Chemistry International | Jan 2021 | Feeding the World

CHEMISTRY International The News Magazine of IUPAC

January-March 2021 Volume 43 No. 1

Feeding the World in a Time of Climate Change Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning INTERNATIONAL UNION OF PURE AND APPLIED CHEMISTRY

Early Industrial Roots of Green Chemistry

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

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Cover: More than any other human activity, agriculture is dependent on a stable and well-understood climate. The connection between climate and the cultivation of crops is a two-way process with temperature and rainfall determining the success of crop growth and growing crops themselves affecting carbon dioxide relations and water behaviour in the soil and atmosphere. Understanding these relations is essential in order to develop an efficient and sustainable agriculture and food system that can feed the world in decades to come. See feature page 14.

https://iupac.org/gwb/2021

Contents

CHEMISTRY International January-March Volume 4342 No. 1 3 July-September2021 2020Volume No.

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President's Column Resilience in Pandemic Time by Christopher Brett Features Challenges for Evaluation of the Safety of Engineered Nanomaterials by Linda J. Johnston, Norma Gonzalez-Rojano,

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Kevin J. Wilkinson, and Baoshan Xing

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning by Bonnie Lawlor Feeding the World in a Time of Climate Change

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by Gary W. vanLoon and Atanu Sarkar

Early Industrial Roots of Green Chemistry by Mark A. Murphy

IUPAC Wire Election of IUPAC Officers and Bureau Members —Call for Nominations IUPAC Congress 2027 PAC60 Celebrations IYPT 2019—Global Report UNESCO-Russia Mendeleev International Prize in the Basic Sciences IUPAC Blockchain Technology White Paper—Call for input CPCDS Shorts Feed for Thought In Memoriam—Alexander Lawson

ZERO HUNGER

GOOD HEALTH AND WELL-BEING

QUALITY EDUCATION

Project Place Provisional Report on Discussions on Group 3 of The Periodic Table by Eric Scerri Development of a Machine Accessible Kinetic Databank for Radical Polymerizations Assessment of Absolute Isotope Ratios for the International Isotope Delta Measurement Standards Development of a Metadata Schema for Critically Evaluated Solubility Measurement Data

E AND DECENT WORK AND INDUSTRY, INNOVATIONREDUCED RGY ECONOMIC GROWTHAND INFRASTRUCTURE INEQUALITIES H

Li

He

Be

Na Mg K

Ca

Sc

Ti

V

Cr

Mn

Fe

Co

Ni

Cu

Zn

B

C

Al

Si

N

O

F

Ne

P

S

Cl

Ar

Ga Ge

As

Se

Br

Kr

Rb

Sr

Y

Zr

Nb Mo

Tc

Ru

Rh

Pd Ag Cd

In

Sn

Sb

Te

I

Xe

Cs

Ba

La

Hf

Ta

W

Re

Os

Ir

Pt

Au Hg

Tl

Pb

Bi

Po

At

Rn

Fr

Ra

Ac

Rf

Db Sg

Bh

Hs

Mt

Ds

Rg

Cn Nh

Fl

Mc

Lv

Ts Og

Gd Tb

Dy Ho

Er

Tm Yb

Lu

Cm

Cf

Fm

Md

Lr

Ce

Pr

Th

Pa

Nd Pm Sm Eu U

Np

Pu

Am

Bk

Es

No

LIFE BELOW WATER

Making an imPACt Glossary of methods and terms used in surface chemical analysis Global occurrence, chemical properties, and ecological impacts of e-wastes Variation of lead isotopic composition and atomic weight in terrestrial materials Definitions and notations relating to tactic polymers Terminology of polymers in advanced lithography IUPAC/CITAC Guide: Evaluation of risks of false decisions in conformity assessment of a multicomponent material PAC Jubilee—a manuscript from 1967: Dielectric dispersion in solutions of flexible polymers

LIFE ON LAND

PEACE, JUSTICE AND STRONG INSTITUTIONS

21 26 27 27 28 28 29 29 29 30 31 34 34

36 36 36 37 37 38 38

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Up for Discussion The Hudlicky case—A reflection on the current state of affairs

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by Leiv K. Sydnes

uare must be proportional 1 x 1. by its defined colour, or black

SUSTAINA AND COM

35

Bookworm Glossary of Terms Used in Molecular Toxicology

Conference Call Frontiers in Chemical Technology OPCW Convenes International Experts to Develop Strategy Green Chemistry Postgraduate Summer School Online

GENDER EQUALIT

45 47 47

PARTNER FOR THE

President's Column Resilience in Pandemic Time

by Christopher Brett

L

ast time I wrote to you, we were finishing 2019, IUPAC’s centenary celebrations and the International Year of the Periodic Table of the Chemical Elements (IYPT).

Since then, our world and how we related to it has changed dramatically. One year ago, we could not have imagined today’s reality. We are dealing with the consequences of a virus we knew little about and for which vaccines are starting to become available only now. The fact that the time for the development of vaccines has been shortened from several years to less than one year, is in itself the result of a huge scientific achievement; it involves interdisciplinary collaborations from microbiology to medicine, but also crucially underpinning chemistry. The pandemic has meant that our daily habits have changed, that we cannot travel or only with heavy restrictions, and that now we mostly meet on-line.

One of the consequences of the lockdowns in the early part of 2020 and of the slowdown or halting of industrial chemical processes was a reduction in pollution in some parts of the world and the remarkable resulting increase in air and water quality. It is direct evidence of the effect that humankind has on the planet’s ecosystems. This lockdown period was only a small hiccup in the tremendous changes that have occurred over the last century and many of the industrial processes have started again. However, it should give renewed impetus to what we, as chemists, can and should do to improve our world whilst lessening the effect we have on the planet and to take the opportunity to move towards greener industrial processes. In this, industry is our ally and we should work together towards the same goals.

My last President’s column set out a road map of the general things that we should be doing in order to fulfil our vision and strategic plan. None of this has changed. This included increasing IUPAC’s visibility and encouraging the whole chemistry community to work together on the many crucial questions that need to be addressed.

In unpredictable times, our objectives continue to be essential. For IUPAC, providing a common language

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for chemistry, and advocating and promoting the free exchange of scientific information, continue to be objectives of critical importance. The free exchange of scientific information, in particular the public’s open access to scientific information is a topic which has come more to the fore during the last year and the debate continues. Open access should be a leveller for different countries and should aid in making science available to all. How this can be achieved and what global policies will have to be implemented to make it a reality is still the object of discussion in which IUPAC is fully engaged.

The importance of fostering sustainable development is also growing, not only owing to the changes caused by the pandemic but also to other evidences of climate change. We have witnessed the consequences of what we are doing to the environment directly and we need greener chemical industrial processes, recognising that all that we do influences different interwoven cycles. If we disrupt these natural cycles there will be consequences. The important objective of reaching the 17 Sustainable Development Goals in the UN Agenda 2030 is ever in our minds.

IUPAC’s centenary and IYPT activities in 2019, have carried on into 2020, to ensure that the enthusiasm that was generated continues and forms part of a legacy for the future. The periodic table challenge was a tremendous success in 2019, so much so that it has been followed by a version 2.0 equally successful. To increase its reach, the challenge 2.0 has been translated into several languages including Arabic, Chinese, Russian, and Spanish. The Global Women’s breakfast has been held in 2019 and 2020 and will again in 2021, on February 9. The Top Ten Emerging Technologies featured in 2019 were followed by a further ten in 2020 and this activity will also continue in 2021.

One of the more negative consequences of the pandemic for research scientists, besides the temporary closure of laboratories, has been the cancellation or postponement of conferences. More positively, some have become or will become on-line conferences, allowing a broader participation not limited to participants normally able to travel. Whilst needing adaptation to this new way, it does open up possibilities of, for example, sharing pre-recorded presentations while devoting more time to discussion.

The year of 2020 has also had some more positive notes. Our journal Pure and Applied Chemistry (PAC) has just celebrated its 60th Anniversary. It was established in 1960 in order to publish reports and papers from IUPAC commissions, sections and divisions in a systematic and unified way, and some conferences proceedings. Today, the journal basic structure remains the

same and PAC is highly regarded. A special issue celebrating the 60th anniversary has just been published in December 2020, containing contributions from past winners of the IUPAC-Solvay International Award for Young Chemists. The fields of chemistry cover many of the areas that are fully recognized as being crucial for the future: energy, materials and especially nanomaterials, environment.,. The collection of papers also demonstrates the importance of interdisciplinarity and that chemistry is central to scientific advances and to solving problems. This IUPAC-Solvay award is an example of the many awards included in programmes supported by IUPAC, often together with other organizations, such as Richter, ThalesNano, Thieme, Polymer International, Hanwka, DMS, Zhejiang, Phosagro, or UNESCO. Last year IUPAC was a recipient of the 2019 Hague Awards from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and a celebratory virtual issue of PAC was published in April 2020, bringing together several articles from our long collaboration on the peaceful uses of chemistry. It has been decided that this award money will be used primarily for boosting capacity building and expanding outreach with a view to increasing chemicals’ safety and security.

In July 2019, Council agreed to initiate a review of IUPAC organizational structure and asked for a report outlining recommendations and suggestions on how it could to be changed to become more efficient and effective in carrying out its vision and mission, and to ensure that the Union has the necessary financial resources for this aim. As I write, this report is being finalized.

Looking ahead, we also need to ensure that Council can meet not only in person at General Assemblies as is permitted by the current Statutes and Bylaws, but also remotely or in a hybrid in-person/remote format.

In the light of Covid-19, temporary regulations in Swiss law, allow changes to be enacted. Therefore, important

alterations to the Statutes and Bylaws to allow Council to continue to function are being considered. These needed alterations have been unanimously approved by Bureau and recently submitted as a proposal for voting in a special Council meeting to be held virtually in May 2021.

And so, we continue to plan for the future. There are new, unforeseen challenges, in addition to those that already existed. In my last column I wrote “Can we rise to all these challenges? I believe we can and can make our future vision of IUPAC come true in a dynamic way.” This message is still true.

Finally, I would like to thank you all for your continued dedication and efforts, particularly throughout this last more difficult year, in our aim of implementing IUPAC’s vision for the benefit of the chemistry and scientific communities, both academic and industrial, and society.

Christopher Brett <cbrett@iupac.org> is President of IUPAC since January 2020. He is a professor of chemistry in the Faculty of Sciences and Technology, University of Coimbra, Portugal, where he has been since 1981, lecturing mainly electrochemistry, physical chemistry, materials chemistry and analytical chemistry. He has been an elected member of the IUPAC Bureau since 2012 and a member of the Executive Committee since 2016. He has gained extensive experience in IUPAC matters since 1994; he was President of the Physical and Biophysical Division (Division I) from 2006-2007, having been a Titular Member of the Division Committee since 2000 and Vice-President 2004-5. Before this, he was a member of the Electrochemistry Commission (Commission I.3) from 1994, having been Secretary in 1998-1999 and Chair from 2000-2001. He was President of the International Society of Electrochemistry (ISE), an associated organization of IUPAC, from 2007-2008, a member of the ISE Executive Committee from 2003-2010; and coordinator of the 2011 International Year of Chemistry activities of ISE. He was President of the Analytical Chemistry Division of the Portuguese Chemical Society (Sociedade Portuguesa de Química) in 2003-2005 and 2018-2020 and is President of the Iberoamerican Society of Electrochemistry 2020-22.

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

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Challenges for Evaluation of the Hed of Engineered Nanomaterials Safety

by Linda J. Johnston, Norma GonzalezRojano, Kevin J. Wilkinson, and Baoshan Xing

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anotechnology has developed rapidly in the last two decades with significant effort focused on the development of nano-enabled materials with new or improved properties that offer solutions for current world challenges. The commercialization of products containing engineered nanomaterials (ENM) has progressed much more rapidly than the development of practical approaches to ensure their safe and sustainable use. The lack of adequate detection and characterization techniques and reproducible and validated methods for toxicological studies have been identified as major limitations. The rapid development of ENM of increasing complexity and diversity and concerns over the adequacy of existing regulations also contribute to safety concerns with these materials. The full potential of nanotechnology can only be realized when feasible, cost-effective strategies to ensure a safe-by-design approach, effective risk assessment approaches and appropriate regulatory guidelines are in place.

An IUPAC-sponsored Workshop on the Safety of Engineered Nanomaterials in Queretaro, Mexico in late 2017 aimed to foster a greater awareness of the challenges and identify future research needs that must be filled to develop a regulatory framework for nanomaterials. The workshop covered four topics: (1) Detection and characterization of ENM, (2) Transformation of ENM in consumer products and the environment, (3) Nanotoxicology methods and gaps for environmental health and safety (EHS) and (4) Challenges for metrology, risk assessment, and standardization. This article highlights the main challenges and potential solutions that were developed during the workshop (https://iupac.org/project/2016-045-2-700) and subsequently by the authors and published in a recent NanoImpact article [1].

First, the characterization of ENM is complex, compared to conventional chemicals, since many properties must be assessed (Figure 1) and it is not always clear which ones are important for a specific application. ENM properties can be separated into two categories: intrinsic properties such as size, surface area, and composition that do not depend on the medium or environment (“what they are”) and extrinsic properties such as surface chemistry and aggregation that depend on the environment and determine the fate and reactivity of the material (“where they go” and “what they do”). Methods are typically optimized for pristine ENM and may not be applicable to the required environmental or use conditions. In other cases validated protocols are missing or rarely used by the community. Second, many ENM properties are method-defined.

For example, particle size can be assessed by more than ten different methods, each with its own range of applicability, theoretical basis and sensitivity. Particle size distributions may be based on intensity, number or mass and can be measured by either ensemble methods that interrogate the entire sample or by particle counting methods such as microscopy techniques. Selection of a fit-for-purpose method must consider the theoretical basis of the technique, method sensitivity and calibration, analyte concentration, sample matrix, potential ENM transformations, and the acceptable uncertainty for a specific application.

Despite this complexity, there is an emerging consensus on the key properties that are necessary for

Detection and characterization of ENM The utility of many published studies on the synthesis, applications, and toxicology of ENM is limited by inadequate characterization and data reporting.

These issues impact quality control during production of the materials and prevent inter-laboratory comparability for applications development and nanotoxicology studies. Several factors contribute to this problem.

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Figure. 1. Illustration of some of the ENM properties that must be characterized, reproduced with permission [1].

risk assessment and how they should be measured.

There is also a growing appreciation that the dynamic nature of nanomaterials and the high potential for batch-to-batch variability necessitate careful data reporting. However, significant bottlenecks remain in several areas. Although it is currently feasible to measure most properties of the pristine material, it is much more challenging to detect and characterize ENM in complex environmental and toxicological media where the concentration is low and there is interference from components or contaminants. Agglomeration and/ or aggregation of the ENM varies with time, medium and particle concentration and is considerably more problematic for â&#x20AC;&#x153;real-worldâ&#x20AC;? ENM than for the well-behaved, spherical, and monodisperse materials typically used for method development. Methods to determine the aggregation state of the material in the medium of interest are infrequently applied and are time- and resource-intensive. A final consideration is the difficulty with reproducible functionalization of materials and quantification of surface groups and coatings. Surface chemistry controls the fate and behaviour of a nanomaterial when incorporated into products, released to the environment or taken up by cells or organisms.

Transformations of ENM in the environment and consumer products The distribution and transformations of ENM in environmental matrices are determined by properties such as surface charge and hydrophobicity, solubility, aggregation state and chemical reactivity. Possible transformations in matrices such as soil or water include dissolution (which means that effects of both the ENM and dissolved ions must be considered) and redox processes which can alter the chemical reactivity of the material (Figure 2). Aggregation, sedimentation, and adsorption on matrix components such as natural organic matter in soil are also commonly observed.

ENM transformations are modulated by the properties of the matrix (e.g., pH, ionic strength, other components or contaminants) and will alter the transport and bioavailability of the ENM. The low ENM concentration and the requirement to distinguish it from other naturally occurring nanomaterials make the detection and characterization of the ENM in environmental matrices a difficult problem. Transformations of ENM in complex environmental media hinder the determination of appropriate exposure levels for assessing toxicity. Nevertheless, the interaction of ENM with environmental

matrices under realistic exposure conditions does not necessarily increase reactivity, bioavailability or toxicity, suggesting that the impact of ENM on ecosystems may frequently be lower than anticipated.

Assessing the consequences of ENM release from consumer products requires a careful life-cycle analysis that accounts for the method of ENM incorporation, the possible uses of the product and the disposal scenarios at end-of-use. For example, if an ENM is used to improve the mechanical properties of a polymer composite, one must consider the release of the unmodified or matrix-modified ENM from the composite and the potential toxicity of both forms, as well as any changes in the toxicity or degradability of the matrix caused by the ENM. ENM release tests often use a tiered approach that begins with the pristine material in a controlled environment where the effects of specific variables can be readily addressed and then progresses to studies of the product under normal use conditions. The difficulty in obtaining quantitative analytical data on ENM release from consumer products has motivated the development of exposure modeling to predict environmental concentration. Models focus on either tracking the flow of the ENM from production to end-of-life or assessing the distribution of ENMs between various environmental compartments. Integration of the two approaches has significant potential, but is still limited by the lack of life-cycle analysis data to validate the models.

