union.

IUPAC'S Scientific Activities

Nomenclature, Terminology and Symbols Recommendations Technical Reports Top 10 Emerging Periodic Table of Elements Technologies in Istopic Abundance Chemistry (published Guides in Metrology (JCGM) annually)

Safety Training Education and Outreach Journals Books Databases

Endorsement of Organized Symposia and Conferences with International Organizations

Awards to Honor Scientific Contributions and Expertise

IUPAC’s activities span a wide range and contribute to the advancement of chemistry around the world in many ways.

Review Group Recommendations The Review Group took into account information from the stakeholder survey, interviews, and examination of emerging trends in chemistry, as well as the recommendations in a report from the Finance Committee Options Work Group. With this information, the Review Group prepared a report for the IUPAC Bureau that included a series of recommendations for improved operations and communications with stakeholders; for enhanced offerings to NAOs, industry and individual affiliates; and for the governance structure of IUPAC. Many recommendations in the Review Group report regarding operations and communications with stakeholders were already under way, and others have been implemented. However, the most far-reaching and potentially impactful recommendations dealt with the organizational structure of the Union itself.

Leadership Boards Perhaps the most important finding from the Review Group’s work was the increasing need for IUPAC to respond more effectively to the rapid changes and growth in the chemical sciences, to meet global challenges in our more interconnected and digitalized world. The Review Group saw a need for a structure for IUPAC that emphasized its roles in the

chemical enterprise at the highest level.

The review group therefore recommended replacing the current Bureau-Executive Committee structure with two Governance Boards that cover administrative matters and science: an Executive Board and a Science Board.

Executive Board (EB): This Board would be responsible for decisions and execution of the administrative matters of the Union. This Board would oversee adherence to the IUPAC Statutes and Bylaws and ensure IUPAC’s administrative and financial operations; work with the Science Board; and implement the decisions of the Council and, with the Science Board, the programs of the Union as directed by Council.

Science Board (SB): This Board would be responsible for the scientific direction, activities, and contributions of the Union. The Science Board would set the scientific priorities and strategic vision of IUPAC; facilitate collaboration among the Divisions and Standing Committees; oversee and review the work of Divisions and Standing Committees regarding projects, conferences, and publications; work with the Executive Board; and liaise with external organizations on scientific matters; all within the directions of the Council.

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Up for Discussion The Review Group believes that the proposed governance structure emphasizes the science while maintaining effective oversight of the administrative matters of the Union.

New Forums and Committees In addition, the Review Group recommended the following new Forums for communication and interaction with IUPAC’s stakeholders.

NAO Forum: This Forum would be a yearly electronic meeting with representatives of each Adhering Organizations, to provide an opportunity for them to discuss matters of interest with IUPAC leadership, such as mutual activities among the NAOs, emerging issues facing the Union, and other similar matters.

Presidents Forum: This Forum would take the shape of an annual meeting (online in off-years and in-person in General Assembly years) with the leaders of global chemical societies. This Forum will provide a strategic opportunity for IUPAC to exercise its convening role in global chemistry to lead and coordinate international initiatives.

New Standing Committees on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and on Ethics were proposed by the Review Group to ensure that the tenets of the Strategic Plan regarding these matters were practiced in all aspects of IUPAC’s work. The Bureau decided to combine these two proposed committees into a Committee on Ethics, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (CEDEI). Finally, the Finance Committee Options Work Group report called for establishment of a Centenary Endowment Board.

Developing and Refining the Recommendations Soon after the Review Group’s report was submitted to the Bureau, the Executive Committee endorsed recommendations regarding the Executive Board and Science Board. The Bureau then organized a series of virtual meetings with members of the Review Group to discuss the recommendations. Following these meetings, a series of Engagement Sessions were organized virtually for NAO representatives to become familiar with the recommendations and to suggest changes and improvements. In particular, these discussions led to the following detailed descriptions, prepared by the Bureau, of how the Executive Board and Science Board members would be selected.

The Executive Board would consist of the President, as Chair, the Vice-President, the Secretary-General, the Treasurer, the Past-President, the Executive Director

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(ex-officio non-voting), and six other Elected Members chosen by the Council. Elected Members would serve two-year terms and would be eligible for re-election for one additional term. Division Presidents would not be eligible for service as Elected Members of the Executive Board, and no NAO would have more than one Elected Member on the Board.

The Science Board would consist of the Vice-President, as Chair, the President and the Secretary-General ex officio, the Executive Director (ex officio non-voting), five members from among the Division Presidents and Standing Committee Chairs and elected by them, and up to five additional Elected Members from the scientific community at large, chosen by the Council. The period of service of the Elected Members would be two years, and they would be eligible for re-election for a second two-year term.

At the General Assembly in 2021, the Council was invited to suggest modifications of the recommendations on the proposed structural changes, principally the replacement of the Executive Committee and Bureau with an Executive Board and Science Board.

Council also voted in favor of establishing the Committee on Ethics, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (CEDEI) and the Centenary Endowment Board (CEB).

The Bureau was asked by Council to propose modifications to the Statutes, Bylaws, and Standing Orders consistent with their recommendations for Council consideration. The proposed revised Statutes, Bylaws and Standing Orders were approved unanimously by the Executive Committee on 6 November 2021. The Bureau, at a meeting including current and incoming members, proposed small changes to clarify the text. These Statutes, Bylaws and Standing Orders were endorsed by the Bureau on 29 November 2021 and sent to the Secretary General with a request to hold a special meeting of Council to consider them. According to the rules for such matters, this Council meeting would be scheduled as soon as possible after a six-month period. The special meeting of Council will be held on 4 June 2022.

Next steps IUPAC’s stakeholders now have a new opportunity to come together to empower IUPAC to move forward meaningfully in the coming decades. This new proposed organizational structure will enable IUPAC to function even more effectively. With the establishment of the Science Board, the new structure would give a strong voice to science in the Union, enable and encourage inderdisciplinarity, and foster collaborations both within the Union’s volunteer base and with other global scientific organizations. The Executive Board

Up for Discussion would provide a strong mechanism for management and oversight of the operations of IUPAC. The new organizational structure would improve communications with stakeholders through participation by the NAOs in selecting members of the Executive and Science Boards and through the NAO Forum, giving an greater voice to all NAOs. Participation, cooperation, and collaboration among NAOs, industry, younger scientists, and underrepresented groups would be further encouraged. The proposed structure would further encourage outreach to national and international organizations with complementary interests and mandates, enhancing IUPAC’s stature in the global community.