Nanotoxicology methods and gaps for environmental health and safety In vitro assays are widely used in nanotoxicology but comparisons between studies are hampered by inadequate characterization of the ENM, insufficient consideration of the biologically relevant dose, and failure to use standardized methods and controls. As noted above the characterization issue is easy to solve, although potentially resource intensive. The question of dose is more problematic; many studies use ENM doses that far exceed the anticipated exposure level in order to see a biological effect. More sensitive techniques for determining biological endpoints are needed to facilitate use of more relevant doses. There is a lack of consensus on whether mass, surface area or particle number is the most appropriate dose metric and all three metrics are complicated by the propensity of ENM to aggregate, sediment or dissolve on the exposure time scale. Approaches to disperse ENM reproducibly, control or monitor their agglomeration Chemistry International

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Hed

Figure. 2. Illustration of possible transformations of metal oxide nanoparticles in an environmental sample, reproduced with permission.1

state and measure cellular uptake are necessary to ensure that nanotoxicology experiments assess realistic exposure conditions.

The rapidly increasing number of new ENM and the desire to minimize animal studies provide a strong impetus for extensive use of in vitro tests. Important considerations include the use of multiple assays for a given endpoint, inclusion of controls, consideration of possible ENM interference and validation of the assay. Validated protocols for some cytotoxicity assays have been developed. Application of more realistic models such as primary cell lines, 3D cellular models and co-cultures will improve the utility of in vitro tests for predicting in vivo behaviour. The need to minimize testing has also led to the development of grouping and read across methods for nanomaterial assessment.

The goal is to determine if data for one nanoform can be applied to related materials and the level of data needed to support such a decision. Successful development of grouping/read across methods will require data from validated characterization and toxicology assay protocols and will be facilitated by standard reporting practices, accessible data bases and computational and machine learning tools.

Challenges for standardization and risk assessment Continued development of standardized, internationally validated methods is required to address many of the above issues with ENM characterization and toxicology assays. A number of large multi-laboratory projects are addressing this gap by developing and

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testing tools to assess nanomaterial safety. Integration of such activities with ongoing work at standardization organizations such as ISO will lead to improved harmonization and efficiency. Future standardization efforts must provide sample preparation protocols and analytical methods that are relevant to the complex matrices in which ENM fate and behaviour must be assessed. Reference materials with complex sizes and shapes and high polydispersity are essential to develop methods and protocols that must then be validated in interlaboratory comparisons. The development of biologically relevant exposure limits reinforces the need for improved detection of ENM in complex environments, including workplace scenarios. Progress in these area will allow the development of occupational exposure limits and the design of regulatory frameworks for use of nanomaterials.

Summary and future perspectives The main gaps and challenges highlighted above are summarized in Table 1, along with research priorities that offer potential solutions. Advances in these areas will enhance our ability to assess and ultimately predict nanomaterial properties and behaviour in different environments. This will facilitate more efficient and cost-effective methods for evaluating the safety of ENM and developing regulatory guidelines for their use.

Several current IUPAC projects are providing guidance that is necessary for the safe and sustainable application of nanotechnology. These include projects on Human Health Risk Considerations of Nano-enabled Pesticides for Industry and Regulators (2017-035-2-600),

Challenges for Evaluation of the Safety of ENM Gap

Solution

Methods for quantification and characterization of ENM in complex media

Improve sample preparation methods Improve sensitivity of analytical methods Develop new instruments for ENM analysis in complex media that are capable of operating in environmental conditions with minimum sample preparation Use simple toxicity screening to identify cases that require detailed characterization and exposure data

Agglomeration of ENM

Use available fractionation methods to separate agglomerates from particles Use dispersants and electrostatic stabilizers

Surface chemistry of ENM

Develop a multi-method approach for selected ENM

Dosimetry for in vitro assays

Utilize realistic doses for in vitro assays Compare samples with varying degrees of aggregated particles to test for biological effects Complement dose metrics with cell uptake studies by flow cytometry or microscopy Develop alternative dosimetry models based on other particle properties

Data reporting

Require standard approaches for data reporting Develop a model for integration of existing nanomaterial databases/resources Journal requirements to follow standard data reporting guidelines

Standardization: analytical methods

Produce reference materials for more realistic materials (shape, dispersity, aggregation) Optimize and validate existing methods for complex ENM samples Improve analytical methods to identify sources of batch-to-batch variability Update international standards with new sample preparation and measurement methods Promote development of new cost-effective measurement techniques

Standardization: in vitro assays

Assess compatibility of a larger number of in vitro assays with ENM Develop more realistic cellular models Update international standards with new or improved EHS assays Table 1. Summary of identified gaps and potential solutions

Analytical Chemistry of Nanomaterials—Critical Evaluation (2017-005-3-500), and Nomenclature and Associated Terminology for Inorganic Nanoscale Particles (2019-016-3-800).

Reference 1.

L. J. Johnston, N. Gonzalez-Rojano, K. J. Wilkinson, B. Xing, Key challenges for evaluation of the safety of engineered nanomaterials, NanoImpact, 18, 100219, 2020.

Acknowledgements This work was supported by IUPAC project 2016045-2-700. We thank the workshop invited speakers, participants and industrial exhibitors whose contributions formed the initial motivation for the NanoImpact article [1] and this summary.

Linda J. Johnston, National Research Council Canada, Ottawa, Canada, Norma Gonzalez-Rojano, Centro Nacional de Metrologia, Queretaro, Mexico, Kevin J. Wilkinson, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Canada, Baoshan Xing, Stockbridge School of Agriculture, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, USA Chemistry International

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Artificial Intelligence Hed Machine Learning and Forging a New World for Scholarly Communication and the Advancement of Science

by Bonnie Lawlor

T

he uses of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) are topics of presentations at most conferences today across diverse professional disciplines. Why? The following quote says it all: “Just as electricity transformed almost everything 100 years ago, today I actually have a hard time thinking of an industry that I don’t think AI (Artificial Intelligence) will transform in the next several years.” [1] In May 2019, I agreed to cover a conference entitled “Artificial Intelligence: Finding Its Place in Research, Discovery, and Scholarly Publishing.” [2] Fortunately for me, this was not a conference for the AI computer-savvy, rather it was for non-techies who wanted to learn how ML and AI are being used within the scholarly communication community—by researchers, educators, funders, publishers, and technology vendors, etc.

Listening to the speakers motivated me to learn more about AI and ML simply because I needed to understand the jargon and how it is being used. In listening to some presentations I thought that the terms were being used interchangeably. I was curious to learn if and how they differed and the history behind them, which I will briefly share before moving on to some of the interesting highlights of the conference.

The concept of AI was captured in a 1950’s paper by Alan Turing, “Computing Machinery and Intelligence,” *1 in which he considered the question “can machines think.” It is well-written, understandable by a non-techie like me, and worth a read. Five years later a proof-of-concept program, Logic Theorist,*3 was demonstrated at the Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence *4 where the term “Artificial Intelligence” was actually coined and the study of the discipline was formally launched (for more on *

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the history and future of AI, see, “The History of Artificial Intelligence”*5).

Defined concisely, “Artificial Intelligence is the science and engineering of making computers behave in ways that, until recently, we thought required human intelligence.” *6 That same article goes on to define Machine Learning as “the study of computer algorithms that allow computer programs to automatically improve through experience.” *7 ML is one of the tools with which AI can be achieved and the article goes on to explain why the two terms are so often incorrectly interchanged (ML and AI are not the same. ML, as well as Deep Learning, are subsets under the overarching concept of AI). That same article defines a lot of the ML jargon and is worth a read if you plan on delving deeper into the subject. So on to some of the more interesting conference highlights.

Where are we in AI Development?

Rosina O. Weber, Associate Professor, Department of Information Science, College of Computing and Informatics, Drexel University, said that from her perspective there are three waves of AI: 1) describe, 2) categorize, and 3) explain. The first wave, describe, which has already occurred, allowed us to represent

See reference within [2], i.e. https://doi.org/10.3233/ISU-190068; the number directly following * corresponds to the reference listed within that paper.

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knowledge and examples as intelligent help desks, ontologies, content-based recommenders, etc. The second AI wave, categorize, is based on statistical learning and, according to Weber, is where AI and ML are today; e.g. image and speech recognition, sentiment analysis, neural networks, etc. This second wave has limitations, with the major problem being that humans do not want a machine to make decisions for them.

However, she noted that as a Society we have accumulated a great deal of data and it changes quickly. The original methods of converting data into information and letting humans make decisions no longer work effectively. The data deluge that we are increasingly experiencing can only be managed with the help of automated decision-making agents. Hopefully, the third wave, explain, will come to the rescue. This is where software agents and humans become true partners, with humans serving as “managers” of the work performed by multiple decision-making agents. It is in this wave that the AI systems will be capable of interacting with humans, explaining themselves, and adapting to different contexts.

According to Weber the future of AI is the third wave, eXplainable AI (XAI). Humans will supervise their partners, the AI agents, who in turn, can explain their decisions, adapt to specific contexts, learn from experience, adopt ethical principles, and comply with regulations. The challenges to the realization of the third wave are: the change in the nature of work— are humans ready to be the “boss” of AI agents?; the need for humans to be able to trust the agents; and collaboration among publishers who control the richest source of data—the proprietary information held in scientific publications. Weber then went on to describe the Science and Technology Cycle and how AI can improve the cycle—from fundraising through research, publication, and education. It is a thought-provoking read [3].

AI Trends around the Globe Another speaker was Dr. Bamini Jayabalasingham, Senior Analytical Product Manager at Elsevier, who highlighted the current trends for the use of AI around the globe. She said that Elsevier is the first to characterize the field of AI in a comprehensive, structured manner using extensive datasets from their own and public sources. These datasets were examined by Elsevier’s data scientists through the application of ML principles and the results were validated by domain experts from around the world. She noted that the field of AI currently generates approximately sixty

thousand research papers per year. This represents a 12.9 % growth in output over the past five years, and is markedly higher than the growth seen across all research, which has grown at a rate of 2.3 % per year in the same period. The number of AI research papers continues to grow at 12 % per year globally. China is the most prolific, followed by the USA, India, Germany, Japan, Spain, Iran, France, and Italy. The share of world publications on AI is growing. The data from 2013 to 2017 show that China has 24 %, Europe 30 %, the USA 17 %, and all other 29 %.

The results of their studies showed that globally, research in the field of AI clusters around seven topics: 1) search and optimization; 2) fuzzy systems; 3) planning and decision making; 4) natural language processing and knowledge representation; 5) computer vision; 6) neural networks; and 7) ML and probabilistic reasoning. The data that they analyzed showed that there are more than sixteen million active authors in the field who are affiliated with more than seventy-thousand organizations, and that there are more than seventy thousand articles, conference papers, and book records related to AI. She noted that China is very much focused on the applied side of AI, with publications targeted towards the topics of computer vision, neural networks, planning and decision making, fuzzy systems, natural language processing, and knowledge representation. Europe is the most diverse, and the USA is very strong in the corporate sector, with a lot of research coming out of IBM and Microsoft. Also, the USA is attracting a lot of talent from overseas to both the corporate and academic sectors. More details on AI efforts around the world can be found in the paper that the speaker published shortly after the conference [4]. Also, the results of the first stage of Elsevier’s research has been published in a report, Artificial Intelligence: How Knowledge is Created, Transferred, and Used: Trends in China, Europe, and the United States and is freely-available as a full report *17 and as an Executive Summary. *18

Information Discovery: The Need for Artificial Intelligence Another speaker, Christopher Barbosky, Senior Director, Chemical Abstracts Service, provided a good example of the output of the second wave of AI. He reinforced Weber’s comment about today’s data deluge and noted that the volume of discovery and intellectual property is increasing dramatically.

He added that 90 % of the world’s data was created in the past two years at a rate of 2.5 quintillion bytes Chemistry International

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Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning per day.*10 In addition, 73 % of the world’s patent applications are not written in the English language and they are increasing both in their number and in their complexity. Publishers such as CAS must not only invest in building a robust data collection, but they must also take the time to structure and curate that data. Barbosky’s comments on the data deluge were reinforced by another speaker, Bert Carelli, Director of Partnerships, TrendMD (trendmd.com), a company that uses AI and ML to help publishers and authors expand their readership to very targeted audiences.

Carelli noted that more than 2.5 million scholarly articles are published each year—more than 8000+ each day. Fifty percent of the articles are never read*36 and a much higher percentage are never cited.*37 Except for serendipity, how do researchers ever find the information that they need?

Barbosky said that CAS’ goal is to minimize the time and effort required by the researcher to discover, absorb, and make “sense” of the information that is delivered to them. They first gather journals, patents, dissertations, conference materials, and technical reports and then perform concept indexing, chemical substance indexing, and reaction indexing to identify and gather facts. Finally, using machines and humans, they perform analytics in order to provide the users with insights. The machines handle the low-hanging fruit and the humans handle the more complex material. Using AI and ML, CAS builds knowledge graphs and is able to discern increased connections across scientific disciplines. The use of AI and ML allows CAS to serve as an alchemist—transforming their raw data into knowledge.

He stressed the fact that ML has always required high-quality data and lots of it. He gave some examples of the amount of data required. It takes four million facial images to obtain 97.35 % accuracy in facial recognition; eight hundred thousand grasps are required to train a robotic arm; fifty thousand hours of voice data is required for speech recognition; and it takes one hundred and fifty thousand hours to train an ML model to recognize a hot dog. Why is so much data required? He said that in the past the process was that human-devised algorithms (rules) plus lots of the right data gave answers. Today the process is answers plus lots of the right data creates the rules—computers can now learn functions by discovering complex rules through repetitive training. He suggested that those interested read the book, Learning from Data—a Short Course [5]. I took a quick look at the book and it is technical, but it also has excellent examples of how to build ML models and provides understandable definitions of the jargon used in the field. Worth a look!

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Is AI the Research Assistant of the Future?

There were several presentations at the conference related to AI and education—all with the same message. Higher education–at least in the USA—is not doing enough to educate younger generations about AI and its potential impact on the careers that they may choose to follow. One presentation was by Amanda Wheatley, Liaison Librarian for Management, Business, and Entrepreneurship, and Heather Hervieux, Liaison Librarian for Political Science, Religious Studies and Philosophy, both from McGill University. The primary focus of their talk was to discuss the results of a survey that they initiated in order to determine what role the librarian will play in an AI-dominated future, as well as to reinforce the importance of autonomous research skills.

They asked the following questions: Is AI prepared to allow researchers to continue their information literacy process? And is AI capable of being information-literate? They noted that smart speaker ownership (e.g. Alexa, Siri, etc.) in the United States increased dramatically between 2017 and 2018, growing from 66.7 million to 118.5 million units, an increase of almost 78 percent.*44 (note: since 2018 that number grew to 157 million in 2019!) Since humans are basically creatures of habit, they expressed concern that as younger people become more and more used to simply asking a question to these smart devices rather than doing their own research, perhaps not only will the quality of research inquiries and strategic searching diminish, but also the role of librarians may need to shift to ensure that the research quality is maintained. It is inevitable that as these devices become a common part of people’s everyday lives, their use will extend from personal space to the professional and academic environments.

Asking Google for the news could soon become asking for the latest research on a given subject. They believe that the potential for Virtual Assistants to become pseudo-research assistants is a reality of which all information professionals and educators should be aware. Wheatley and Hervieux’s goal became to see if this type of AI has the potential to accurately provide research support at the level of an educated librarian with a Master’s degree.

By determining whether or not these devices are capable of providing high-quality answers to reference questions, they hope to begin to understand how users might utilize them within the research cycle. Their research plan consists of six steps: 1) an environmental scan; 2) the identification of librarians’ perceptions of

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Letter against autonomous weapons (2015)

China Europe United States

President Xi Jinping calling for breakthroughs in S&T (2014)

Europe: FP7 funding program (2006)

Global

China National Medium- and LongTerm Plan for the Development of Science and Technology (2004)

Europe: new innovation agena (EITs) (2014 Launch of Horizon2020 (2014)

United States National AI R&D Strategic Plan (2016)

Financial Crisis (2008)

1998

1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

First robots for home, e.g. cleaning (2001)

First self-driving cars (2005)

2011

Speech recognition on smartphone (2008)

Googles autonomous car (2009)

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

Evangelist Andrew Ng training an AI ("loving cats") 2012

Google DeepMind winning Go (2016)

Apple's SIRI, Cortana, GoogleNow (2011-2014) Google Duplex (2018)

Timeline of policies and events (upper panel), and technology breakthroughs (lower panel) of significance in the AI field from 1998 to 2018. Reproduced from ref 4: Tobin, S., http://doi.org/10.3233/ISU-190060

AI; 3) phase 1 of the device testing; 4) the identification of student perceptions; 5) phase 2 of the device testing; and 6) an evaluation of the AI experience. At the time of the conference, only the first step had been completed.