Finally, the new structure would provide an opportunity for a fresh look at IUPAC’s Divisions and Standing Committees. The Review Group recommended that the Divisions and Standing Committees form a working group to review the Division and Standing Committee structure in the light of the current state and future expectations of the field of the chemical sciences and recommend changes to the structure as needed.

IUPAC leadership strongly supports the recommendations made by the Review Group and the proposed

changes to the Statutes, Bylaws and Standing Orders that will be considered by Council in June 2022. We as IUPAC’s volunteers look forward eagerly to meeting the challenges facing the world in the coming years, and we expect that the new organizational structure will enable IUPAC to cement its leadership role in the chemistry community and the broader scientific community. We are confident that the new structure will foster new initiatives and growth, adhering to the IUPAC Mission Statement: “IUPAC is the global organization that provides objective scientific expertise and develops the essential tools for the application and communication of chemical knowledge for the benefit of humankind and the world.”

Acknowledgments We are grateful to Prof. Christopher Brett for his helpful comments on a draft of this article.

For updates about the coming meeting of the Council, 4 June 2022, see https://iupac.org/event/ special-council-june2022/

For more information and comments, contact Task Group Chair Mark Cesa <markcesa@comcast.net> | https://iupac.org/project/2020-007-1-020

Call for Proposals Any individual or group can submit a project proposal to IUPAC, with or without current affiliation with an IUPAC body. Projects can be submitted at any time. For detailed information, see the Guidelines for Completion of the Project Submission Form. Frequently Asked Questions on Project Submission and Approval Process are also available on the Union’s website at www.iupac.org/projects.

The proposal template is straightforward and is arranged so that it presents “up front” the project’s intended impact (purpose), the intended stakeholders and beneficiaries, the dissemination plan, and how the effectiveness of that plan can be evaluated.

More recently, specific guidelines have been added for the management of scientific data and digital outputs.

The revised form and guidelines are available at https://iupac.org/projects/project-submission-form-and-guidelines/

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photo by Diego PH/Unsplash

Hed Conference Call

Reports from recent conferences and symposia See also www.iupac.org/events

IUPAC/CCCE 2021—Montréal, Canada

by Neil Burford On behalf of the Organizing Committee for IUPAC/ CCCE 2021, I am delighted to report on the 51st IUPAC General Assembly (GA) and 48th World Chemistry Congress (WCC), in conjunction with the 104th Canadian Chemistry Conference and Exhibition (CCCE), held 13-20 August 2021.

The events were hosted by the Canadian Society for Chemistry, the Canadian National Committee for IUPAC (CNC-IUPAC) and the National Research Council Canada (NRC). Travel to Montreal was not possible in 2021 due to the global pandemic, and all events associated with IUPAC | CCCE 2021 occurred virtually in August 2021. While not a replacement for in-person activities, the events were very effective. In addition, the virtual experience provided unique opportunities to engage a global audience, reach more young professionals, reduce our environmental impact, and stay safe.

I am grateful for the dedication, hard work, skills, and commitment of the Organizing Committee (listed below). I very much appreciated the guidance and support of the IUPAC executives Lynn Soby and Fabienne Meyers, IUPAC Bureau Member Chris Ober, the CIC Chair Cathy Crudden and the CSC President Zhongxin Zhou. As well, the Committee enjoyed coordinating and collaborating with representatives of the IUPAC Division Presidents, IUPAC Committee Chairs and CSC and CIC Division Chairs.

Bruce Lennox, McGill University, Chair of the 48th WCCJohn Polanyi, University of Toronto, Honorary Chair of the 48th WCC Kim Baines, Western University,

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Co-chair of the 48th WCC Technical programJeremy Melanson, National Research Council, Co-chair of the 48th WCC Technical programMarc Janes, NuChem Therapeutics Inc., Liaison with industry partners for the 48th WCC) Shan Zou, National Research Council, Coordinator of the 51st GAThomas Baumgartner, York University, CSC Director of Conferences Jennifer van Wijngaarden, University of Manitoba, CSC Director of ConferencesJoan Kingston, CIC Director of Finance and AdministrationPaul Smith, Xerox Canada, Chair of the CIC and Interim Executive DirectorClaire Duncan, CIC Manager of Membership, Communications and MarketingMiddle Lemoine, CIC Marketing and Partnership CoordinatorZac Hawkins, Keith Lapierre and Sarah Piotrkowski, CIC Program CoordinatorsRose Katagiri, CIC Awards CoordinatorKiYoun Kim, CIC Community Development Coordinator The 48th WCC addressed the vital role of chemistry in the future of society under the title of “Solving Global Challenges with Chemistry.” The program was coordinated under the five themes listed below, each with plenary lecture(s) by world-renowned scholar(s) (listed below).

• •

•

•

Chemistry for Energy (Plenary speaker: Donald R. Sadoway, MIT) Chemistry for Health (Plenary speakers: Petra Fromme, Arizona State University; Margaret Brimble, University of Auckland) Chemistry for Society (Plenary speakers: Zafra M. Lerman, Malta Conferences Foundation; Alison Thompson, Dalhousie University) Chemistry for Sustainability (Plenary speaker:

•

Paul Anastas, Yale University) Chemistry at the Frontiers (Plenary speaker: Makoto Fujita, University of Tokyo)

More than 2370 conferees were offered 86 symposia containing a total of 1760 oral presentations from around the globe (see illustration). All presentations were pre-recorded and posted for viewing two weeks in advance of the beginning of the WCC. The time allocated for each symposium session meeting was dedicated to live questions, answers and discussions, assuming that the participants had previously viewed the presentations. Live online poster sessions enabled discussion of 470 poster presentations, and live online award ceremonies and social events occurred throughout the WCC and were well attended and effective.

The 51st General Assembly Council met on three occasions on 5, 13, and 15 August, with all elections, voting and vote counting occurring between meetings.

The Divisions and Committees of IUPAC held meetings on 9-12 August. As these meetings were all scheduled in advance of the 48th WCC, many conferees, including Young Observers, took advantage of the opportunities to observe and the participation in these meetings was substantially greater than in previous General Assemblies.

The World Chemistry Leadership Meeting (WCLM) is a regular event during the IUPAC GA and WCC. The theme for WCLM 2021 was “Applications of Artificial Intelligence to Chemistry.” The event took place on 17 August for 24 hours beginning at 8 a.m. Eastern Standard Time with a live (online) lecture by Yoshua Bengio (Université de Montréal). The event continued 8 hours later with live discussions in Kuala Lumpur (host of IUPAC 2025) and 16 hours later with live discussions in The Hague (host of IUPAC 2023), returning to Montreal early on 18 August with a closing expert panel discussion and summation by world leaders in the field.

On behalf of all those involved in the 51st IUPAC General Assembly and 48th World Chemistry Congress, I thank the list of 30 sponsors and 19 exhibitors for their support, with particular note of Next Generation Manufacturing Canada, the Royal Society of Chemistry, the American Chemical Society, ACS Publications, Gilead, LGC-TRC, and TLC Pharmaceutical Standards.

On behalf of the Canadian chemistry community, I thank all participants of IUPAC 2021 for their contributions to the successful 51st GA and 48th WCC. We look forward to interacting with you again in-person at IUPAC 2023 in The Hague for the 52nd GA and the 49th WCC, and at IUPAC 2025 in Kuala Lumpur for the 53rd GA and 50th WCC. We are grateful to our global IUPAC

colleagues for selecting Canada’s bid to host IUPAC 2027 for the 54th GA and 51st WCC, when we will be delighted to welcome you to Montreal in person.

www.cheminst.ca/conference/ccce2021/ Neil Burford of the University of Victoria is the Chair of the Organizing Committee for IUPAC | CCCE 2021.

IUPAC and IYCN: Working Together for a Globally Sustainable Future

by Carolina Sotério, João Borges and Javier García Martínez On 17 August 2021, scientists and professionals affiliated with universities, industries and scientific organizations from around the world gathered at the IUPAC symposium "The Role of IUPAC in Global Affairs" at the 48th IUPAC World Chemistry Congress and 104th Canadian Chemistry Conference (IUPAC|CCCE 2021) and Exhibition, to discuss IUPAC actions for the betterment of Society and the sustainability of our Planet. In this report, we summarize some of the main conclusions of the discussions held during the symposium and provide some suggestions on how the International Younger Chemists Network (IYCN) and IUPAC can further strengthen their collaboration to contribute to creating a more sustainable and inclusive future for all.

The United Nations (UN) has drawn attention to the pressing need of addressing major global challenges for the benefit of society, including climate change, ending poverty, gender equality, health, human rights, among others [1]. Yet our planet still faces many challenges. In September 2015, the UN approved a new set of 17 goals, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs. These efforts are undoubtedly contributing for creating a better world, as foreseen by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the 2030 UN Agenda [2]. The IUPAC plays a vital role in this global effort by bringing together leaders, scientific societies, and professionals to discuss these topics and pursue meaningful actions through the power of chemistry.

IYCN, an associated organization of IUPAC since 2017, has been especially engaging young professionals from all over the world in actions aimed at tackling the SDGs—as discussed during the symposium on “The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals for the Benefit of Society” organized by the IYCN also during the IUPAC|CCCE 2021, and freely available on the IYCN YouTube channel <https://bit.ly/3DrrMNd>.

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Conference Call Climate Change The climate emergency we are living in, has become increasingly evident worldwide. According to the 2021 UN SDGs report, the concentration of greenhouse gases, which are steadily raising due to human activity, is directly linked to the average global temperature on Earth (1.5 ºC above the pre-industrial baseline) [3]. The 26th UN Summit on Climate Change (COP26) highlighted the steps taken towards mitigating the effects of climate change, eliminating fossil fuel subsidies, fixing a carbon price and protecting the most vulnerable; resulting in the Glasgow Climate Pact — which aims to recognize the emergency, accelerate action, complete the Paris rulebook, focus on loss and damage, and reaffirm the need for resilience and the commitment of developed countries to provide USD 100 billion in funds for climate finance [4]. All the outcomes are indeed important, but still “not enough,” according to António Guterres, UN Secretary-General.

Fortunately, several organizations are strongly committed to combat the impacts of this path. As part of these efforts, one of the long-standing IUPAC initiatives is the Chemical Research Applied to World Needs (CHEMRAWN), a Standing Committee active since 1973 that mainly focuses on the organization of multidisciplinary symposia, workshops, and outreach activities

[5]. Just a few months ago, it held its XXII Congress, co-organized with the Chemical Society of Nigeria, focusing on the important topic of e-waste in Africa [6].

Over the years, members of the CHEMRAWN committee have been drawing the attention of professionals working across the chemical sciences to the socio-environmental impact of climate change and to international collaboration and peace through the very successful Malta Conferences [7,8]. More recently, IUPAC launched its Interdivisional Committee on Green Chemistry for Sustainable Development (ICGCSD), which is also contributing to advancing the 2030 UN Agenda through the organization of post-graduate Summer Schools, workshops, and several IUPAC projects [9].

International Cooperation and Network Solving global issues requires global and concerted efforts [10]. As such, IUPAC has been incessantly working to establish collaborations among different nations and generations of professionals in chemistry-related careers. Recognizing the pivotal role of early-career chemists globally in contributing towards addressing major global challenges, IUPAC has been devoted to raising their voice by supporting the IYCN in achieving its mission of connecting and empowering younger chemists globally. Since its official creation in 2017,

Participants attending the IX Malta conference in 2019.

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Some of the Periodic Table of Younger Chemists awardees attending IUPAC 2019 in Paris, France.

IUPAC has been providing technical and logistic support, as well as mentorship and advice to aid in the development of the IYCN as a unified global network.

Furthermore, IUPAC has been facilitating new connections, and enabling opportunities and a platform for early-career chemists to be actively involved and contribute to IUPAC projects and activities and to aid in their professional development [11].

The IYCN has been actively working on implementing a diverse set of global strategies and actions, making an impact, and raising public awareness on the key role of chemistry in paving the way towards a globally sustainable future [12]. The global network is based on four pillars: communication, collaboration, education, and mentoring; which summarize the goals of its projects and activities [13,14].

The close collaboration between IUPAC and IYCN have yielded many projects and activities that are benefiting the global chemistry community spanning across all ages. As part of the actions of the 2019 International Year of the Periodic Table (IYPT) and the centenary of IUPAC, IUPAC launched an online quiz about the 118 chemical elements as a way to engage students from all over the world. The result is stunning: the Periodic Table Challenge has been played over 150,000 times in more than 150 countries, leading to a new game version and translation efforts to make this content even more accessible globally [15].

In addition, the Periodic Table of Younger Chemists (PTYC) emerged to recognize a diverse group of 118 outstanding early-career chemists from around the world who embody the core values and mission of IUPAC. The resulting PTYC highlights the diversity of careers, creativity, outreach participation, and dedication of those young leaders.

As a follow-up of the PTYC and to continue learning from younger chemists’ generations, the IYCN and IUPAC launched a joint platform entitled ChemVoices aiming to showcase the talents and impact of early-career scientists worldwide, as well as discuss issues that are relevant and of interest to them. One of its flagships was a series of webinars in which those voices can be heard and amplified through online videos available at the ChemVoices’ website and IUPAC YouTube channel <https://www.chemvoices.org/>.