The methodology used for the first step was to evaluate the university and university library websites of twenty-five research-intensive institutions in the USA and Canada. They searched for keywords such as Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Deep Learning, AI hub, etc. And they looked at library websites to see if they could find mention of AI in strategic plans/mission/vision, in topic/research/subject guides, in programming, and in partnerships. Similarly, they looked at the University websites for mention of AI hubs, courses, and mention of major AI researchers.

Of the twenty-five universities reviewed not one mentioned AI in their strategic plans. However, all did have some sort of AI presence (e.g., AI hubs or course offerings). Only one of the academic libraries has a subject guide on AI (Calgary University). Three libraries offer programming and activities related to AI. Sixty-eight percent of the universities have significant researchers in the field of AI. And although some libraries have digital scholarship hubs, these hubs are not involved with AI. Of the twenty-five academic libraries

sampled, only two are collaborating with AI hubs.

Wheatley and Hervieux said that their conclusions at this stage of their research are the following: 1) AI is already operating behind the scenes in libraries and the larger research process; 2) Universities and libraries are not doing enough to work together in this field; and 3) Research habits are indicative of personal habits and that the personal use of virtual assistants is growing exponentially.

Wikipedia and AI Since one of the smart speaker devices noted above was Alexa, I want to close with some facts about Wikipedia, one of Alexa’s information sources.

The conference’s final speaker was Dr. Aaron Halfaker, American Computer Scientist and a Principal Research Scientist, Wikimedia Foundation, who provided an overview of the most pressing research questions of strategic importance for Wikipedia and the larger Wikimedia movement. Wikipedia was launched 15 January 2001 and has evolved into the world’s largest encyclopedia, with about five million articles in English.

(Note: as of June 2020, there were three hundred and ten languages into which Wikipedia has been translated, with three hundred active and ten closed [6].)

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Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning He said that a Wiki is a website that allows collaborative editing of its content and structure by users.

It is a “flipped” publication model in that content is published first and reviewed (maybe) later. Wikipedia’s quality control has two components. The first is fully-automated. It is based upon ML techniques and can identify “vandalism” in about five seconds.*60 The second component is a semi-automated computation, but it is still pretty fast—about thirty seconds, and it helps to minimize human effort. He noted that humans catch most vandalism at a glance. The automated quality control system can separate vandals from “good faith” contributors and helps to manage the community.

Overall, the community itself socializes and trains newcomers and also mediates disputes.

Halfaker then turned his discussion to the future— Where is Wikipedia going? Where does it want to go?

And what should they be doing to get there? As of January 2019, Planet Earth had 7.6 billion inhabitants and Wikipedia had one billion monthly visitors with its content managed by 113$304 editors. The staff of the Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit that hosts Wikipedia and their other free knowledge projects, totaled about 225 (https://wikimediafoundation.org/ about/). He noted that at the time of his presentation their core research team totaled six, while Google had 1953, Facebook had 580, and Yahoo had 84. But he added that Wikimedia is a volunteer organization and it is interesting because: • • •

•

It is huge and read by one-tenth of the planet.

It is a trusted source of information.

It is weird, and has a flipped publication model and a decentralized governance. It should not have worked at all.

It is Open; Datasets, proposals, and initiatives are all made freely-available.

They are using Artificial Intelligence to fill-in content gaps, especially in under-developed content areas.*64 With regard to the growth in newcomer retention, they are using AI to improve quality control and identify the most serious acts of vandalism. The system can direct humans to review the most damaging edits and determine the caliber of mistakes. Thus “rookie” mistakes can be treated more appropriately as innocent.*65

Conclusion The goal of this conference was to explore the application and implication of Artificial Intelligence (AI) across all sectors of scholarship and, as you can see

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by this report sampling, the topics covered were quite diverse [2]. For me, the most important message was the call for educators and librarians to better prepare students—indeed, Society in general—for a future where AI is increasingly embedded in all that we do.

How is AI applied to professions, commerce, and industry? How is it applied to careers and personal life planning? How will it impact our social, political and economic world? Should young people, in particular, be more aware of its potential impact on their lives?

These are questions that we all need to think about as we move forward in an increasingly-automated world.

In 2018, the Pew Foundation asked almost one thousand technology pioneers, innovators, developers, business and policy leaders, researchers, and activists about the impact that AI will have on society by the year 2030 (take a look at the report—it is interesting!) [7]. Amy Webb, founder of the Future Today Institute and professor of strategic foresight at New York University, commented: “As AI matures, we will need a responsive workforce, capable of adapting to new processes, systems and tools every few years. The need for these fields will arise faster than our labor departments, schools and universities are acknowledging.”

Is AI on the radar screen of chemical education? If not, why not? Consider the following quote [8]: “I think what makes AI different from other technologies is that it’s going to bring humans and machines closer together. AI is sometimes incorrectly framed as machines replacing humans. It’s not about machines replacing humans, but machines augmenting humans. Humans and machines have different relative strengths and weaknesses, and it’s about the combination of these two that will allow human intents and business process to scale 10x, 100x, and beyond that in the coming years.”

Imagine the increased speed of scientific discovery as AI and ML become an integral part of the research process! A recent article in Chemical & Engineering News said [9]: “AI algorithms have already demonstrated that they can recognize—and maybe invent—compounds that not only follow the laws of physics but also have properties that humans are looking for…

What remains to be seen is how long these powerful tools will remain in the hands of specialists and

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Additional Reading

what we might find when more chemists can use them effectively.”

We are at the borders of a new world, both in our personal and professional lives.

References 1.

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Lynch, S., “Andrew Ng: Why AI is the New Electricity,” Stanford Business Insights, 11 March 2017, http:// stanford.io/2mwODQU For a detailed overview, including 76 references, see: Lawlor, B., “Artificial Intelligence: Finding Its Place in Research, Discovery, and Scholarly Publishing,” Information Services & Use, Vol. 39, No. 4, pp. 249-280, 2019; http://doi.org/10.3233/ ISU-190068. Archives of the program, including some slides, are available at https://wayback. archive-it.org/12684/20190905202309/https://nfais. memberclicks.net/2019-ai-program Weber, R., Information Services & Use, Vol. 39, No. 4, pp. 303-318, 2019; http://doi.org/10.3233/ISU-190062 Tobin, S., et al Information Services & Use, Vol. 39, No. 4, pp. 291-296, 2019; http://doi.org/10.3233/ISU-190060 Abu-Mostafa, S., Magnon-Ismail, M., Lin, H., Learning form Data-a Short Course, AML Book, 2012, ISBN:1600490069 9781600490064. Note: a MOOC based on this book and the actual course taught at Caltech is available at https://work.caltech.edu/ telecourse.html, (accessed 27 June 2020) See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Wikipedias (accessed 30 June 2020) Anderson, J., Rainie, L., “Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Humans” https://pewrsr.ch/2FUbtzy Bordoli, R. CEO of CrowdFlower, available at https:// www.salesforce.com/video/1718054/ Lemonick, S., C&EN, 98(13), 6 April 2020; https:// cen.acs.org/content/cen/articles/98/i13/Exploringchemical-space-AI-take.htm

Bryson, J. J., “The Past Decade and Future of AI’s Impact of Society,” OpenMind, 2019; https://www.bbvaopenmind. com/en/articles/the-past-decade-and-future-of-aisimpact-on-society/ accessed 30 Sept 2020. (from the book Towards a New Enlightenment? A Transcendent Decade, see: https://www.bbvaopenmind.com/en/books/ towards-a-new-enlightenment-a-transcendent-decade/) Garbade, M. J., “Clearing the Confusion: AI vs. Machine Learning vs. Deep Learning Differences,” Towards Data Science, 14 Sept 2018; https://towardsdatascience.com/ clearing-the-confusion-ai-vs-machine-learning-vs-deeplearning-differences-fce69b21d5eb “Intelligent Economies: AI’s Transformation of Industry and Society,” A Report from the Economist Intelligence Unit, 2018; https://eiuperspectives.economist.com/ technology-innovation/intelligent-economies-aistransformation-industries-and-society Kaplan, A., Haenlein, N., “Siri, Siri, in my hand: Who’s the fairest in the land? On the interpretations, illustrations, and implications of artificial intelligence,” Business Horizons, Vol 61, No. 1, pp. 15-25, Jan-Feb 2019; https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2018.08.004 Hlava, M. M. K., “The Data you have…Tomorrow’s Information Business,” Information Services and Use, Vol. 36, No. 1-2, pp. 119-125, 2016; https://doi.org/10.3233/ISU-160799

Note from the author: With their permission, this article is based upon the overview of the 2019 conference that I wrote for Information Services and Use (Ref 2). The entire issue is open access and contains many interesting articles written by speakers at the conference: https://content.iospress.com/journals/informationservices-and-use/39/4.

Bonnie Lawlor <chescot@aol.com> is a Member of the Chemistry International Editorial Board, and former Chair of IUPAC Committee on Publications and Cheminformatics Data Standards from 2014-2019.

In August 2021, as part of the IUPAC Congress General Assembly, the World Chemistry Leadership Meeting (WCLM) 2021 will explore the Future of Chemistry in the World of AI Two sessions will revolve around the following themes:

Session 2: What does the Chemistry Community need to do to address AI?

Session 1: Industry Prospective and Impact of AI • • •

Discovery Processes and Tools of the Future (best examples) Determination of candidates/Process Development and Optimization Development of products and services using AI in the Future

• • •

Impact: R&D Laboratories and Instrumentation of the Future Information: Informatics, Datasets and Curation of the Future Insight: Analysis and Modeling Chemical Research of the Future

Stay tuned for details!

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Hed Feeding the World in a Time of Climate Change

by Gary W. vanLoon and Atanu Sarkar

M

aintaining a plentiful and high-quality food supply is essential to enable humans to survive and flourish in the coming decades. In 2019/20, an estimated 2.71 Gt of food grains have been produced worldwide. This fundamental food source is alone enough to supply sufficient nutritional kilocalories for the entire current global population.

And nutrition is supplemented by the many other crops, livestock and sea food that are part of the overall food system. Yet, in the same year, it is estimated that around 821 million people, more than one tenth of the 7.6 billion people in the world were chronically hungry. There are many reasons for this. Waste—the FAO estimates that around one third of food produced is wasted—is certainly one, but also important are the inequities in the food production and supply system.

While much can and should be done to correct these two critical problems, sustainable agriculture remains as the core feature of a healthy food supply.

More than any other human activity, agriculture is dependent on a stable and well-understood climate. The connection between climate and the cultivation of crops is a two-way process with temperature and rainfall determining the success of crop growth and growing crops themselves affecting carbon dioxide relations and water behaviour in the soil and atmosphere. Understanding these relations is essential in order to develop an efficient and sustainable agriculture and food system that can feed the world in decades to come.

Climate change The major cereal crops, maize, wheat and rice, have consistently displayed the capacity to cope well under the predicted mean average temperatures; at least up to the average temperatures predicted by 2050. What is worrying to scientists is the fact that the expected

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greater frequency of temperature extremes will expose these crops to occasional high temperatures so far not experienced. Temperature extremes at vulnerable stages (such as anthesis, the flowering period of grain production) of crop reproduction cycles have been shown to have devastating effects, especially in strategic agricultural production areas in developing countries.

Africa and parts of Asia are warming faster than the global average and by the end of this century, growing season temperatures are predicted to exceed the most extreme seasonal temperatures recorded in the past.

Latin America, home to the largest tropical forest on the planet, is also being impacted negatively by increasing temperatures. While there may be some instances of increased crop production in cooler regions, it is widely considered that for maize and other crops in many areas including the American corn-belt, the Middle East, west and south Asia, and northeast China there will be increasing risk from yield losses due to heat stress, most especially during the reproductive stage of their life cycle. Climate change will, therefore, severely test farmers’ resourcefulness and adaptive capacity.

In line with greater frequency of extreme temperature events, changes in rainfall distribution are also hard to predict and differ widely between geographic regions. There is, however, a general consensus that, together with extreme temperatures, drought will be more frequent in the near future and will severely limit crop production. Importantly, smallholder farmers in the tropics and sub-tropics will be much less able to cope with climate change because they have far fewer adaptation options open to them compared to farmers in developed countries.

Climate change may increase the negative impact of pests and weeds by expanding geographic ranges, invading new suitable zones and allowing their establishment in these new areas. Even in 2020, the ‘desert locust’, a highly dangerous migratory pest is wreaking

havoc in Africa and parts of West Asia. The magnitude of this plague is attributed in part to changes in temperature and wind patterns and increased rainfall in Oman’s deserts, conditions that are conducive to locust breeding in that area.

In addition to increasing temperatures and increasingly erratic rainfall, global warming is contributing to sea level rise. While sea level rise is not predicted to affect maize and wheat production in any meaningful way, it will impact rice production in mega-deltas and coastal zones through uncontrolled flooding and soil salinization.

Population

S

SDG-2 (end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture) clearly focuses on strengthening capacity to ensure sustainable food production systems and implement resilient agricultural practices that increase productivity and production, that help maintain ecosystems and that progressively improve land and soil quality.

Adaptation and mitigation Actions required against food insecurity due to climate change can be categorized as either adaptation or mitigation. According to the FAO, ‘adaptation’ to climate change involves deliberate adjustments in natural or human systems and behaviour to reduce the risks to people’s lives and livelihoods. Adaptations require comprehensive and holistic scientific research that establishes new ways of doing agriculture that will achieve goals of sustained and increased food production without adding to resource and environmental stresses.

ICONS Adaptations take into account the changing realities of local climates. Recognizing present and future

The global population is expected to increase from 7.6 billion in 2017 to 8.5 billion by 2030, and, perhaps, over 9.5 billion by 2050. In some regions, such as Sub-Saharan Africa, the population is likely to double by 2050. In a world with a growing population, it is certain that the number of undernourished persons will increase due to general economic malaise, displacement of agricultural workers, and overstressed health systems especially when facing global health problems like SARS, Ebola and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Food security, peace and stability go together While uncontrolled population growth is posing On 9 Oct 2020, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has a major challenge to continuing efforts in improving decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2020 global food security; climate change has begun to to the World Food Programme (WFP). The World pose its own formidable threat to our surrounding Food Programme is the world’s largest humanitarian agro-ecosystem. organization addressing hunger and promoting food In response to malnutrition security.

In 2019, the WFP to WATER ZERO HEALTH QUALITY GENDER provided assistance CLEAN aroundGOOD the world, in 2015 the close to 100 million people in 88 countries who are HUNGER AND WELL-BEING EDUCATION EQUALITY AND SANITATION global community pledged to victims of acute food insecurity and hunger.

See full eliminate hunger by 2030 as one text release @ https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/ of its sustainable development peace/2020/press-release/ goals (SDGs). IUPAC itself has made a moral commitment to support these goals. In particular,

LE AND DECENT WORK AND INDUSTRY, INNOVATIONREDUCED ERGY ECONOMIC GROWTHAND INFRASTRUCTURE INEQUALITIES

SUSTAINABLE CITIES RESPONSIBLE January-March 2021 15 AND COMMUNITIES CONSUMPTION AND PRODUCTION

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Feeding the world in a time of climate change weather patterns, new agricultural management practices are developed. Importantly, these adaptations may or may not have a complementary effect on the overall agroecosystem. The ability to adapt should, at the very least, not be an impediment to efforts directed at stabilizing climate systems and other aspects of the environment.

Adaptations also require knowledge of the socio-economic environment—the human resources available in the region—and therefore the strengths and limitations of the population in its ability to modify agricultural practices. There is clearly a ‘capacity building’ component to any adaptation strategy.

Mitigation involves practices that can reduce the rate of climate change or counteract some of the negative consequences that result from changes already occurring. An important type of mitigation is action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and sequester or store carbon, and development choices that will lead to low emissions in the long term. Mitigation refers to changes in practice that are able to reduce agriculture’s own negative impact on the environment. At best, mitigations will bring about positive impacts on the surroundings so that local and even global stresses are moderated. Like adaptation, mitigation requires both scientific/technical innovation as well as development of human capacity to activate the innovation.

Adaptation and mitigation activities take into account overlapping and mutually supportive ideas. Facing the challenges of climate change means taking sustained action in both areas.

Strategies for adaptation and mitigation in soil management Estimates of the contribution that agriculture makes to the global yearly release of greenhouse gases are in the range of 10 to 15 %. Any adaptations in agricultural management practices that reduce this contribution will also have a mitigative effect on the causes of climate change.