IYCN is also organizing a series of virtual workshops on professional development skills aimed to empower and advance the career development of early-career scientists, as well as collaborating with other young chemists’ networks in producing online content for the benefit of the global scientific community [16].

Moreover, since 2019, the IYCN has been organizing annual experiment outreach competitions on a chemistry basis, in which chemists from all over the world are encouraged to submit thematic experiments: Food Chemistry (2021), Earth Chemistry (2020), and Climate Change (2019). Such chemistry-based experiments are used for outreach and public engagement activities.

To choose the winning experiment, a judging committee is formed gathering professionals from different nationalities and expertise. However, the real action starts when the verdict is announced: international networks of volunteers translate the experiments into multiple languages and those are shared in a database freely available via the IYCN website [17].

Top Ten Emerging Technologies: How Chemistry Innovation is Boosting Economy and Improving Quality of Life Another global activity that IUPAC launched Chemistry International

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Selected IUPAC 2021 Top Ten Emerging Technologies in Chemistry. Retrieved from: <https://www.iupac.org/what-we-do/top-ten/>

during its centennial in 2019 was the Top Ten Emerging Technologies in Chemistry, which aims to annually identify emerging technologies across the chemical sciences with a pivotal role in fostering the well-being of society and contributing for a globally sustainable future <https://www.iupac. org/what-we-do/top-ten/>. With this goal in mind, IUPAC aims at showcasing how chemistry can effectively contribute to achieving the SDGs and seeks to demonstrate the transformative value and power of chemistry in addressing global affairs in a sustainable manner, paving the way for a better world [18 and refs therein]. All submissions are carefully reviewed by a jury of experts.

The highlights of previous years include nanopesticides, solid-state batteries, flow chemistry, 3D bioprinting, artificial intelligence applied to chemistry, nanosensors, rapid diagnostics for testing and RNA vaccines, among others—this last one paving the way to fight the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.

In 2021, the selected Top Ten Emerging Technologies in Chemistry were the (i) blockchain, related to the reproducibility and traceability of chemical advances in the digital context; (ii) semisynthetic life, improving biochemistry and therapeutics; (iii) artificial humic matter from biomass, contributing to the carbon-negative global efforts; (iv) chemical synthesis of DNA and RNA, standing out technologies in biomedical applications, especially in fighting

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the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic; (v) chemiluminescence for biological use, related to the speed and sensitivity of tests; (vi) sustainable production of ammonia, highlighting greener alternatives to the consolidated Haber-Bosch process; (vii) sonochemical coatings, contributing to the development of safer and more durable materials; (viii) single-cell metabolomics, a revolution for biomolecules analysis; (ix) target protein degradation, improving therapeutics; and (x) superwettability, providing innovative material solutions and technology breakthroughs by tweaking the liquid-solid surface interactions [19]—which is already revolutionizing the automotive market by facilitating the fabrication of self-cleaning cars [20] after activation by adopting a simple strategy to manufacture super-hydrophobic, cost effective, transparent, antifogging, self-cleaning and antimicrobial coatings on the glass sheet, which will also be helpful for outdoor and automobile windscreen. The super-hydrophobic coating was set up by dip coating and the coated specimen has been characterized for wetting behaviour, transparency and SEM analysis. It is worth noting that this initiative has highlighted technologies later awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, as it has been with Benjamin List and David MacMillan, 2021 Nobel Laureates for the development of asymmetric organocatalysis—one of the selected 2019 Top Ten Emerging Technologies in Chemistry.

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Chris Brett (left) received on behalf of IUPAC The Hague Award in 2019. See <https://iupac.org/iupac-is-one-of-the-recipientsof-the-2019-opcw-the-hague-award/> and more therein.

Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions IUPAC can also play a key role in achieving SDG #16 by contributing to eradicating the development, production, and use of chemical weapons and related warfare agents. To this end, a Chemical Weapons Convention was signed in 1997 by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), with its 193 Member States. The OPCW is an intergovernmental organization laureated with the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize, overseeing the global effort to achieve a world free of chemical weapons.

IUPAC has been playing an important role in assisting the OPCW Scientific Advisory Board in reporting its workshops and main achievements [21]. To date, 98% of the declared chemical weapons’ stockpiles have been destroyed and, until 2023, it is expected to have a world completely free of chemical weapons [22]. Due to its contributions to the goals of OPCW, IUPAC received the prestigious The Hague Award in 2019 <https://www.opcw.org/opcw-hague-award>.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion IUPAC is strongly committed to creating an inclusive, diverse, respectful and welcoming environment and to provide clear guidelines for the chemistry

community on ethics, inclusion, and best practices in the workplace, in publications, and in education in chemistry. Despite the aforementioned efforts, it must be recognized that in the race for opportunities, some people start from a privileged position. If we want to build a fairer future, there is the need to think about actions that promote the reduction of inequalities and value the advancement of everyone.

As part of the reorganization of IUPAC started during the 2019 General Assembly, a Committee on Ethics, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (CEDEI) has been created. As the focus of its actions, the Committee strives for diversity, equity, respect and inclusiveness in all forms by providing advice, recommending best practices, and valuing transparent, responsible and ethical practices across the chemical sciences [23].

One of the IUPAC most popular initiatives related to this topic is the Global Women’s Breakfast (GWB). Launched in 2019, the event brings together participants from high school to experienced professionals from all over the world aiming to share ideas and celebrate the achievements of Women in Science, overcome the barriers to gender equality, and inspire younger generations to pursue careers in science. As a proof of its international success, the 2021 edition brought together more than 20,000 people in over 300 cities from all around the globe to discuss diversity in Chemistry careers and expand professional horizons [24]. In 2022, the GWB took place on 16 February 2022; more than 400 events in 75 countries including 9 countries participating for the first time. In 2023, the GWB will take place on 14 Feb 2023 and will celebrate the International year of Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development.

Also to recognize women’s contributions to the chemical sciences, and celebrate the 2011 International Year of Chemistry, IUPAC created the Distinguished Women Award in Chemistry or Chemical Engineering; it has been awarded to 82 professionals from all continents to date <https://iupac.org/what-we-do/awards/ iupac-distinguished-women/>.

What’s next?

While long-standing initiatives consolidate in the global community, new projects are being launched. The IYCN and IUPAC are once again joining efforts in a new project focusing on sustainability for a better world entitled “Global Conversation on Sustainability.” (https:// iupac.org/project/2021-034-2-041).

This 24-hour event is scheduled to have its first edition on 25 September 2022—aligned with the SDGs anniversary [25]—hopefully engaging people from around the Chemistry International

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Celebration of the Global Women’s Breakfast in Nigeria in 2019.

world in a joint global effort towards a sustainable future for our planet. More information will be released on the IYCN and IUPAC websites and social media channels in the near future.