Methane—Around 35$% of global anthropogenic emissions of methane are associated with agriculture. Ruminants, including cattle, buffalo and goats are responsible for a significant portion of this release, through breathing and eructation. There are investigations into minimizing this by making changes in diet type, in particular through reducing the high-cellulose content of feed. Unfortunately, this counteracts the benefits that ruminants bring to a food system of being able to covert lower quality feed sources, like grasses, into a nutritious product. This creates a shift from

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pastoral agriculture, with high values for its ecosystem services through landscape biodiversity, to feedlot systems where there are loss of traditional grazing and associated local environmental challenges.

Stored saturated manure can also release methane and this calls for minimizing storage times or using a contained system to enable capture of the methane and use as a fuel for heating or cooking or for electricity generation.

The other important source of methane emissions is from methanogenic bacteria operating on organic material in water-saturated fields under reducing (typically flooded) conditions. This points to the importance of establishing good drainage to prevent flooding and water-logging. Rice cultivation using submerged conditions is a special case and can be a major source of methane emissions into the atmosphere. Ongoing research is developing options like alternate wetting and drying, direct-seeded rice and the system of rice intensification where the period of submergence is reduced or even eliminated. Beyond agriculture, natural wetlands are also sources of methane.

Nitrous oxide—The current nitrous oxide mixing ratio in the atmosphere, is about 16 % above preindustrial levels; the increase can primarily be attributed to agriculture. Reactive nitrogen derived from mineralized soil organic matter, animal manures and synthetic fertilizers undergoes a complex process, involving nitrification and ultimately denitrification that leads to the production of nitrous oxide. These nitrogen reactions especially nitrification, are essential requirements, contributing to transforming nitrogen into plant-available forms, so it is not desirable to try to inhibit them. However, the production of nitrous oxide is favoured when excess amounts of reactive nitrogen compounds over what are of immediate need to the growing crops are present. This means that calibrating the application of nitrogen sources to the actual needs of the crop is particularly important. There are also obvious co-benefits in terms of cost savings and reduced nutrient contamination of surface or ground water.

Organic matter and carbon dioxide—There are clear sustainable options that can minimize the production and release of carbon dioxide during agricultural management and these are of the greatest importance in terms of adaptation/mitigation in agriculture.

The global store of soil organic matter is estimated to be about 1500 Pg, an amount that is held in approximate balance by inputs of organic amendments and releases into air and water through decomposition, dissolution and erosion. Sequestering carbon and mitigating carbon dioxide release can then take the form

Fertile soil supports plant growth by providing plants with nutrients, acting as a water holding tank, and serving as the substrate to which plants anchor their roots.

Vegetation, tree cover and forests prevent soil degradation and desertification by stabilizing the soil, maintaining water and nutrient cycling, and reducing water and wind erosion.

Feeding the world in a time of climate change

SOILS AND CROPS Food security and nutrition rely on healthy soils.

The nutrient content of a plant’s tissues is directly related to the nutrient content of the soil and its ability to exchange nutrients and water with the plant’s roots.

Crops protect soil against soil erosion agents (e.g. water and wind) and improve soil structure by:

rooting

enriching soil nutrients by providing

organic matter

Nutrient depletion takes place in intensive agricultural systems and is linked to the practice of monoculture.

Crop rotation is critical to preserving and eventually improving soil health.

establishing symbiotic relationships

with soil bacteria

reproduced from <http://www.fao.org/resources/infographics/infographics-details/en/c/325860/>

of building up the store of organic material, converting Enhancement of organic matter is also encouraged it to stable forms and, at the same time, minimizing by reducing the amount and level of tillage where orits decomposition to small volatile (principally carbon ganic residues of secondary material from a crop are dioxide) or soluble molecules. allowed to remain on and in the soil. Subsequently in There are additional merits associated with in- protect the next planting cycle, or no tillage is employed Grasses found on pasturelands the soil against soillittle erosion creasing the organic matter content and of soils.

In order and theactivities. new crop is planted directly into the matrix of support soil biological to ensure the ability of soil to remain fertile and capasoil and organic litter. The limited use of heavy machinGrazing and overgrazing remove the soil cover, ble of withstanding stresses of erratic rainfall, flooding ery at the same time minimizes soil compaction and fostering soil erosion and reducing important soil functions and drought, proactive initiatives are required. Organalso dioxide emissions from fuel use as suchreduces as climatecarbon regulation. ic matter is able to contribute to structural stability well as that emitted during manufacture. and fertility while retaining water and controlling its Besides maintaining quality of the soil itself, inlivestock sector provides food andto income flow, thusThe minimizing nutrient losses due leaching tegrating an agricultural area can Grass typeagroforestry and pastureinto rotation for 1 billion of the world’s poor. help keep the soil system and erosion. Composted manure and other secondary serve many benefi ts. functional.

Practices include alley cropping organic ‘wastes’ are appropriate as additions to soil. and other uses of trees and bushes to create a ‘patchy Careful collecting, storage, and timely application of landscape’. These practices can work to minimize wind manure are needed to prevent emissions of methane and water erosion. In addition, the added biodiversity and nutrient loss particularly of nitrogen through as an additional source of forage, and also as of the earth’s terrestrial surfaceam- serves As global demand for meat and dairy products is occupied by grazing monia and nitrous oxide. a reservoir of species like hover flies that often act as continues to rise, soil protection and conservation predators of harmful and arachnids. The speOf growing importance is the practice of ensuring on pasturelands becomes insects even more critical. cies refuge aspect will become increasingly important continuous ground cover by using perennial crops, inin the future as warmer conditions are expected to recluding perennial grains, or building a cover crop into sult in larger populations of pest species. the fallow period of a yearly rotation. The roots of the Nutrients—The production, transport and storage growing crop serve as a host for mycorrhizal and other of nutrients, whether synthetic or natural, all involve organisms which, in turn, participate in decomposition of energy use and emissions of greenhouse gases. Profresh organic residues and contribute to production of a duction of synthetic fertilizers can be especially sigrelatively stable humic material. Cover crops also lessen nificant in this regard. The case of urea, manufactured water drainage from the field, reducing erosion and profrom natural gas, is an important example of high entecting waterways. Because their roots penetrate deep solid biofuels , including wood, carbon dioxide emissions. use and associated into the soil, cover crops allow water to infiltrateThe touse a of ergy is predicted to grow, along with the expansion of Adaptive agriculture then indicates that, as much as greater depth, thus contributing to water conservation. agricultural lands putting at risk the capacity Forests provide livelihoods of forest soils to act as carbon sinks in the future. for more than a 1 billion people and are vital Chemistry International January-March 2021 for conservation of biodiversity, energy supply, As a result of the conversion of forests and soil and water protection. and native grasslands to croplands,

SOILS AND PASTURE

26%

SOILS AND FORESTS

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securityin targets requiresof sustainable agricultural policies that ensure improved soil FeedingMeeting the food world a time climate change quality and water retention.

Improving soil moisture Many sustainable agricultural and land management practices can improve soil moisture retention:

Residue covers, cover crops and mulching

Conservation tillage

Conservation agriculture

Knowledge-based precision irrigation

Capture of runoff from adjacent lands

Efficient use of water, reduced use of pesticides and improvements in soil health can lead to average crop yield increases of

79% Zero-tillage

Rainwater harvesting

reproduced from <http://www.fao.org/resources/infographics/infographics-details/en/c/357132/>

fao.org/soils-2015

possible, synthetic inputs should be replaced by natural ones such as animal manures and retained crop residues as noted above. Whether inputs are natural or synthetic, steps should be taken to minimize waste and especially to consider losses that contribute to GHG releases during storage and application. In the case of animal manures, losses associated with decomposition during storage can contribute to emissions of methane and ammonia and once applied to release of nitrous oxide if consideration of application time is not taken into account. Likewise, when applying synthetic fertilizers, precision application techniques are increasingly being used to efficiently maximize the uptake of nutrients. The use of precision agriculture can be implemented either via sophisticated GPS nutrient mapping and controlled-delivery systems or, in low-income countries, through accurate small scale mapping and careful manual application of chemicals. Crop rotations, in particular where nitrogen-supplying legumes are a component can contribute to maintaining soil fertility and minimize nutrient mining by the continuous planting of a single species.

Low input agriculture and ultimately organic farming are designed to ensure efficient use of nutrients and, in the organic farming case, to eliminate use of synthetic chemicals. Often, animal husbandry is part of the overall

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system where animals make use of the secondary ŠFAO, 2015 materials of crop production for food while producing manure that is then used as a soil amendment. For pest control, integrated pest management employs natural means of control where possible, and this is enhanced #IYS2015 BC272e/1/11.15 when the farming area is more diverse both in terms of the crop patterns and the natural surroundings.

Efficient water managementâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Good water management is important in order to limit waste of water through evaporation or excessive drainage. Around the globe in various locations, there are serious issues of water over- or under-supply and careful planning and management are needed to ensure its equitable and timely distribution. Especially critical are the drought-prone regions of low-income countries where it is becoming more and more difficult for farmers to sustain a viable agricultural operation. Climate change is exacerbating the problem, in part because of the high level of unpredictable variability that is accompanying the changes.

Besides water scarcity, there are many instances of excessive extraction leading to declining water tables and also growing instances of overuse and poor drainage leading to salinity of soils in formerly high productivity areas. Together all these factors point to a growing critical need to manage water resources carefully.

Adaptation to limited availability of water resources

Feeding the world in a time of climate change then points to a need to efficiently collect green water (rain water) through large and small scale infrastructure interventions, minimizing losses through delivery by using such methods as subsurface drip irrigation, or its low-tech equivalents, and application of appropriate amounts so that there is limited loss through runoff or evaporation.

Conservation agriculture Conservation agriculture describes an integrative approach that makes use of many of the principles described above in order to sustain soil biological activity and crop production while minimizing damage to the environment. It is being applied widely with aspects unique to each specific area. The following features are common to all the versions of conservation agriculture: • Limited tillage to avoid disturbing the soil and in order to minimize soil compaction. This also serves to maintain optimal conditions in the root zone, enhancing water retention and flow.

• Employing permanent soil cover or using organic matter additions through preserving crop residues and/or planting a cover crop during fallow periods. In this way soil biological activity is increased and nutrients can be captured, retained and gradually made available to growing crops.

• Promoting biodiversity by employing crop rotation including legumes. This is done to maintain fertility and avoid nutrient mining, and as support for biological pest control.

• Weed, pest and disease control is a challenge when employing a full complement of conservation agriculture features. In part, these challenges can be minimized by maximizing biodiversity in the rotation and at any one time within the crop itself and in the surrounding environment.

Conclusion What we have described here are management practices that are required to protect and improve the soil and other resources so that productive agriculture can continue and even expand. These practices are widely applicable in low- and high-income countries and on small and large farms.

Supporting the work of farmers are new scientific developments, most notably through the practice of plant breeding to create crops that are able to make more efficient use of resources and that can adapt to

defined stresses. This means crops that are heat resistant, flood or drought resistant, resistant to newly-encountered pests and have the ability to flourish in the changing environment. Salt tolerant rice species, for example, have been developed and are being planted in low-lying coastal areas where sea rise is creating increased salinity in the soils.

Further essential support comes from social and economic sources within society so that new ideas are disseminated and promoted, making implementation feasible. The broader backing from science and society is important, but most vital is the continuing work of farmers to maintain and improve the natural resources available to them.

Further reading and notes 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

J. M. Cloy, R. M. Rees, K. A. Smith, K. W T. Goulding, P. Smith, A. Waterhouse and D. Chadwick, Impacts of Agriculture upon Greenhouse Gas Budgets. In Environmental Impacts of Modern Agriculture, Eds. R.E. Hester and R.M. Harrison, Royal Society of Chemistry, 2012; https://doi.org/10.1039/9781849734974 Climate Change and Food Security: a Framework Document. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 93 pp, Rome, 2008. (http://www. fao.org/3/k2595e/k2595e00.pdf) Jane M.-F. Johnson, Alan J. Franzluebbers, Sharon Lachnicht Weyers, and Donald C. Reicosky, Agricultural Opportunities to Mitigate Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Environmental Pollution 150, 107-124, 2007; https://doi. org/10.1016/j.envpol.2007.06.030 Agriculture and Climate Change: Policy Imperatives and Opportunities to Help Producers Meet the Challenge. National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition 70 pp, November 2019. (https://sustainableagriculture. net/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/NSAC-ClimateChange-Policy-Position_paper-112019_WEB.pdf) Atanu Sarkar, Suman Ranjan Sensarma and Gary W. vanLoon eds. Sustainable Solutions for Food Security: Combating Climate Change by Adaptation. Springer Nature, Switzerland AG, 549 pp, 2019; ISBN 978-3-31977878-5 In time for 2015 for the International Year of the Soils, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has released a collection of infographics: http://www.fao. org/soils-2015. The infographics reproduced in this feature are reproduced from that collection.

Gary W. vanLoon is an Emeritus Professor of Chemistry at Queen's University, Canada and currently a member of IUPAC Committee on Research Applied to World Needs, CHEMRAWN. Atanu Sarkar serves as Assistant Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health at Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada.

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IUPAC STANDARDS ONLINE Useful: IUPAC’s standards and recommendations easily discoverable Comprehensive: standard values and procedures, nomenclature, terminology and symbols in chemistry, properties of elements Smart: topical structure, advanced search, cross-linked entries Interactive Periodic Table enables to extract element-specific information InChI search to retrieve the information related to certain chemical compounds Non-restrictive DRM – allows for an unlimited number of simultaneous users per campus or institution

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Early Industrial Roots of Green Chemistry International “Pollution Prevention” Efforts During the 1970s and 1980s*

by Mark A. Murphy

M

any literature articles, conventional histories, and narratives about the origins of “Green Chemistry” describe it as being a result of concepts and actions at the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and/or research in Academia during the 1990s and later. But many examples of increasingly environmentally friendly real-world chemical processes were invented, developed, and commercialized in the oil refining, commodity chemical, and consumer product industries in many countries decades before the 1990s. The earliest efforts evolved and accelerated into many environmentally-oriented and commercialized industrial examples of “Pollution Prevention” during the 1970s and 1980s. The “Green Chemistry” terminology and “Principles” adopted by the EPA and Academia in the 1990s evolved from and re-named the mostly industrial “Pollution Prevention” approaches and inventions.

Innovations in Green Chemistry were made in the manufacturing of pharmaceuticals as early as 1984. *

In 1984, this author conceived one of the earliest and currently well-known industrial examples of Green Chemistry, the BHC Ibuprofen Process, commercialized in 1992. That invention won a Kirkpatrick Award from Chemical Engineering magazine in 1993, and one of the first US Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Awards. This author recently argued in three published historical / philosophical articles [1-3] that the complex technical and/or human/cultural evolutionary origins of Green Chemistry began long before the 1990s, and identified many examples from chemically related industries that traced their origins to shortly after World War II. Many references that support and document these assertions can be found in this author’s original articles.

This author’s 2018 article [2] recounted, from an inventor’s perspective, the genuine story of the conception, development, and commercialization of the BHC Ibuprofen process, a story that had been badly mis-told many times in the academic literature and industry press. That article told the BHC Ibuprofen story in a broad context of many prior and relevant technical developments and inventions, as well as many scientific / economic / engineering, historical, cultural and economic/business influences, all of which contributed to the invention, development, and commercialization of the BHC Ibuprofen process. Those predecessors included the long prior commercialization of increasingly environmentally friendly and atom economical processes for making commodity organic chemicals such as methanol, ethanol, formaldehyde, acetic acid, and many higher organic commodity aldehydes, alcohols, and carboxylic acids, via the use of catalytic methods and reactions. The article also documented the influence of the “Quality” principles and methods of W. Edwards Deming that were widely taught in industry in the 1980s, and Deming’s emphasis on waste reduction in all the multi-disciplinary aspects of a real-world commercial product or process.

This author’s most recent article [1], published in September 2020 in Substantia, applies a yet broader historical perspective to produce a major re-write of the early history of Green Chemistry. The evolutionary pathway that led toward Green Chemistry had its origins in the oil refining industry boom that began at

This article was solicited as a result of a joint project between Chemistry International and Substantia. Substantia is an open access peer-reviewed international journal dedicated to traditional perspectives as well as innovative and synergetic implications in all fields of Chemistry, from current research to historical studies. It is meant to be a crucible for discussions on science, on making science and its outcomes. This joint project is simply to seed interest across communities and bring to CI readers contents of historical relevance; reader are encouraged to review full articles in Substantia. https://fupress.com/substantia

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Early Industrial Roots of Green Chemistry

The oil industry was innovating catalytic process beginning in the 1950s, leading to less pollution.

about the time of World War II. Prior to WWII, oil refining was carried out primarily by distillation processes that produced relatively low octane gasolines, and also produced large quantities of light and heavy waste residues that were often dumped, burned, or evaporated into the atmosphere. Leaded compounds were added to those early gasolines to increase the octane ratings, but the environmental problems caused by the lead additives were ignored for many years.

Starting just before WWII, oil refineries began to chemically modify the organic compounds found in oil, via catalytic processes, to decrease the waste residues and increase the amount and quality of the salable products, which also had a favorable impact on the environment. In 1936 Eugene Houdry introduced a fixed bed catalytic cracking process into a commercial refinery that doubled the gasoline produced from the heavy residues. Esso introduced a much-improved fluidized bed catalytic cracker into its Baton Rouge refinery in 1942. Later (in the 1970s and later) the natural clay catalysts initially used were replaced with synthetic zeolite catalysts that were more selective for producing products in the desired size ranges. The cracking processes also increased the availability and lowered the price of ethylene and propylene, which spawned

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the invention, development, and commercialization of a wide variety of downstream commodity products, monomers, and polymers; including polyethylene and polypropylene which were not biodegradable. But the inexpensive availability of ethylene and propylene also stimulated the commercial development of other derivative compounds, such ethylene oxide and acetic acid, which were used to produce downstream biodegradable products such as surfactants, polyvinyl acetate, polyvinyl alcohol, and others.

New catalytic “alkylation” processes entered refinery service in about 1940. Alkylation reactions condense volatile alkenes (such as propylene or butene) with branched alkanes (often isobutane) in the presence of strong acids (initially and typically HF or sulfuric acid) to produce higher branched alkanes (typically iso-heptane and iso-octane) having high octane numbers. The HF catalyst was more easily recycled than the sulfuric acid catalyst, but because of HF’s volatility, corrosive properties, and toxicity it represents a significant safety risk at the plant site. As the decades passed, refineries began to replace HF with H2SO4 for safety reasons. The oil refining industry then conducted a decades-long R&D “Grail Quest” for even safer alkylation catalysts. Recently two new alkylation catalysts have been commercialized (based on new zeolite or ionic liquid catalysts), inventions which have won recent major awards, including Presidential Green Chemistry Awards.

During the 1950s through 1970s the oil refining industry continued to invent, develop, and commercialize other new catalytic processes to chemically manipulate the organic compounds of oil in ways that were both economically and environmentally beneficial. Catalytic reforming processes convert low octane normal alkanes and napthenes into branched alkanes and aromatics with higher octane numbers. Hydrogen produced by the catalytic reforming processes is used in catalytic hydrocracking processes that break up the heavy aromatics and heteroaromatics in oil, remove polluting sulfur and nitrogen heteroatoms, and produce higher value hydrocarbon components for gasolines. Olefin metathesis was serendipitously discovered by Eleuterio at DuPont in the late 1950s and is sometimes used in commercial refineries. Later olefin metathesis chemistry developed into new “Green” applications by academics such as Chauvin, Grubs, and Schrock, who later won the Nobel Prize in 2005. In the 1970s Mobil developed a zeolite-based catalytic process for making synthetic gasolines from methanol, which can itself be manufactured very cleanly and efficiently from either methane or coal.

International “Pollution Prevention” Efforts During the 1970s and 1980s “We had a commitment to continuously reduce our impact on the environment.

The world is a very small place and pollution doesn’t respect national boundaries.” * - Dr. Joseph T. Ling

By the early 1990s, it was credibly estimated that the oil refining industry produced only about 0.1 kg of waste product per kg of useful salable products, in comparison to the several orders of magnitude higher ratios of waste product production in the fine chemical and pharmaceutical industry segments, where use of traditional synthetic organic chemistry methods were prevalent. 2 A narrative has been often repeated in the academic literature and popular press over the last 20 years, to the effect that Green Chemistry originated in the 1990s at the EPA and/or in Academia. Those ht National Academy of Sciences.

All incomplete rights reserved.and misleading. Green narratives are highly Chemistry was actually a subset of and/or a re-naming of much earlier “Non-Waste Technology and Production” and/or “Pollution Prevention” concepts and actual commercialized environmentally oriented industrial processes, which evolved and emerged from the efforts of many people from many backgrounds in many countries during and even before the 1970s and 1980s.

Strong supporting evidence for these assertions can be found in 712-page book published in 1978 by the United Nations and/or its Economic Commission for Europe (ECE) [4].

After many years of ECE activity in environmental fields, a committee of Senior Advisers was established in 1971, and in 1973 the Senior Advisers “decided to include, among other subjects, the principles and creation of non-waste production systems in their work programme.” In Geneva in 1974, the Senior Advisers *

defined “Non-Waste Technology” as “the practical application of knowledge, methods and means so as, within the needs of man, to provide the most rational use of natural resources and energy and to protect the environment.”

The subsequent 1978 “Non-Waste Technology and Production” book [4] contains two addresses and seventy-six papers from a November 1976 UN/ECE Seminar held in Paris. More than 150 representatives of thirty countries and nine international inter-governmental and non-governmental organizations took part. The addresses and papers covered a very wide variety of interdisciplinary technical, economic, and policy questions, issues, topics, and documented many examples of already commercialized environmentally friendly products and processes. Many details can be found in that book, and many edifying and inspiring passages from the book are quoted in this author’s recent paper. The “Conclusions and Recommendations” section stated: “The question today is whether technology can solve the environmental problems which technology has helped to cause. There is widespread belief that this question can be answered positively….”

M.G. Royston, an economist from Geneva (who later became a leader in the economic/social/legal aspects of Non-Waste Technologies and Pollution Prevention), contributed an important paper entitled “Eco-Productivity: A Positive Approach to Non-Waste Technology”.

Mr. Royston’s commented: “Pollution is waste. Waste today leads to shortages tomorrow, “Waste not want not” is a motto as true now as it was for all those generations before the brief flowering and decaying of the affluent/effluent society. The very sustainability of dignified life on this planet Earth must depend on re-establishment of a non-waste society, a non-waste economy, a non-waste technology, and above all a non-waste value system.”

Royston then commented on many highly relevant economic, political, and legal issues, as well as examples of already commercialized non-waste processes in many countries, and on possible future waste-savings approaches for the energy, organic chemicals, inorganic chemicals, non-metallic minerals, metallic minerals, paper, coatings, and packaging industries, efforts that could be economically and even profitably undertaken to reduce pollution of the air, land, and water. Royston subsequently published a 1979 book entitled “Pollution

Ling’s quote reproduced from “A Century of Innovation – The 3M Story", 2002, 3M Company. (ISBN 0-9722302-1-1 ), p.

188; https://multimedia.3m.com/mws/media/171240O/3m-century-of-innovation-book.pdf; Portrait from Ling' Memorial Tribute by National Academy of Engineering.

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Early Industrial Roots of Green Chemistry Prevention Pays” [5] and began (together with 3M personnel as mentioned below) a sustained international campaign of writing and speaking to advocate Pollution Prevention approaches.

Another major paper was contributed by Joseph T. Ling, the Vice-President for Environmental Engineering and Pollution Control at 3M Corporation. In 1975 Dr. Ling had initiated 3M’s “Pollution Prevention Pays” program that moved 3M away from pollution control (“end-of-the pipeline,” treatment methods) that had been legally mandated by “command and control” statutes in many countries. Ling instead moved 3M toward “Pollution Prevention” and/or natural resource conservation approaches that could simultaneously improve efficiency, production yields, and profits. Dr. Ling was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1976. If this author were to nominate any one person as “The Father of Pollution Prevention,” I would certainly nominate Dr. Joseph T. Ling.

Literally thousands of “Pollution Prevention” projects were subsequently commercialized at 3M over the following decades. A National Academy Memorial Tribute to Dr. Ling (in 2008) remarked that “After 30 years, the 3P program is still a key strategy in 3M’s Environmental Management Plan. From 1975 to 2005, with some 8,500 pollution prevention activities and programs in 23 countries, the company was able to keep from producing an estimated 2.2 billion pounds of pollutants while saving nearly $1 billion.” 3M’s 3P global pollution prevention achievements from 1975 to 2018 is graphed in 3M’s 2019 Sustainable Report [6] and shown at right.

In the 1980s, many companies in many countries The News Magazine of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC)

CHEMISTRY International September-October 2007 Volume 29 No. 5

Green Chemistry on the Rise

On the left, 3M’s Pollution Prevention Pays program was an early example of green Chemistry in industry. At right, Chemistry International discussed the various factors that led to the rise of Green Chemistry in 2007

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emulated and evolved the 3M strategies and inter-disciplinary approaches to invent, develop, and commercialize many real-world industrial processes that simultaneously reduced pollution and saved the companies large amounts of money. Supporting efforts began to appear in many national governments and their agencies, especially in Europe, Canada, and the United States. Relevant news stories began to appear in many trade journals and even in the mainstream consumer press, including the Harvard Business Review, Washington Post, New York Times, and the Journal of Commerce. Many details and quotations from those articles are included in this author’s paper [1].

As noted in the National Academy’s tribute to Joe Ling, “by 1988, 34 states had established pollution prevention programs, and EPA had published a national policy and established the Office of Pollution Prevention. In 1990, the United State Congress passed the Pollution Prevention Act, requiring that pollution prevention be considered the first phase of any environmental enhancement program.”

There was relatively little interest in such interdisciplinary work in academia until the 1990s however until the “Green Chemistry” terminology was coined at the EPA in 1991. After the Clinton Administration assumed power in January 1993, a program for grants for academic research was initiated. The “Green Chemistry” terminology was first used at Academic Conferences in 1993 and was officially endorsed by the EPA with the announcement of the new Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Awards in 1995, which generated large amounts of publicity and interest in Green Chemistry.The “12 Principles of Green Chemistry” were only published in 1998, decades after many companies had already commercialized many examples of “Pollution Prevention” technologies. Not one of the 12 Principles was new at the time however, and every one of them had been previously used and commercialized in industry long before, as had combinations of those 12 Principles. This author’s article strongly challenges the narrative that has been repeated in many subsequent academic articles, and taught to many students that Green Chemistry originated at the EPA and in academia in the 1990s. The article offers a very different historical account and perspective on the origins of Green Chemistry. Green Chemistry actually emerged as a holistic product of a very complex and multi-disciplinary evolutionary process that arose from many semi-independent evolutionary sub-processes, which had their origins in the efforts of many industrial inventors from many places over decades. Green Chemistry actually had many, Chemistry International

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International “Pollution Prevention” Efforts During the 1970s and 1980s many, fathers and mothers. A 2007 article in Chemistry International [7] has also argued that Green Chemistry emerged International from a complex mixture of interStamps disciplinary influences and efforts.

Thisshows author’s third article, in [3] offers a more philoa portrait of Menand theonchemical sophicaldeleev perspective the infinite and/or vast possibilsymbols of mendelevium, ities and/or uncertainties faced by Green Chemists but zinc, copper, helium, argon, offers suggestions on how to apply “Quality” principles and xenon, among other and techniques to solve “Green” elements. In turn, the one problems in real-world industrial settings. from Moldova includes a picture of a Rubik’s cube elemental symbols in each of its faces, an appealing tribute to the Murphy, M.A., “Early Industrial Roots of Green periodic table since it solved the puzzle of organizing the Chemistry - II : International “Pollution Prevention” chemical elements!

EffortsLast During theleast, 1970’s and 1980’s” Substantia, 4(2), but not Hungary and Bulgaria also released 2020; https://doi.org/10.13128/Substantia-894 IYPT stamps, on June 3 and 24, respectively. Both presMurphy, M.A., “Early Industrial Roots of Green ent images of Mendeleev and different versions of the periodic and table. thethe Hungarian stamp includes Chemistry theWhereas History of BHC Ibuprofen a small illustration ofIts Mendeleev’s original (1869) manuProcess Invention and Quality Connection”, script of the table, the 20: Bulgarian one https:// displays in Foundations ofperiodic Chemistry, 2018, 121-165m; the foreground the symbols of all the elements, from hydoi.org/10.1007/s10698-017-9300-9 drogen to oganesson.

with different References

1.

2.

3.

Murphy, M.A., “Exploring the Vastness of Design Space for Greener Solutions Using a Quality Approach”, Physical Sciences Reviews 2020; https://doi.org/10.1515/

psr-2020-0001 AOP 2 June 2020 (also to be published as a chapter in “Green Chemical Processing, Volume 6: Green Chemistry and Technology”; Mark Benvenuto, Editor, to be published in 2021 by De Gruyter, Berlin) 4. “Non-Waste Technology and Production” published in 1978 by Permagon Press on behalf of the United Nations; https://doi.org/10.1016/C2013-0-02935-0 5.

Royston, M.G., “Pollution Prevention Pays”, Permagon Press, 1979; https://doi.org/10.1016/C2013-0-03101-56 6. 3M’s 2019 Sustainable Report, https://multimedia.3m. com/mws/media/1691941O/2019-sustainability-report.pdf 7.

Pietro Tundo and Fabio Aricò, 2007, Chem Int 29(5), 4-7 ; see http://publications.iupac.org/ci/2007/2905/1_ It remains to be seen which other countries issue tundo.html or https://doi.org/10.1515/ci.2007.29.5.4

stamps to honor the sesquicentennial of the periodic table later this year. And I have to wonder if some of the other taking place infrom 2019,Tulane such University Mark chemistry Alan Murphyanniversaries obtained a B.S. in Chemistry as of IUPAC Levi’sofbirth, or perandthea centennials Ph.D. in Chemistry fromorthePrimo University Wisconsin – Madison in haps the discovery of phosphorus 350 years ago, will also January 1983. Mark worked as a Research Chemist at Celanese Corporation be publicly acknowledged with the release of postage (later Hoechst Celanese Corporation) in Corpus Christi Texas until mid-1993. stamps. In the meantime, to all chemophiles and periodic He obtained a J.D.out from the happy University of Texas School of Law in 1998 table enthusiasts there, IYPT!

and became a partner at two Atlanta IP law-firms. Founder of UVLAW

Written

by Daniel <drabinov@uncc.edu>.

Patents LLC inRabinovich 2009, he practiced patent and business law until he recently

retired. He lives near Atlanta Georgia, continuing his career leading by example, somewhere at the interfaces of science, business, and law.

SHOP iupac.org/shop

3

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International

March-April 2016

Chemistry International

January-March 2021

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IUPAC Wire

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

See also www.iupac.org/news

Election of IUPAC Officers and Bureau Members—Call for Nominations

A

t its General Assembly in Montreal, Canada, on Wednesday 18 August and Thursday 19 August 2021, the IUPAC Council will be asked to elect a Vice President, a Treasurer, and members of the Bureau to fulfill the vacancies created by retiring members. IUPAC National Adhering Organizations are invited to submit nominations no later than 31 March 2021.

On 1 January 2022, Javier García-Martínez (Spain), Vice President and President-Elect of IUPAC, will become President. Christopher Brett (Portugal), current President, will become Past President and remain an officer and a member of the Bureau for a period of two years, while Qi-Feng Zhou (China), current Past President, will retire. Nominations for Vice President position are invited.

Secretary General Richard Hartshorn (New Zealand) and Treasurer Colin Humphris (UK) were both elected by the Council in July 2019 for a second fouryear term. However, Colin Humphris confirmed that he will retire at the end of 2021. Nominations for Treasurer are invited.

In addition, this biennium there are four vacancies for Elected Members of the Bureau. Elected Members are elected to a four-year term, and are eligible for re-election to a second four-year term. No National Adhering Organization shall have more than one Elected Member on the Bureau, and the principle of fair geographical representation of Members shall be taken into account, as stipulated in the IUPAC Statutes.

IUPAC2021.org Regular updates regarding Montreal 2021 are posted on the IUPAC | CCCE 2021 Congress website.

Outline of the program is available, IUPAC ! CCCE detailing the 59 symposia for a capacity of 225 halfday sessions. Abstract submission opened in December 2020.

Subscribe for updates at iupac2021.org

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Montréal 2021 August 13-20

Elected Members whose terms expire at the end of 2021 are: • Prof. Russell J. Boyd (Canada) (2014-2017, 20182021) • Prof. Mary Garson (Australia) (2018-2021); eligible for nomination • Prof. Christopher K. Ober (USA) (2014-2017, 20182021) • Prof. Ken Sakai (Japan) (2018-2021); eligible for nomination The following are Members whose terms continue to the end of 2023: • Prof. Ghada Bassoni (Egypt) (2020-2023) • Prof. Mei-Hung Chiu (China/Taipei) (2016-2019, 2020-2023) • Prof. Petr Fedotov (Russia) (2020-2023) • Prof. Ehud Keinan (Israel) (2016-2019, 2020-2023) • Prof. Gloria Obuzor (Nigeria) (2020-2023) • Dr. Bipul Behari Saha (India) (2020-2023) In addition to the five officers and the ten Elected Members, the Bureau also includes the eight Division Presidents (each elected by their Division), and six members representing the following Standing Committees, i.e. the Committee on Chemistry Education (CCE), the Committee on Chemistry and Industry (COCI), the Committee on CHEMical Research Applied to World Needs (CHEMRAWN), the Interdivisional Committee on Green Chemistry for Sustainable Development (ICGCSD), the Interdivisional Committee on Terminology, Nomenclature and Symbols (ICTNS), and the Committee on Publications and Cheminformatics Data Standards (CPCDS).