Both the IYCN and IUPAC are strongly committed to continue being active players in global affairs, not only because we are global organizations, but also due to our inherent responsibility to creating a better and more sustainable future for all.

Acknowledgments We would like to thank all symposium participants, namely Angela K. Wilson, Francesca Kerton, Peter Hotchkiss, Stephen Heller, Ray Boucher, Richard Kidd, Ian Bruno, Jonathan Goodman, Johanna Irrgeher, Manfred Groening, Steven Westwood, Mary Garson, Laura McConnell, Lynn Soby, Juris Meija, Jan Apotheker, Luc Allemand, and Nnanake-Abasi O. Offiong, as well as all IUPAC and IYCN members, volunteers, collaborators and partners for their invaluable contibutions. For a copy of the symposium program, see <https://iupac. org/event/iupac-role-in-global-affairs/>.

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J. Garcia Martinez, “Tackling the Big Challenges of the Future”, Chem. Int. 38(3–4), 10–15, 2016; https://doi.org/10.1515/ci-2016-3-405 J. Garcia Martinez, “Chemistry 2030: A Roadmap for a New Decade”, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., vol. 60, no. 10, pp. 4956–4960, 2021; https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.202014779 United Nations, “The sustainable development goals report 2021”, 2021; https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2021/TheSustainable-Development-Goals-Report-2021.pdf United Nations, “COP26: Together for our planet”, 2021; https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/cop26 L. K. Sydnes, “The Continued Need for CHEMRAWN within IUPAC: A Personal Account”, Chem. Int. 43(2), 20–26,

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14.

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2021; https://doi.org/10.1515/ci-2021-0205 e-Waste Africa, “CHEMRAWN XXII e-Waste in Africa & 44th Annual International Conference of Chemical Society of Nigeria”; https://e-wasteafrica.org E . Zajdela and Z. Lerman, “Malta X Anniversary and COVID-19”, Chem. Int. 43(2), 216-19, 2021; https://doi.org/10.1515/ci-2021-0204 Malta Conferences Foundation, https://www.maltaconferencesfoundation.org IUPAC Interdivisional Committee on Green Chemistry for Sustainable Development (ICGCSD); https://iupac.org/body/041 J. García Martínez, “Why we need a common vision for chemistry”, C&EN, 98(2), 2020; https://cen.acs.org/ acs-news/need-common-vision-chemistry/98/i2 L. Ferrins, E. Llabani, and C. Dunne, “IUPAC and IYCN: Forging New Connections to Support Younger Chemists Worldwide”, Chem. Int. 40(3), 11–13, 2018; https://doi. org/10.1515/ci-2018-0305 E. Dobbelaar and J. Richter, “An overview of young chemists’ expectations towards the sustainable development of the chemical sector. Opinions that matter”, Pure Appl. Chem. 94(1), 1–14, 2022; https://doi.org/10.1515/pac-2021-0602 B. Mourant, L. Ferrins, S. Carenco, N. Lafranzo, and C. M. Rawlins, “The Inaugural IYCN General Assembly”, Chem. Int. 42(1), 16–19, 2020; https://doi.org/10.1515/ci-2020-0105 IYCN, https://www.iycnglobal.com “The IUPAC Periodic Table Challenge available in multi-language”, Chem. Int. 42(4), 32–33, 2020; https://doi.org/10.1515/ci-2020-0413 J. Borges et al., “A Virtual Journey in Empowering EarlyCareer Chemists”, ChemistryViews, 2021, https://doi.org/10.1002/chemv.202100001 A. A. Walshe, “Engaging the Next Generation”, ChemistryViews, 2019, https://doi.org/10.1002/chemv.201900088 M. Droescher, J. Garcia Martinez, and Z. Shuai, “Emerging technologies for a more sustainable future”, Pure Appl.

Conference Call Chem. 93(12), 1351–1352, 2021; https://doi.org/10.1515/pac-2021-1012, and refs therein 19. F. Gomollón-Bel, “IUPAC Top Ten Emerging Technologies in Chemistry 2021: Breakthroughs for a circular, climateneutral future”, Chem. Int., vol. 43, no. 4, pp. 13–20, 2021, https://doi.org/10.1515/ci-2021-0404.

20. P. Shahzadi, S. R. Gilani, B. B. Rana, A. Ghaffar, and A. Munir, “Transparent, self-cleaning, scratch resistance and environment friendly coatings for glass substrate and their potential applications in outdoor and automobile industry”, Sci. Rep., vol. 11, no. 20743, pp. 1–14, 2021, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-00230-9.

21. J. Forman and M. Cesa, “A Partnership of Science and Diplomacy to Eliminate Chemical Weapons” IUPAC 100 Stories, 18 Sep 2019; https://iupac.org/100/stories/ a-partnership-of-science-and-diplomacy-to-eliminatechemical-weapons/ 22. International Committee of the Red Cross, “ICRC emphasizes the prohibition of chemical weapons at 26th Conference of the States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention”, 29 Nov 2021, https://www.icrc.org/en/ document/prohibition-chemical-weapons-26th-conference 23. IUPAC Committee on Ethics, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, https://iupac.org/body/060 24. M. J. Garson, L. L. McConnell, and L. M. Soby, “Diversity in Science at the Global Women’s Breakfast Network”, Chem.

Int. 43(3), 8–11, 2021; https://doi.org/10.1515/ci-2021-0303 25. United Nations, “Resolution adopted by the General Assembly on 25 September 2015”, 2015. https://www. unfpa.org/sites/default/files/resource-pdf/Resolution_A_ RES_70_1_EN.pdf

All web references were accessed 31 Jan 2022

Carolina Sotério <carolina.soterio@usp.br> is a chemist, specialist in Science Journalism and PhD candidate in Public Communication of Science and Technology at the University of São Paulo, Brazil. She is also a member of the IYCN Public Outreach Committee; https://orcid.org/0000-00018040-0861 João Borges <joaoborges@ua.pt> is an Assistant Researcher at the University of Aveiro, Portugal, focusing on the molecular design, synthesis and development of supramolecular biofunctional materials to interface with living systems. João is the Chair of the International Younger Chemists Network (IYCN) and Affiliate Member of IUPAC. https://orcid.org/00000003-0126-8482 Javier García-Martínez <j.garcia@ua.es> is a Professor of Inorganic Chemistry and Director of the Molecular Nanotechnology Laboratory of the University of Alicante where he leads an international team working on the synthesis and application of nanostructured materials for the production of chemicals and energy. Professor García-Martínez is IUPAC President since January 2022; https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7089-4973