IUPAC National Adhering Organizations are invited to submit nominations to the Secretary General via the Executive Director at <executivedirector@iupac.org> no later than 31 March 2021.

It is important for a vibrant organization that all vacantstpositions are filled after a fair and vigorous elec51 AND tion process, so all nominations are encouraged. So, to make 48th your voice heard, contact your National Adhering Organization and get involved.

104Ath call for the general elections for the 2022-23 term was released earlier on 1 October 2020 and published in Chem Int Oct 2020.

IUPAC GENERAL ASSEMBLY WORLD CHEMISTRY CONGRESS CANADIAN CHEMISTRY AND EXHIBITION

Solving Global Challenges with The Bureau is established by the Council to act

What Does the Bureau Do?

for the Union during intervals between meetings of the Council; it therefore fulfills important functions by ensuring continuity. The Bureau normally

January-March 2021

2,200+ Papers / Communications

meets once a year. It consists of the IUPAC officers (President, Vice President, Secretary General, Treasurer, immediate Past President), the Division Presidents and Chairs of the Standing Committees, and 10 other members elected by the Council. The elections should also allow for a fair geographical representation. In principle, no member country should have more than one elected member on the Bureau.

The principal duties of the Bureau—as quoted in the statutes—are as follows: • to ensure the strict observance of statutes and bylaws • to prepare the agenda for meetings of the Council and in particular • to make provision for elections • to make recommendations thereon to the Council • to attend the meetings of the Council • to implement the decisions of the Council and execute the program of the Union as directed by the Council • to take steps to ensure that international congresses of pure and applied chemistry are held • to take decisions about the holding of scientific meetings as proposed by the division committees • to take all other steps necessary for the good conduct of the affairs of the Union See the Bylaws for more details: https://iupac.org/ who-we-are/organizational-guidelines/

https://iupac.org/iupac-elections-for-the-2022-2023-term-call-fornominations/

IUPAC Congress 2027

I

n July 2019, IUPAC held its General Assembly (GA) and World Chemistry Congress in Paris, France, and celebrated its centenary. Plans are on-going to hold the 2021 WCC/GA in Montréal, Canada, 13-20 August 2021 (iupac2021.org). The following WCC/GA in 2023 will be in The Hague, Netherlands, 20-25 August, and two years later, the Institut Kimia Malaysia will host the 50th World Chemistry Congress and 53rd General Assembly in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 11-18 July 2025.

IUPAC is now seeking Expressions of Interest to host the General Assembly and World Chemistry Congress in the year 2027.

If your National Adhering Organizations would like to host one of these events in 2027, please indicate

your interest by communicating directly with IUPAC Executive Director at executivedirector@iupac.org.

Deadline for Expressions of Interest is 1 February 2021.

Proposals will be presented to Bureau at its next April meeting. Final decisions to accept proposals for 2027 will be taken by the IUPAC Council at its next meeting.

NAOs are currently invited to formulate proposals for future Congresses six years in advance.

https://iupac.org/iupac-general-assembly-and-world-congress-3/

PAC60 Celebrations

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o celebrate 60 years of its scientific journal Pure and Applied Chemistry, IUPAC with its publishing partner DeGruyter has compiled a virtual issue including the journal’s most cited papers. The set of articles should not be regarded as a simple “best of.” Over the 60 years of its existence, PAC has published more groundbreaking papers than we could possibly highlight, but this collection allows for a vivid glimpse of the rich variety of topics covered.

We hope that you find this collection of papers interesting and enjoyable to read from both a scientific and historical perspective.

Each of these 60 papers are freely available and to celebrate the journal’s 60th Anniversary, we would encourage you to submit a short 200-500 word commentary with your observations or even recollections of the work and/or the authors. We will then publish these online alongside the respective paper. An example of such commentary can be found in the section imPACt of the present issue of Chemistry International (see page 38): Randal Richards, a British chemist, educator, author, scientist, and former professor at the University of Durham, glimpses at a 1967 paper by Walter Stockmayer, a paper which originated as an invited lecture at the IUPAC International Symposium on Macromolecular Chemistry in Tokyo in 1966.

Pure and Applied Chemistry has always endeavoured to be the community’s journal and we hope that on this occasion we can enlist efforts and enthusiasm of members to commemorate and celebrate some Chemistry International

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IUPAC Wire wonderful authors and important pieces of work.

Please send your contribution along with the title of the paper you are commenting on to <pac@degruyter. com>.

The December 2020 issue of PAC is also a celebration of the journal’s Diamond Jubilee. It brings together articles on diverse themes by twelve scientists, winners of the IUPAC-Solvay International Award for Young Chemists and the IUPAC Prize for Young Chemists during the last decade since 2011, and makes a fitting tribute to the journal on its 60th anniversary. The issue includes a preface by Christopher Brett, IUPAC President, (https://doi.org/10.1515/pac-2020-1106).

research to generate new ideas and solutions for the many challenges of modern society.

This overall report on the planning and celebrations of IYPT2019 has been assembled from information, photographs and data provided by a large number of teachers and scientists from all over the world, and by the IYPT2019 partners. This final report was compiled and edited by the Editorial Team including Frank Sekeris, office manager, Natalia Tarasova, co-chair of the IYPT Interunion International Management Committee, and Jan Reedijk, co-chair of the IYPT Interunion International Management Committee. Page editing was completed by the All-Russian Science Festival.

https://iupac.org/what-we-do/journals/pure-and-applied-chemistry/

https://iupac.org/iypt2019-global-report/

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he call for application for the IUPAC-Solvay International Award for Young Chemists is coordinated yearly; the next deadline is 15 Feb 2021 for candidates having completed their Ph.D. during the calendar 2020; https://iupac. org/2021-iupac-solvay-international-award-foryoung-chemists/

IYPT 2019—Global Report

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he International Year of the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements 2019 (IYPT2019) has been celebrated during the year in over 130 countries, with well over a thousand events and festivities, reaching millions of young and old people, scientists and non-scientists. The event as a whole has been very successful; the 160-page report released last October illustrated in length the community partnership for global outreach and the diversity and success of the activities that took place throughout the year.

With the Periodic Table being crucial for chemists, physicists, astronomers and many more, the celebrations have brought together a large variety of participants, starting with a grand opening at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, France and ending with a fabulous closing ceremony in Tokyo, Prince Hotel, Japan.

Worldwide many scientists and educators have been working on these events, with a high degree of dedication and commitment to show scientists, the public and children the history and relevance of the Periodic Table. The Periodic Table is and will be used in hightech

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UNESCO-Russia Mendeleev International Prize in the Basic Sciences

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s a follow-up to the 2019 International Year of the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements (IYPT2019), the Government of the Russian Federation proposed to establish and fund the joint UNESCO/Russian Federation International Prize for the Basic Sciences in the name of the Russian chemist Dmitry Mendeleev. The initiative is to provide further support to the UNESCO’s International Basic Sciences Programme (IBSP).

At the 207th session of the UNESCO Executive Board on 21 October 2019 in Paris, the proposal was approved and the UNESCO-Russia Mendeleev International Prize in the Basic Sciences was established. The UNESCO Executive Board adopted the decision by acclamation, without a vote, supporting the establishment of the Prize by applause. The UNESCO-Russia Mendeleev International Prize in the Basic Sciences aims to bolster basic sciences education, research, international cooperation, and, consequently, the use and applications of these disciplines, which are fundamental for providing solutions to many of the development challenges that Member States face as they implement the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The Prize will give recognition to achievements that are conducive to socio-economic transformation and development on a regional or global scale, by underpinning: (i) excellence in research in the basic sciences fields; (ii) basic sciences education and popularization; (iii) international or regional cooperation in the basic sciences.

The Prize is to be awarded annually to two individual award-winners for their breakthrough discoveries,

IUPAC Wire outstanding innovations and avid promotion of the basic sciences, driving or with potential to drive in the future, socio-economic transformation and development of human societies. The Prize consists of a monetary reward of US $250,000 for each of the two winners.

The deadline for the 2021 edition is Monday 15 March 2021.

skills and experiences to secure employment and that Japan is looking at the applicability of using blockchain to ensure the reliability of secure research results.

If you have any examples that you can provide, please send them to Bonnie Lawlor at chescot@aol. com, so that the Task Force can research them further and possibly include them in the White Paper.

https://en.unesco.org/stem/basic-sciences-prize

https://iupac.org/iupac-blockchain-technology-white-paper/

IUPAC Blockchain Technology White Paper—Call for input

CPCDS Shorts

D

uring the 2019 Council Meeting in Paris, an attendee raised the point that two topics were the subject of high interest in his geographic region, specifically the uses of Blockchain Technology and Artificial Intelligence in scientific research and related activities. To follow-up with these questions, a Task Force was established to develop a White Paper on Blockchain Technology to be published and circulated to all NAO’s prior to the 2021 World Chemistry Congress.

The goal of the White Paper is to demonstrate how Blockchain Technology is being used throughout the scientific research workflow—from ideas/hypothesis through to publication, sharing, and archiving. In addition, the paper will provide insights on why the technology is being used; the pros/cons of its usage; the challenges/opportunities of using Blockchain; and a reading list for those who want to learn more.

We have already identified numerous use cases and interviewed experts from around the globe who are successfully applying the technology for the advancement of science: Examples include the Bloxberg Consortium, ARTiFACTS, DEIP, and others who offer services such as time stamping for proof-ofconcept, secure data sharing, peer review and other publishing services, as well as document certification (blockcerts) and the use of blockchain for COVID-19 research tracking. These are just a few of the applications identified to date.

We are reaching out to you to see if there are any Blockchain-based initiatives that have emerged in your geographic region of the world that could impact science, education, research policies, etc. For example, we recently learned that the U.S. Department of Education is funding the American Council on Education to pursue Blockchain Technology as a means to ensure that individuals can effectively communicate and share their

T

he IUPAC Committee on Publications and Chemical Data Standards (CPCDS) has initiated the release of regular updates especially for the attention of IUPAC members. It is not intended to be exhaustive, but rather useful and actionable. The intent is to highlight a few items that you and your community should be aware of or where your action is desired. If there are items you would wish to see covered in the future, please write to CPCDS chair, Leah McEwen at lrm1@cornell.edu.

The CPCDS Shorts are made available on the CPCDS webpage.

The first issue includes: • A call for expert reviewers for IUPAC flagship scientific publication, Pure and Applied Chemistry • Report on the creation of new Taskforce on Intellectual Property, to ensure that IUPAC protects the valuable resources resulting of your projects.

• An offer for help and to leverage CPCDS expertise helping project task group to address digital data considerations and best data dissemination practices • A short update report from the CPCDS Taskforce on FAIR Chemical Data • A call to highlight innovation in data and standards at the quinquennial Pacifichem event, rescheduled for 2021

See https://iupac.org/body/024 for full text

Feed for Thought Q: Does IUPAC.org have a RSS? A: Yes, check http://iupac.org/feed/ RSS, “really simple syndication” or “rich site summary” depending on who you ask, might be ‘old Chemistry International

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IUPAC Wire school’, but still, it is a simple and reliable tool to keep informed and share web content.

IUPAC RSS feed includes all latest news posted under https://iupac.org/news/ As a member wanting to support IUPAC, you can encourage your NAO to embed that feed into its own website. That is actually what IYCN, an Associate Organization of IUPAC, did in the resource page of their Chemvoices.org. By doing so, IUPAC News are broadcasted seamlessly onto their site.

For individuals, following feeds is a way to keep informed without relying on social media. There is a plethora of feed readers out there, and one that IUPAC web developers are recommending is feedly.com

https://iupac.org/feed-for-thought/

In Memoriam—Alexander Lawson: Visionary Pioneer in Cheminformatics

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lexander Lawson (20 Oct 1944 - 23 Feb 2020), known to his friends and peers as “Sandy,” passed away in early 2020. He is recognized as a pioneer and far-sighted visionary in the fields of chemical structure handling, database searching, chemical nomenclature, reading machines, and the linking of text and structural information.

Born in Dunfermline, Scotland, Sandy went on to earn his BSc in Chemistry at the University of St. Andrews (1966), a PhD in Organic Chemistry (Physical Organic) and a D.I.C. from Imperial College, London. He did post-graduate work at the Universities of Kent and Mainz, and was an extramural professor at the latter. He is probably most-associated with “Beilstein” which he joined in the early 1980’s, initially working with the Beilstein Handbook [1] and ultimately being instrumental in transforming it into an electronic version, the Beilstein Database. The database was first was released in 1988 on STN and Sandy developed the Lawson Number [2] and the Structure and Reference Analyzer (SANDRA) [3] program as aids for searching the database in its early years. The Beilstein Database was further developed by Lawson into the first

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large in-house chemistry database system fueled by the powerful CrossFire search engine and interface.

It was ultimately acquired by Elsevier in 2007 where Sandy, serving as R&D Director, was heavily involved in the consolidation of the Beilstein, Gmelin, and Patent Chemistry Databases into a unified database with a modern and user-friendly interface, Reaxys [4].

Even after his formal retirement, Sandy continued to focus on reaction classifications and similarity searching, leading to enhancement and some of the most powerful features available today on Reaxys.

Sandy had a deep and long-standing interest in chemical nomenclature and was active on the IUPAC Committee for Printed and Electronic Publications (CPEP, now CPCDS) as well as in IUPAC’s Division on Chemical Nomenclature and Structure Representation (Division VIII). He developed the first commercial program, AutoNom, [5] for the generation of systematic IUPAC names from structures.

Sandy was recognized many times for his significant contributions to cheminformatics. He was awarded the Gold Medal (1985, for SANDRA), the Irvine Medal (1966), Forrester Prize (1966), EuroCase IT Prizewinner (1997, for CrossFire), the CSA Trust Mike Lynch Award (2008), and the Herman Skolnik Award from the Division of Chemical Information (CNIF), ACS (2011, for outstanding contributions to and achievements in the theory and practice of chemical information science and related disciplines).

Phil Mc Hale, who was Chair of CINF’s Award Committee in 2011, said of Sandy: “Sandy Lawson is among the handful of truly excellent cheminformatics scientists at work today, and is widely and thoroughly respected. He is a gentleman’s scientist with a tremendous understanding of chemistry and computers. He embodies the best qualities of cheminformatics and is truly worthy of this award.”

Indeed his presence and vision will be greatly missed.

References (all accessed 20 Sep 2020) 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

http://organica1.org/seminario/beilstein.pdf https://depth-first.com/articles/2010/09/28/a-briefintroduction-to-lawson-numbers/ http://www.hellers.com/steve/resume/p102.html, n-gb/solutions/reaxys http://akosgmbh.de/Archive/autonom.htm

Project Place

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

See also www.iupac.org/projects

Provisional Report on Discussions on Group 3 of The Periodic Table

by Eric Scerri The following article is intended as a brief progress report from the group that has been tasked with making recommendations to IUPAC about the constitution of group 3 of the periodic table (https://iupac. org/project/2015-039-2-200). It is also intended as a call for feedback or suggestions from members of IUPAC and other readers.

In the course of many discussions held by the task group we have concluded that there is no objective means to adjudicate between group 3 consisting of Sc, Y, La and Ac or as Sc, Y, Lu and Lr. This situation makes it more important that IUPAC should make a ruling on the question which in the final analysis is one of convention rather than one that can be decided on objective scientific grounds. What has also become apparent is that this question cannot be treated independently of that of the form of the periodic table as a whole.

As Jeffrey Leigh reminded readers of this magazine not long ago, IUPAC does not officially support any particular form of the periodic table even though the organization frequently publishes a period table with the label of â&#x20AC;&#x153;IUPAC periodic tableâ&#x20AC;? [1].

Attempts to resolve the group 3 conundrum have focused on chemical and physical properties and also on microscopic properties such as the electronic configurations of the atoms concerned [2]. However, none of these criteria provide a clear-cut resolution of the question. Moreover, it becomes increasingly clear that there may not be any such thing as one optimal table in a purely objective sense.

There is a well-developed literature in the philosophy of science that concerns itself with classification and with the question of natural kinds, that is to say sets of objects which are related to each other through what might be said to be purely objective properties. For example, until recently biological species were believed to be natural kinds in biology.

For an animal to be classified as a tiger, for example, would require the specification of the genetic characteristics of this species.

Natural kinds are distinguished from so-called artificial kinds for which classification depends rather on human choices and not on an independently existing reality. The typical example of an artificial system of classification is the classification of library books.

No one library system such as that of the Library of Congress can be said to be more correct than its competitors. The way in which these library systems classify books involves non-objective criteria as to how to demarcate books on chemistry, for example, from those on biology.

In the 1970s and 80s a theory was developed by philosophers Kripke and Putnam who sought to define natural kinds through their essences or their objective properties [3]. A favorite example of a natural kind in this literature has been that of a chemical element, which according to Kripke and Putnam can be specified by stipulating its atomic number. Needless to say, Kripke and Putnam were not the first to propose such an identification. That distinction belongs to Van den Broek and Moseley [4]. What Kripke and Putnam did was to fully adopt the scientific definition of element-hood in order to identify elements as natural kinds.

For an atom of an element to be gold for example requires that the atom should have an atomic number of 79. In addition, if an atom is found to have atomic number 79 this uniquely identifies it as being an atom of gold. Said in the jargon of philosophers, the possession of an atomic number of 79 is both necessary and sufficient for the identification of a particular atom as being a gold atom.

The Kripke-Putnam approach to natural kinds has come under various forms of criticism in the years since it was first proposed. In the case of species, like tigers, it has been pointed out that evolution spoils the picture, since the very essence of what it is to be a tiger is bound to change as time evolves. However, this objection could not be raised as far as elements are concerned, since broadly speaking atoms of any particular element do not evolve into other atoms over time, apart from those that decay radioactively.

A more general objection to the Kripke-Putnam approach to thinking of natural kinds has been the realization that, whatever kinds are being considered, there is always a certain degree of interest dependence that enters the stipulation of sets of entities be they tigers, galaxies or elements [5]. The new approach recognizes that epistemological considerations, having to do with our knowledge of the world, should also be taken into account when discussing the classification of scientific entities.

If we are to believe what the experts on the philosophy of classification and natural kinds have to tell us we should renounce the notion that we will ever arrive at a truly optimal periodic table, since any system of classification must inevitably remain interest dependent. Of course this state of affairs should not Chemistry International

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Project Place negate the attempts to resolve such questions as the membership of group 3 of the periodic table but it should remind us of the fact that any resolution must concede a certain degree of conventionality, or choice, on the part of the scientific community. We should accept that a degree of convention must be utilized in selecting a periodic table that can be presented as the best compromise table that combines objective factors as well as interest dependence.

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A very brief history of forms of the periodic table As is well-known, the earliest periodic tables contained eight columns and were based on the assumption that all periods were of equal lengths. Such tables, which have survived to this day in some countries, have the advantage of simplicity of form and display the fact that most group numbers correspond to the maximum oxidation state of the element in question. However, Mendeleev and other early discoverers of the periodic system began to use medium-long form tables consisting of 18 groups. This tendency became the norm as a result of tables published by Deming in 1923 and due to the increasing use of quantum mechanics to explain the form of the periodic table. The 18-column table corresponds to two elements in the s-block, ten in the d-block and six in the p-block to reflect precisely the maximum number of electrons that can be accommodated into a set of s, d and p orbitals respectively, starting with period four. Meanwhile, the inner transition elements of f-block are generally represented as a disconnected footnote consisting of either 14 or 15 elements, depending on which particular table one consults.

Herein lies the variation which is closely connected with the question of the constitution of group 3 of the periodic table. There are a total of 3 possible forms of the 18-column table, each of which corresponds to a particular group 3 assignment. In the tables shown in figures 1 to 3, group 3 is shown as containing either Sc, Y, La and Ac or Sc, Y, Lu and Lr or just Sc and Y. While the first two options seem to be equally plausible on an 18-column representation, there is one difference that this

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Figure 1-3: Variations of the 18-column table with group 3 shown as containing either Sc, Y, La and Ac (top) or Sc, Y, Lu and Lr (middle) or just Sc and Y (bottom).

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Figure 4-5: 32-column table with group 3 shown as Sc, Y, Lu, Lr. (top) 32-column table with group 3 shown as Sc, Y, La, Ac and split d-block.

representation masks somewhat. This difference is far more apparent if the periodic table is displayed in an even more expanded 32-column format which incorporates the f-block into the main body of the table.

If Lu and Lr appear in group 3, as they do in figure 4, the d-block consists of a continuous sequence of 10 elements. On the other hand, if group 3 consists of Sc, Y, La and Ac, as it does in figure 1, the d-block rows now appear to be split in a very uneven fashion (fig 5).

For example, in period 6 we find La (considered as a d-block element) followed by a sequence of 14 f-block elements from Ce to Lu followed by a sequence of nine d-block elements from Hf to Hg. The periodic table that is sometimes labeled as â&#x20AC;&#x153;IUPAC periodic tableâ&#x20AC;? as shown in figure 3 avoids assigning the 3rd and 4th members of group 3 altogether, by simply leaving empty spaces below Sc and Y. As a result, the f-block then appears to contain two rows of 15 elements, and thereby violates the simple oneto-one correspondence between orbital capacity as required by the elementary quantum mechanical account of the periodic table.

The only 18-column table that appears to avoid the drawback in the split of the d-block while also maintaining a 14-element-wide f-block is the one shown in figure 2. Needless to say, the assignment of elements to these blocks is approximate, just as the assignment of

electronic configurations to atoms also represents an approximation. Moreover, one may readily concede that an element such as thorium does not actually possess any f-orbital electrons and yet it is classified as being among the f-block elements in all five of the periodic table representations shown in figures 1 to 5.

A student looking at the table shown in figure 3 is bound to wonder whether there is some scientific reason for making the f-block have a width of 15 elements. Neither a student, nor his/her instructors, would probably realize that the table in question has been designed by practitioners of specialized branch of relativistic quantum mechanics concerned with the properties of super-heavy elements [6]. Such interest-dependence should not, in our view, dictate how the periodic table is presented to the general chemical and scientific community.

Perhaps a compromise could be reached on the table depicted as figure 2 since it achieves three desiderata. First, it displays all the elements in order of increasing atomic number. Secondly, it avoids splitting the d-block into two highly uneven portions, and thirdly, it depicts all the blocks of the periodic table in accordance with the underlying quantum mechanical account of the periodic table which calls for 2, 6, 10 and 14 orbitals to occur in the extra-nuclear electron-shells.

Historical developments have shown that quantum Chemistry International

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Project Place mechanics provides an explanation for the periodic table even if it does not provide a full and exact reduction of the periodic table. It appears that some practitioners of relativistic quantum chemistry uphold the grouping together 15 rather than 14 elements in the f-block of the table. However, any such findings should not be imposed on the majority of users of the periodic table and should not, in our view, dictate how the periodic table is presented to the widest possible audience of chemists, chemical educators and chemistry students.

For more information and comments, contact Task Group Chair Eric Scerri <scerri@chem.ucla.edu> | https://iupac.org/project/2015-039-2-200 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

Leigh, J., 2009, Chemistry International, 31(1), 4-6, http://www.iupac.org/publications/ci/2009/3101/1_ leigh.html.

Scerri, E.R., 2020, The Periodic Table, Its Story and Its Significance, Oxford University Press, NY, 2nd edition. (a) Kripke, S., (1980) Naming and Necessity, Oxford: Blackwell; Putnam, H., (1990). (b) Is Water Necessarily H2O, Hilary Putnam, in James Conant (ed.), Realism with a Human Face. Harvard University Press. pp. 54--79 (1990) Scerri, E.R., 2018, Antonius van den Broek, Moseley and the concept of atomic number. In For Science, King and Country—Henry Moseley, eds. R. Edgell, R. MacLeod, E. Bruton, 102-118.

Raydon, T.A.C., 2014, Metaphysical and Epistemological Approaches to Developing a Theory of Artifact Kinds, in M. Franssen et al. (eds.), Artefact Kinds: Ontology and Human-Made World, Synthese Library 365, https:// doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-00801-1_8 Pyykkö, P., 2011, A suggested periodic table up to Z ≤ 172 based on Dirac-Fock calculations on atoms and ions. Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 13, 161; https://doi. org/10.1039/C0CP01575J

Development of a Machine Accessible Kinetic Databank for Radical Polymerizations Machine learning is a young discipline in the chemical sciences that has nonetheless led to significant changes in research approaches in a relatively shorttime span. Any machine-assisted research approach requires training sets and machine-readable databases to retrieve information from. A standardization of notations allows for data exchange between computer systems and softwares. As an example, the recently introduced BigSMILES (simplified molecular-input line-entry system) notation (Lin et al. ACS

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Cent. Sci. 2019, 5, 9, 1523-1531; https://doi.org/10.1021/ acscentsci.9b00476) allows the exchange of structural data for polymer across computer systems.

The IUPAC working party on Modelling of Polymerization Kinetics and Processes has collated significant kinetic data on free radical polymerization in recent years, and published a series of benchmark papers on the topic. While generally available, still many researchers do not make full use of these data sets. A database will increase awareness and foster better use of the data. More importantly, a machine-readable database will allow for direct and automated exchange of data. For example, kinetic models can always retrieve the latest and most updated kinetic data for specific monomers. In machine-learning approaches, algorithms can make use the data for deep learning and interconnection with other data such as molecular characteristics, physical properties or further kinetic data.

This can range from prediction of materials properties to automated process control in synthesis.

The kinetic database will consist of all IUPAC benchmarked kinetic data for free radical polymerization. A further selection of reliable kinetic data will be made to also include monomers that have not yet been critically assessed. For these monomers, the database can serve as a future starting point for data collection.

While not part of this project, the same database could later be extended by other parameters, such as overall time conversion relations, molecular weights, and physical properties of the resulting polymers from polymerization. The database will be designed in a fashion to allow facile extension to either direction.

First versions of the database will be hosted via Monash University. Source codes will be published open access and long-term migration of the database to central servers is envisaged.

For more information and comments, contact Task Group Chair Tanja Junkers <Tanja.Junkers@monash.edu> | https://iupac.org/project/2019-045-1-400

Assessment of Absolute Isotope Ratios for the International Isotope Delta Measurement Standards Currently, isotope delta measurements are reported relative to an international measurement standard that forms the zero-point of the scale and the base of the traceability chain.

The absolute isotope ratios of these measurement standards are the fundamental values which allow

Project Place conversion of isotope delta values to other expressions of isotopic composition such as isotopic abundances, absolute isotope ratios or atomic weights that are often used in studies involving stable isotopes as tracers.

At least some of the discrepancies between laboratories in these measurements is due to application of different values for the absolute isotope ratio of the zero-point materials. These isotope ratios are also the quantities which link the isotope delta scale to the international system of units.

The currently-recommended values of these absolute isotope ratios are derived from publications reporting measurement results, however in some instances there are multiple publications each reporting different values. Absolute values underpinning carbon or silicon isotope delta scales, for example, are not consistent and uniform recommendations are needed. Collating these measurement results and assessing them will allow new best-estimates of these absolute isotope ratios to be determined that reflect all previous measurements, rather than selecting a single publication as the source of the recommended value.

Considerations during such assessment include the nature of the calibration employed during measurement as well as the uncertainty budget. The new best estimates will be distributed in the form of an IUPAC Technical Report and will be available on the website of IUPAC Commission on Isotopic Abundances and Atomic Weights, CIAAW.org, in machine-readable form.

For more information and comments, contact Task Group Chair Philip Dunn <Philip.Dunn@lgcgroup.com> | https://iupac.org/project/2020-013-1-200

of Chemical and Physical Reference data in 1998. Today, the publication of critically evaluated solubility data is more appropriately disseminated in digital form and this project is a critical step to enabling accurate exchange in the global digital arena. Given the work by NIST to digitize some the SDS volumes in the late 1990â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s (https://srdata.nist.gov/solubility/) and the more recent work by the task group chair, reimagine the NIST data as a modern RESTful website, [1] there is now significant interest in the digitization of the SDS to create a digital asset and leverage the significant amount of time and effort invested by the members of the IUPAC Subcommittee on Solubility and Equilibrium Data (SSED).

This project therefore will focus on the development of metadata schema for accurate capture and representation of solubility data reported in the SDS volumes, both in terms of the curated literature values (SDS compilations) and the subsequent critical evaluation of systems with sufficient reported values (SDS evaluations). Understanding the needs for the accurate reporting of critically evaluated data will inform the development of general guidance on reporting of experimental data.

The work of this task group will be disseminated in a technical report in Pure and Applied Chemistry and as a reference document for the two schemas to be used by the SSED. This work will flow into the work of the Interdivisional Subcommittee on Critically Evaluated Data (ISCED) and potentially other critical evaluation activities in IUPAC.

Reference 1.

Development of a Metadata Schema for Critically Evaluated Solubility Measurement Data The IUPAC Solubility Data Series (SDS) is an important asset of IUPAC. Originally conceived as a series of printed volumes, the SDS transitioned to the Journal

Chalk, S. J. (2015). Leveraging Web 2.0 technologies to add value to the IUPAC Solubility Data Series: development of a REST style website and application programming interface (API), Pure Appl Chem 87(1112), 1127-1137; https://doi.org/10.1515/pac-2015-0403

For more information and comments, contact Task Group Chair Stuart Chalk <schalk@unf.edu> | https://iupac.org/project/2020-018-1-024

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Making an imPACt Hed Glossary of methods and terms used in surface chemical analysis (IUPAC Recommendations 2020)

Global occurrence, chemical properties, and ecological impacts of e-wastes (IUPAC Technical Report)

Takae Takeuchi, A. James McQuillan, Alexander Shard, Andrea E. Russell and D. Brynn Hibbert Pure and Applied Chemistry, 2020 Volume 92, Issue 11, pp. 1781-1860 https://doi.org/10.1515/pac-2019-0404

Diane Purchase, Golnoush Abbasi, et al.

Pure and Applied Chemistry, 2020 Volume 92, Issue 11, pp. 1733-1767 https://doi.org/10.1515/pac-2019-0502

This glossary provides a formal vocabulary of terms for concepts in surface analysis and gives clear definitions to those who utilize surface chemical analysis or need to interpret surface chemical analysis results but are not themselves surface chemists or surface spectroscopists. It does not include methods that yield purely structural and morphological information, such as diffraction methods and microscopies. The general scope includes analytical techniques in which beams of electrons, ions, or photons are incident on a material surface and scattered or emitted electrons, ions, or photons detected from within about 10Â nm of the surface are spectroscopically analysed. The glossary includes methods and terms for chemical analysis of surfaces under vacuum, as well as surfaces immersed in liquid.

This glossary will serve as a necessary update to the previous version of the Orange Book, published in 1997.

The advances in surface analysis during the intervening years have been many. The purpose is to ensure the universality of terminology in the field of Surface Analytical Chemistry. Consistency in terminology is key to assuring reproducibility and consistency in results.

The International Organisation for Standardization (ISO) has published ISO 18115 Surface Chemical Analysisâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Vocabulary, which consists of two parts: ISO 18115-1, General terms and terms used in spectroscopy (2013), and ISO 18115-2, Terms used in scanning probe microscopy (2013). The present Recommendation selectively includes topics contained in the two parts of ISO 18115 without including microscopic methods.

The terminology taken from ISO 18115-1 and -2 for this IUPAC Compendium is reproduced with permission of the International Organisation for Standardisation.

Terms and definitions also comply with the International Vocabulary of Metrology (VIM).

Section 2 of this Glossary contains definitions of the principal methods used in surface chemical analysis along with Notes giving the more common variants of these principal methods. This section introduces the range of surface chemical analysis methods available.

Section 3 provides definitions of terms associated with the various methods of section 2.

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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/

Chemistry International

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The waste stream of obsolete electronic equipment grows exponentially, creating a worldwide pollution and resource problem. Electrical and electronic waste (e-waste) comprises a heterogeneous mix of glass, plastics (including flame retardants and other additives), metals (including rare Earth elements), and metalloids. The e-waste issue is complex and multi-faceted. In examining the different aspects of e-waste, informal recycling in developing countries has been identified as a primary concern, due to widespread illegal shipments; weak environmental, as well as health and safety, regulations; lack of technology; and inadequate waste treatment structure. For example, Nigeria, Ghana, India, Pakistan, and China have all been identified as hotspots for the disposal of e-waste.