Environmental Chemistry and Sustainability

by Diane Purchase, Annemieke Farenhorst, Hemda Garelick, Nadia G. Kandile, Christine Luscombe, Laura McConnell, Bulent Mertoglu, Bradley Miller, Fani Sakellariadou, Roberto Terzano, and Weiping Wu The 48th IUPAC World Chemistry Congress and the Canadian Chemistry Conference took place virtually on 15-20 August 2021. Oral presentations were uploaded in advance to be viewed on-demand; they were complemented by live discussion sessions with the speakers during the conference. The IUPAC Chemistry and the Environment Division (Division VI), also supported by the Polymer Division (Division IV), organized four symposia on Environmental Chemistry and Sustainability in the ‘Chemistry and Sustainability’ thematic programme. The symposia provided forums to share advanced knowledge on environmental chemistry, the connectivity between environmental chemistry and the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and improved technologies for safeguarding different environmental compartments and human health. For example, the next generations of sustainable polymers, the identification and impact of pollutants in the atmospheric, aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems caused by fires, and the innovation of sustainable applications in crop and livestock agricultural production.

The symposia took place over three days (16, 19-20 August), during which a number of high-profile international speakers presented on four special sessions: • Sustainable polymers • The environmental impact of fires • Emerging technologies and conservation practices for sustainable agriculture and public health • A Healthy Intake: environmental pollutants in air, water, food and their removal All four symposia were well-attended and well-received, raising awareness of the important topics associated with the symposia.

An overview from the President of Division VI— Hemda Garelick Division VI has established a long tradition of examining and addressing the role of chemical science in and its impact on the environment and human health as well as the importance of cross-disciplinary collaboration.

The development of environmentally focussed symposia in the IUPAC World Chemistry Congress was established in 2009 for the IUPAC Congress held in Chemistry International

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Conference Call Glasgow, sharing an opportunity with the chemistry community to examine and address these principles.

These have since reoccurred in nearly every IUPAC World Chemistry Congress. Through the presentation by multidisciplinary experts and the use of case studies from different countries, the symposia contributed to the advancement of knowledge of chemistry in environmental and health impact and the promotion of sustainable solutions to global challenges.

In last year’s Congress, the Division task groups and collaborating members from other Divisions were able to focus on a range of technologies and chemicals affecting the environment, and on the impact of environmental events driven by natural and human activities. An important principle driving the Division is the engagement with the community of observers such as young scientists, and promoting the Division’s activities. In addition, and also since 2009, the Division has developed a tradition of awarding ‘Chemistry and the Environment Division Award’ for the best poster presented at each Congress.

The Montreal Congress has again given us the opportunity to further develop the above principles and plan for the future.

Highlights from the symposia Sustainable polymers—organized by Weiping Wu, Nadia G. Kandile, Bulent Mertoglu and Christine Luscombe This symposium exchanged new ideas on sustainable polymers through an interdisciplinary approach by bringing chemists, polymer scientists, analytical chemists, environmental experts and biological engineers together. The first invited talk titled ‘Transforming Thermosets into Thermoplasticlike Materials’ was delivered by John Torkelson, (Walter P. Murphy endowed Professorship) from Northwestern University. He presented an innovative approach to recycle polymer networks and network composites substantially. The research showed that by replacing a fraction of the dynamic crosslinks in the covalent polymer networks (DCPNs) with permanent crosslinks, it could substantially suppress elevated-temperature creep. This research is important for the recycle and reuse of crosslinked polymers

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and their composites (such as rubber tires and polyurethane foam) in high-value products. Megan Robertson from the University of Houston gave a talk about research on the accelerated hydrolytic degradation behavior of the ester-containing epoxy resins, aiming to recycle the thermoset polymers to minimize their environmental impact. The presentation of Anne McNeil from the University of Michigan demonstrated an efficient approach to repurpose superabsorbent (crosslinked) sodium polyacrylates to pressure-sensitive adhesive, utilizing a combined decrosslinking and esterification reaction with a subsequent chain-shortening via sonication. The invited talks were followed by 13 talks covering the topics of synthesis of new degradable polymers, sustainable materials from natural/bio sources, the applications and recycling of sustainable polymeric materials. The speakers, audiences, and organizers discussed the challenges and possible solutions in the area of sustainable polymers as well as emerging microplastic pollutions.

Conference Call The environmental impact of fires—organized by Roberto Terzano and Fani Sakellariadou This symposium addressed various topics related to accidental or intentional fires that degrade natural ecosystems and affect the anthropogenic environment.

The keynote presentation was delivered by Mike Flannigan, Director of the Canadian Partnership on Wildland Fire Science and Professor of Wildland Fire at the University of Alberta. He presented the prevailing issue of wildfire and climate change. Prof. Flannigan mentioned that global warming will lead to more wildfires and smoke in the years to come and he concluded that in a warmer world, we will have to learn to live with wildfire.

This was followed by several very interesting discussions on the presentations from scientists across the globe. They focused on issues such as the effects of fire on different environmental ecosystems, the ways to control and suppress fires, the effective monitoring of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and the fire management. For example, the carbon monoxide (CO) monitoring during extreme fire events to develop mitigation methods was discussed.

The chemical species emitted from wood and dung biomass burning were also considered, the former due to its use for heating and the rising incidence of wildfires, and the latter used primarily as a fuel source in many developing countries. Particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, fires are often intentional and satisfy various aims. Therefore, it was concluded that the dissemination of knowledge and information will offer an extreme help towards sustainable practices in these Countries. Another topic of discussion was the increasing human and environmental health risks caused by fire events that may favour the oxidation and mobilization of chromium (Cr) in polluted soils.

Also, issues such as the traditional ecological knowledge, the reintroduction of old-fashioned agricultural practices, and the knowledge of recent fire disasters were commented.

Emerging technologies and conservation practices for sustainable agriculture and public health—organized by Annemieke Farenhorst, Diane Purchase, and Laura McConnell Agriculture as a global industry is undergoing rapid transformations with many new and disruptive technologies, spanning multiple scientific disciplines from chemistry, to plant biotechnology, to remote sensing, and data science. This symposium focused on emerging technologies to improve the sustainability of crop production and to improve public health as well as

advancing the quality of air, soil, water, and biodiversity through conservation practices.

Rai Kookana of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Australia, provided the keynote presentation on emerging technologies and improved practices for sustainable agriculture. The online session deliberated the use of established technologies such as biobeds and biochar, and the emerging role of nanopesticides and RNAi (post transcriptional gene silencing). The discussion then moved to Annemieke Farenhorst’s (University of Manitoba, Canada) presentation on the application of biobed technology to turn pesticide rinsate into cleaner water and its safety for reuse. Zijiang Yang (University of Maryland, USA) advocated the use of vegetative environmental buffer (VEB) as a promising technology to mitigate ammonia and particulate matters from poultry house; the group discussed the challenges the technology might face in arid regions and the potential spread of microbial pathogens.

Garrett Whitworth (Thompson Rivers University, Canada) engaged in an interesting dialogue on the use of ash residual amendment to increase the sustainability of both forestry and agricultural operations through waste reuse, carbon sequestration and reduction in use of chemical fertilizers. This was followed by a conversation on crop protection using transgenic Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) corn to reduce aflatoxin risk (presented by Felicia Wu from Michigan State University, USA) and the use of gene editing technologies to reduce fungal infection and mycotoxin contamination of crops. The use of plant growth promoting bacteria to mitigate fungicides (Paraskevas Parlakidis, Democritus University of Thrace, Greece) and the application of aldehyde-containing clays and zeolites to control olive fruit fly (Stefano Econdi, University of Milan, Italy) were discussed as promising technologies to support bioremediation of agricultural chemicals and biocontrol of pests, respectively.

The session’s invited speaker, Leah Riter (Bayer CropSciences, USA), rounded up the session exchanging views on her research on emerging technologies in chiral separations to improve environmental safety of pesticides.

A Healthy Intake: Environmental Pollutants in Air, Water, Food and their Removal. Organized by Kevin Wilkinson, Patrick Hayes, Hind Al-Abadleh, and Bradley Miller The keynote presentation for the symposia was given by Jon Abbatt of the University of Toronto entitled “Multiphase Aerosol Oxidation Processes Chemistry International

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Conference Call in the Atmosphere: Impacts on East Asian Haze and Wildfire Smoke.” The detailed and interesting work by his laboratory has elucidated the roles of a variety of gas-phase oxidants for aerosol sulfate formation and may inform better global climate change predictions. The kinetics and oxidation mechanisms of these aerosol particles from haze and wildfires affects ecologically sensitive areas around the world. The symposia had five sessions and eleven graduate students took home best oral presentation awards from each session. The award winners included Kardelen Kaya-Ozkiper of Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey; Wisam Mohammed of Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada; Sarah Begin from Trent University, Canada; Zi Wang from McGill University, Canada; and Megan Himmelman of Saint Mary’s University, Canada.

Chemistry and the Environment Division Award— organized by Award Committee Chair Bradley Miller We are pleased to present the Chemistry and the Environment Division Award to three excellent posters at the conference. The winners were chosen from over 40 entries to the Chemistry for the Environment theme, based on the overall aesthetics, scientific merit and country of origin.

• 1st Place: $300 Award to Nansi Fakhri, Université Saint-Joseph, Beirut, Lebanon, et al.: PM2.5 sources in the Eastern Mediterranean capital Beirut: chemical characterization and contribution to ambient concentrations • 2nd Place: $200 Award to Mahshid Keramatnejad, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada, et al.: The Impact of Air Pollutants on the Biophysical Properties of A Model of Tear Film Lipid Layer • 3rd Place: $100 Award to Andrés Villamil Hernández (Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas, Bogotá, Colombia) et al.: An experience for soil recovery and fortification from vermicompost Many congratulations to the winners and thank you to our judges!

Diane Purchase (d.purchase@mdx.ac.uk), corresponding contributor, is a professor in Middlesex University, UK. She is a Titular Member of Division VI and co-chair of the Division’s subcommittee on Chemical and Biophysical Processes in the Environment.

See https://iupac.org/project/2021-008-1-600

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CHEMRAWN XXII E-waste in Africa— a boost to take strong actions for a better future

by Leiv K. Sydnes CHEMRAWN XXII finally became a reality 9-11 November 2021 after a long period of planning. The corona pandemic could have killed the conference when it was ready to be launched, but after some discussion and thorough equipment testing, the organizers decided to run the meeting as a hybrid event with the physical venue in Lagos, Nigeria. In order to reduce costs and facilitate a higher participation, the conference was partly integrated with the 44th International Conference of the Chemical Society of Nigeria, which celebrated its 50th anniversary on this occasion. This move paid off; CHEMRAWN XXII was attended by more than 600 participants from nine countries, which is among the highest attendances any CHEMRAWN meeting has ever had.

By drawing on examples from the serious situation in Africa, the conference gave an overview of the important parameters that are entangled and make the e-waste problem enormously complex, particularly in Africa. The seriousness became crystal clear in the keynote presentations that started right after the formal opening of the conference. In the very first lecture, the problems caused by e-waste were clearly presented by Aliju Jauro, the Director General of the National Environmental Standards & Regulations Enforcement Agency in Nigeria. The diversity of the problems is enormous, and the documentation of pollution of air, land, and water; and resulting health hazards was just overwhelming. His overview gave an excellent background for later lectures delivered by professors Seun Popoola (Nigeria) and Diana Purchase (UK), who focused on chemical consequences of inadequate e-waste recycling and showed how the complex chemical composition of e-waste leads to a range of health problems and enormous challenges in pollution clean-up and land decontamination. A clear take-home message was that although there is a significant knowledge base already available to carry out such work, more research is needed to improve the level of restoration so that heavily contaminated land again can be used for pasture and other agricultural purposes.

And research is indeed carried out, also in the countries affected by the misery as evidenced by the 30 posters about e-waste related problems presented during the conference.

Conference Call A key element in the total e-waste picture is the illegal transportation of large quantities of such waste to African countries, and this was made crystal clear in the lectures of Oladele Osibanjo (Nigeria), a past Executive Director of the Basel Convention Coordinating Centre for the African Region, and Carlos Martin-Novella (Spain), the current Deputy Executive Secretary at the Basel, Rotterdam, and Stockholm Conventions of the UN Environmental Programme (UNEP). From their presentations it was obvious that transboundary movements of hazardous waste in principle are properly regulated through international agreements, but their implementation is generally weak and often more or less non-existent.

In many countries struggling the most to solve the e-waste problems, there is no legally binding national policy in place as pointed out by several speakers, including Ifeanyi Ochonogho (Nigeria) who talked about e-waste management legislation and producers’ responsibility in Nigeria. A proposal to incorporate international conventions regulating handling and transboundary movements of hazardous waste, for instance the Basel Convention from 1989, into national legislations therefore sounds like a good idea and should therefore be followed up.

Overview of the e-waste situation in Africa and presentation of initiatives and pilots tested to change disposal and recycling practises, particularly in Kenya, constituted an important part of the program. Due to remote technical problems, speakers from South Africa and Egypt could not be connected, a consequence of which was that the situation in Kenya and Nigeria could be covered more thoroughly than planned. The miserable situation in many African countries was solidly documented by several speakers, and the recent development turned out to be more devastating than many were aware of. When the e-waste generated within Africa rose 30% from 20162019, on the top of the vast quantity illegally brought in, it is indeed obvious the African continent is facing a tremendous problem that needs urgent attention. This was forcefully illustrated the second day of the conference when a number of documentaries from dumping sites and recycling facilities in Africa were available for viewing on the conference website. What a relief then to learn that the problem is getting increasing attention and work to take adequate action has started. It was encouraging to listen to reports, particularly from Caroline Steinfeld, Project Manager at Sofies consultancy, UK, and Michael Koech, Safaricom (Kenya), about recent initiatives to improve the

The author attends the conference via zoom from his location in Bergen. Norway (photo: Kirsti Sydnes).

e-waste situation. In several countries there is a drive to get more of legally binding policy in place, develop better recycling infrastructure, and improve the e-waste awareness among the citizens. Then, several incentives for customers to return products that have reached end of life have been introduced on a trial basis, and some have even successfully been launched on a large scale. This, combined with building more convenient collection sites and improving the pick-up services, has already had a positive impact in some countries, and will gradually reduce the pollution and negative environmental footprints from e-waste.

As pointed out by several speakers, improved e-waste collection is a necessary, but not sufficient step to solve the e-waste problem in any country; in addition and in parallel, clean-up of existing dumping sites, decontamination of polluted land, and processing of the enormous amount of waste in a sustainable manner must be accelerated. Sustainable manner in this context means that the recycling is as pollution-free as possible, but just as important, that the valuable chemicals in the waste, first and foremost precious metals, are recovered and subsequently refined to a purity that makes them perfectly suitable for reuse. What it takes to achieve this was discussed by Christer Forsgren, Environmental & Technical Director in the Swedish company Stena Metall AB, who lectured about New technologies and new opportunities and convinced the audience that safe and sustainable handling of

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From the closing of the physical part of the hybrid conference in Lagos, Nigeria (photo: Kevin Idehen).

e-waste must be based on cutting-edge technologies. As shown on illustrative slides and videos, some technologies are applied to remove toxic chemicals in a safe way, others to separate precious metals efficiently, and finally, a third group to take care of the residual waste. The combinations of technologies used in a production line depends on the composition of the e-waste, and research and development are therefore in constant demand to make sure that the handling is satisfactory. Forsgren made this point clear in his presentation, and this was further illustrated by Maurizio Peruzzini, from the Italian National Research Council, in his lecture about lithium batteries. But Peruzzini also raised another important issue related to e-waste, element depletion. Much of this waste contain elements that are not available in abundance and one day we run short of them; that is even the case with a metal as common as lithium. Thus, if the current technological level is going to be maintained, a strong 4R global, regional, and local policy has to be implemented— Recycle, Recover, Refine, Reuse.

Knowledge about chemical problems related to e-waste handling and recycling is quite limited even among well-educated chemists, and this state of

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Chemistry International April-June 2022

affairs is probably due to lack of focus on such issues in chemistry programmes at university level. This assumption was obviously supported by Professor Nadia Kandile (Egypt), who lectured about e-waste topics introduced in educational programmes in chemistry at her university in Cairo. The impetus for doing so was obviously the significant e-waste problem in the country, which was a rich resource when case studies were on the agenda. The e-waste units have been in operation too short to detect visible impact, but from feedback after the lecture, it was obvious that the educational changes Kandile presented were well received by the participants.

A special part of any CHEMRAWN conference is the Future Action Committee (FAC), which is in session during the conference to pick up and review new and interesting ideas put forward in lectures and discussions with the purpose of developing projects to follow up in the future. Such a committee, with six members from four countries, was working at this conference as well. It convened before the meeting to plan its activity and met at the end of every day during the conference to discuss information presented in lectures and poster sessions and ideas put forward in roundtables and penal discussions. Ideas for new CHEMRAWN activities are currently outlined in the FAC report, which the committee aims at filing at the end of January.

CHEMRAWN XXII was the first CHEMRAWN conference carried out as a hybrid meeting, and that generated both some excitement and anxiety in the organization during the final preparations. It was therefore a pleasure to see that overall, the experience was very positive. First and foremost, several lecturers would not have been on the program if there was no virtual alternative to being present. Then, close to 100 were virtual participants, but in addition, many of those that were present in Lagos joined parts of the meeting virtually. It was also a pleasure to see that the lectures went well when the speakers had connected ahead of time and tested the system as instructed. An additional benefit I had not thought of was that interesting feedback came via zoom long after the discussion of a topic was over. But everything was not flawless of course. The most annoying problem was experienced when microphones in Lagos and the virtual connection were used simultaneously; a screaming sound was heard, and this cut the discussion short a couple of times. And irrespective of where the venue is, virtual connection can never fully replace physical presence and engaged involvement in Q&A sessions.

When the meeting was coming to an end, a

Conference Call clear picture of a large global problem had emerged.

Many factors contribute to its complexity, many issues are entangled and have to be addressed simultaneously, many of the necessary actions to take will be very costly because only sustainable solutions are permissible, and in many countries the problem is overwhelming due to negligence and unacceptable practices in other parts of the world. And the bottom line is that most of the challenges have a chemical component that IUPAC should contribute to fix.

During the closing of the conference, the strong

support from the Chemical Society of Nigeria and all the hard work done by the Local Organizing Committee, under the dedicated leadership of Prince Jay Oghifo, and the Conference Chairs were acknowledged with gratitude and enthusiasm. That was all well-deserved after a splendid event!

Leiv K. Sydnes <Leiv.Sydnes@uib.no> is Professor emeritus at Department of Chemistry, University of Bergen, Norway. He was president of IUPAC 2004-2005 and chaired the CHEMRAWN committee from 2008-2015.

World Metrology Day

20 May 2022

www.worldmetrologyday.org

© BIPM-OIML 2022

Metrology in the Digital Era

Chemistry International

April-June 2022

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I U P A C ADVANCING THE WORLDWIDE ROLE OF CHEMISTRY FOR THE BENEFIT OF MANKIND The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry is the global organization that provides objective scientific expertise and develops the essential tools for the application and communication of chemical knowledge for the benefit of humankind and the world. IUPAC accomplishes its mission by fostering sustainable development, providing a common language for chemistry, and advocating the free exchange of scientific information. In fulfilling this mission, IUPAC effectively contributes to the worldwide understanding and application of the chemical sciences, to the betterment of humankind.

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