This article presents a critical examination on the chemical nature of e-waste and the resulting environmental impacts on, for example, microbial biodiversity, flora, and fauna in e-waste recycling sites around the world. It highlights the different types of risk assessment approaches required when evaluating the ecological impact of e-waste. Additionally, it presents examples of chemistry playing a role in potential solutions. The information presented here will be informative to relevant stakeholders seeking to devise integrated management strategies to tackle this global environmental concern.

https://iupac.org/project/2014-031-3-600

Variation of lead isotopic composition and atomic weight in terrestrial materials (IUPAC Technical Report) Xiang-Kun Zhu, Jacqueline Benefield, Tyler B. Coplen, Zhaofu Gao and Norman E. Holden Pure and Applied Chemistry, 2020 Published online ahead of print 1 Oct 2020 https://doi.org/10.1515/pac-2018-0916 The isotopic composition and atomic weight of lead are variable in terrestrial materials because its three

Proposed element cell for lead for the IUPAC Periodic Table of the Elements and Isotopes. The pink background designates an element having two or more isotopes that are used to determine the standard atomic weights. The isotopic abundances and atomic weights vary in normal materials, and these variations exceed measurement uncertainty and are well known. The standard atomic-weight value is given as a lower and upper bounds within square brackets [ ]. The single atomic-weight value for education, commerce, and industry of 207.2, corresponding to previously published conventional atomic-weight values, is shown in white.

heaviest stable isotopes are stable end-products of the radioactive decay of uranium (238U to 206Pb; 235U to 207Pb) and thorium (232Th to 208Pb). The lightest stable isotope, 204Pb, is primordial. These variations in isotope ratios and atomic weights provide useful information in many areas of science, including geochronology, archaeology, environmental studies, and forensic science. While elemental lead can serve as an abundant and homogeneous isotopic reference, deviations from the isotope ratios in other lead occurrences limit the accuracy with which a standard atomic weight can be given for lead. In a comprehensive review of several hundred publications and analyses of more than 8000 samples, published isotope data indicate that the lowest reported lead atomic weight of a normal terrestrial materials is 206.1462 ± 0.0028 (k = 2), determined for a growth of the phosphate mineral monazite around a garnet relic from an Archean high-grade metamorphic terrain in north-western Scotland, which contains mostly 206Pb and almost no 204Pb. The highest published lead atomic weight is 207.9351 ± 0.0005 (k = 2) formonazite from a micro-inclusion in a garnet relic, also from a high-grade metamorphic terrain in north-western Scotland, which contains almost pure radiogenic 208Pb.When expressed as an interval, the lead atomic weight is [206.14, 207.94]. It is proposed that a value of 207.2 be adopted for the single lead atomic-weight value for education, commerce, and industry, corresponding to previously published conventional atomic-weight values.

https://iupac.org/project/2011-028-1-200

Definitions and notations relating to tactic polymers (IUPAC Recommendations 2020) Christopher M. Fellows, Karl-Heinz Hellwich, Stefano V. Meille, Graeme Moad, Tamaki Nakano and Michel Vert Pure and Applied Chemistry, 2020 Volume 92, Issue 11, pp. 1769-1779 https://doi.org/10.1515/pac-2019-0409 This document summarizes and extends definitions and notations for the description of tactic polymers and the diad structures of which they are composed.

It formally recognizes and resolves apparent inconsistencies between terminology used in the polymer field to describe tactic polymers and terminology in more common use in organic chemistry. Specifically, the terms m and r diads are recommended to replace the terms meso and racemo diads. The definitions are also updated from those in the existing Stereochemistry Document to use the term “stereogenic centre,” rather than “chiral or prochiral atoms.” Further, the terms relating to tacticity have been defined for the constituent macromolecules, rather than for the polymers composed of those macromolecules. Therefore, this document also forms an addendum and corrigendum to the 1981 document, “Stereochemical definitions and notations relating to polymers.”

https://iupac.org/project/2009-047-1-400

Terminology of polymers in advanced lithography (IUPAC Recommendations 2020) Richard G. Jones, Christopher K. Ober, Teruaki Hayakawa, Christine K. Luscombe and Natalie Stingelin Pure and Applied Chemistry, 2020 Volume 92, Issue 11, pp. 1861-1891 https://doi.org/10.1515/pac-2018-1215 As increasingly smaller molecular materials and material structures are devised or developed for technological applications, the demands on the processes of lithography now routinely include feature sizes that are of the order of 10 nm. In reaching such a fine level of resolution, the methods of lithography have increased markedly in sophistication and brought into play terminology that is unfamiliar, on the one hand, to scientists tasked with the development of new lithographic Chemistry International

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Making an imPACt materials or, on the other, to the engineers who design and operate the complex equipment that is required in modern-day processing. Publications produced by scientists need to be understood by engineers and vice versa, and these commonly arise from collaborative research that draws heavily on the terminology of two or more of the traditional disciplines. It is developments in polymer science and material science that lead progress in areas that cross traditional boundaries, such as microlithography. This document provides the exact definitions of a selection of unfamiliar terms that researchers and practitioners from different disciplines might encounter.

https://iupac.org/project/2012-001-1-400

IUPAC/CITAC Guide: Evaluation of risks of false decisions in conformity assessment of a multicomponent material or object due to measurement uncertainty (IUPAC Technical Report) Ilya Kuselman, Francesca R. Pennecchi, Ricardo J. N. B. da Silva and David Brynn Hibbert Pure and Applied Chemistry, 2020 Published online ahead of print 29 Oct 2020 https://doi.org/10.1515/pac-2019-0906 In this Guide, modelling and evaluating the total risks in the conformity assessment of a multicomponent material or object caused by measurement uncertainties are discussed in detail.

Risks of a false decision on conformity of the chemical composition of a multicomponent material or object due to measurement uncertainty are defined using the Bayesian approach. Even if the conformity assessment for each particular component of a material is successful, the total probability of a false decision (total consumer’s risk or producer’s risk) concerning the material as a whole might still be significant. This is related to the specific batch, lot, sample, environmental compartment, or other item of material or object (specific consumer’s and producer’s risks), or to a population of these items (global consumer’s and producer’s risks). A model of the total probability of such false decisions for cases of independent actual (‘true’) concentrations or contents of the components and the corresponding measurement results is formulated based on the law of total probability. It is shown that the total risk can be evaluated as a combination of the particular risks in the conformity assessment of components of the item. For a more complicated task, i.e. for a larger number of components under control, the total risk is greater. When the actual values of the components’ concentrations or contents, as well as the measurement results, are correlated, they are modelled by multivariate distributions. Then, a total global risk of a false decision on the material conformity is evaluated by the calculation of integrals of corresponding joint probability density function. A total specific risk can be evaluated as the joint posterior cumulative function of actual property values of a specific item lying outside the multivariate specification (tolerance) domain when the vector of measured values obtained for the item is inside this domain. The effect of correlation on the risk is not easily predictable. Examples of the evaluation of risks are provided for conformity assessment of denatured alcohols, total suspended particulate matter in ambient air, a cold/flu medication, and a PtRh alloy.

https://iupac.org/project/2018-004-1-500

Dielectric dispersion in solutions of flexible polymers W. H. Stockmayer Pure and Applied Chemistry, 1967 Vol. 15, No 3-4, pp. 539-554 https://doi.org/10.1351/pac196715030539

A map of the risks of false decisions on the conformity of a multicomponent material or object. See full text for details.

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This 1967 paper is part of PAC60 virtual collection assembled for the Diamond Jubilee of IUPAC scientific journal. The set of articles presented in this collection

Making an imPACt is a vivid glimpse of the rich variety of topics covered by the journal over the 60 years of its existence. https://cloud.newsletter.degruyter.com/60yearsPAC Comments by Randal W Richards This was an invited lecture at the IUPAC International Symposium on Macromolecular Chemistry in Tokyo in 1966.* Walter Stockmayer was one of the early pioneers in the chemical physics of polymer [1]. Over a long life, (he died at age 90 in 2004) he contributed to many areas of polymer science. His main focus was on the configurational and conformational behaviour of polymers in dilute solution. In particular on the effects of excluded volume and whether the expansion factor had fifth or cubic power dependence on the molecular weight.

In 1963 together with Michio Kurata, Stockmayer published an exhaustive analysis of the intrinsic viscosities of polymer molecules [2]. The paper reviewed here is an additional insight into the influence of conformation and excluded volume on the dielectric relaxation of polar polymers when subjected to a steady alternating field. Similar to the earlier viscosity publication, this paper does not put forward new theories but gathers together the ideas and explanations current at the time and applies them to experimental data with a view to determining the optimal theories.

The springboard is the observation that the mean square dipole moment of a polymer differs from the sum of the square of the individual bond dipole moments in a manner dependent on chain configuration and conformational statistics. Two types of polymer are considered; ones where dipoles are parallel to the chain direction, e.g. polyethylene oxide, and those where the dipole is rigidly attached perpendicularly to the chain direction. For the former case the mean square dipole moment is influenced by excluded volume effects to the same extent as the mean square end-to-end distance of the molecule. For the latter type of polymers, there is no correlation between the vector sum of the dipole moment components and the displacement vector, consequently excluded volume effects are absent.

Experimental data for low molecular weight polypropylene oxide are discussed in terms of the Rouse

[3] – Zimm [4] bead – spring model and the free-draining description of viscosity by Bueche [5]. The comment is made that changes in the relaxation spectrum for high molecular weight polymers are due to entanglement effects, foreshadowing the development of reptation theories of de Gennes [6] as well as Doi and Edwards [7] some 15 to 20 years later. Perpendicularly attached dipoles are discussed in much less detail and in a rather more speculative manner, perhaps because excluded volume has no influence on the properties.

Walter Stockmayer was an extremely pleasant and affable person, a talented pianist and even in his 70s could walk further and longer than younger colleagues from my own personal experience. Other contributors to this Symposium were equally well known in contributing to polymer science. Clement Bamford had made major contributions to the kinetics of polymerisation; Frank Bovey was an early user of NMR to polymers and with Stockmayer a founding editor of Macromolecules; Charles Sadron set up and was first director of the Centre de Recherche sur les Macromolecules in Strasbourg, France; Maurice Huggins developed the thermodynamics of polymer solutions at the same time as, but independent of, Paul Flory; Otto Wichterle later pioneered soft contact lenses. A gallery of leading contributors to polymer science at that time.

Additional papers based on lectures presented at the International Symposium on Macromolecular Chemistry, Tokyo and Kyoto, Japan, 28 Sep–4 Oct 1966, are published in the same PAC issue (1967, Vol 15, Issue 3-4); http://publications.iupac.org/pac/ conferences/TokyoandKyoto_1966-09-28f/index.html

References 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

W. H. Stockmayer and B. H. Zimm, When Polymer Science Looked Easy, Ann Rev Phys Chem 35:1, (1984); https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.pc.35.100184.000245 M. Kurata and W. H. Stockmayer Fortschr. Hochpolym.

Forsch 3, 196, (1963) P. E. Rouse Jr J Chem Phys 21, 1272, (1953) B. H. Zimm J Chem Phys 24, 269, (1956) F. Bueche J Chem Phys 20, 1959, (1952) P. G. de Gennes, Scaling Concepts in Polymer Physics, Cornell University Press 1979 M. Doi and S. F. Edwards, The Theory of Polymer Dynamics, Oxford University Press 1986

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Bookworm

Books and publications hot off the press.

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

Glossary of Terms Used in Molecular Toxicology Douglas M Templeton, Michael Schwenk, John Duffus IUPAC 2020, published by the Royal Society of Chemistry, www.rsc.org, ISBN: 978-1-78801-771-8; https://doi.org/10.1039/9781839160714 Commentary by Douglas Templeton Chemists need to understand the mechanisms of toxicity of the substances with which they deal. Both industrial and academic research chemists are faced with an ever-increasing burden in ensuring a safe environment in the laboratory and the workplace. Chemists must use both chemical and toxicological principles in formulating and enforcing current legislation introduced to ensure safe handling of substances throughout their life cycle. The goal of the Glossary of Terms Used in Molecular Toxicology is to assist chemists in approaching the toxicological literature with a critical eye, as chemical toxicology becomes more integrated into chemical curricula, chemical safety, and legislation.

In 2017, the authors collected a series of glossaries that were first published in Pure and Applied Chemistry, revised and updated many definitions, and added several hundred new ones. This was published as the Comprehensive Glossary of Terms Used in Toxicology. Upon completion of that work, it was realized that a number of molecular aspects of toxicology that relate to the biochemistry and cell biology of toxicity had been given short shrift, and the attempt to redress this in the Glossary of Terms Used in Molecular Toxicology has resulted in a companion volume with several thousand new terms, mostly derived from the literature of molecular biology, biochemistry, medicinal chemistry, and molecular pharmacology (see iupac.org/project/2017-012-1-700). As defined it in the Preface, Molecular Toxicology is considered to be “the science, studied at subcellular, cellular, and tissue levels, of the interactions of substances and other physicochemical stressors with the structural and functional molecules of the cell and its immediate surroundings, along with the defenses that the organism may mount against these adverse factors, as they affect the organism’s biological integrity and well-being.”

The choice of terms for the Glossary reveals the complexity of contemporary molecular biology that is relevant to toxicologists and informed chemists. We have necessarily included some terms of general cell metabolism, cell signaling, and biomolecular structure that do not obviously impact immediately upon toxicology, but that will be encountered by the reader of

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the literature covering molecular aspects of cell toxicity. Many of the biomolecules included are either established or emerging targets for medicinal chemists engaged in drug development. We have avoided compiling terms in molecular genetics, as that would seem to require a separate work of similar length.

It will be appreciated that the field of biomolecular and biomedical research is rapidly changing, as the tools of molecular science continue to facilitate an explosion of knowledge of the interactions of genes and proteins among themselves and with exogenous substances. Indeed, many terms included here were evolving as the glossary was in preparation, and each week new literature appears that reports new gene products and their interactions, and renders some definitions wanting. The complexion of molecular cell biology changed sufficiently during the three years that this Glossary was in preparation; leaving it, in some respects, egregiously incomplete. This is a reality that plagues any rapidly developing field. It should be viewed as a sampling of molecular players and concepts, and taken as a snapshot at the date of publication.

Although few people read glossaries, dictionaries, lexicons, or encyclopediae from cover to cover, we hope that this volume goes beyond a reference work for the practicing chemist, and may interest some who wish to browse through it to get a flavour of the subject. They may gain a better appreciation of complexities in molecular toxicology, and of some problems in terminology within IUPAC and in cognate disciplines.

And, some entries may even entertain.

The entry term (or “headword” in the practice of lexicography) is often followed by one or more synonyms before a definition is presented. Sometimes, multiple synonyms arise because an entity was discovered more than once, with different functions in different contexts, or in different organisms, or in different laboratories, and only later were these entities recognized as homologous. When multiple synonyms are listed for a single term, we list them in the order we think represents preferred terms or decreasingly common usage. In some cases, terms that permeated the older literature but are no longer in preferred current use are indicated. For example, under the headword ATP7A are listed the synonyms P-type Cu2+ transporter, copper-transporting ATPase 1, copper pump 1, and Menkes disease protein (MNK); these refer to the same entity designated by the Enzyme Commission number EC 7.2.2.9. Or, we note the cyclin-dependent kinase p21 is also known as p21/Cip1/Waf1, cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor 1, and CDK-interacting protein 1.

Another feature that may be noted by the casual browser of the Glossary is the complexity of acronyms

to adhere to these conventions used in molecular biology, e.g., when referencing species-speNB-ARC [nucleotide-binding domain present in APAF-1 cific molecules. Full names (apoptotic protease-activating of proteins are generally not factor-1), resistance (R) procapitalized (e.g., human apelin, which has the protein symbol teins and CED-4 (CaenorhabAPLN and gene symbol APLN), ditis elegans death-4) protein]; unless frequently done so by or ADAMTS (a disintegrin convention (e.g., Fas, Jagged, and metalloproteinase with Glossary of Terms Used Smad, and Snail); and never for a thrombospondin domain). in Molecular Toxicology more common proteins such In some cases, the acronym Douglas M. Templeton, Michael Schwenk and John Duffus as actin, insulin, and tubulin; or gives a short history lesson on enzymes such as catalase and the discovery of the molecule, ornithine decarboxylase. Even as for the caspase 8 inhibitor on this last point, though, some FLIP [also known by the synmajor textbooks disagree. onyms cellular FLICE inhibitor protein (c-FLIP), caspase 8 and There is a recognized probFADD-like apoptosis regulalem of multiple recommended definitions of some terms in various IUPAC sources, and tor (CFLAR), caspase 8-related protein (Casper), and issues with some definitions in the Gold Book. We do Flice inhibitory protein (I-FLICE)]. FLIP can be broken not wish to exacerbate this problem, which is being addown into its acronymic contributors and then reads as “FADD-like ICE inhibitor protein”, or in full “(factor dressed in the Gold Book revision, and for the few prefor apoptotic signaling-associated protein with death viously defined terms that we have included, we have domain)-like interleukin-1b-converting enzyme inhibitried to stick as closely as possible to pre-existing Gold Book definitions. This has not always been possible. For tory protein.” A 22-page appendix collects all the acroexample, a previous IUPAC definition of “antigenic denyms used in the Glossary.

While IUPAC has a good handle on chemical noterminant” gives “epitope” as a synonym. However, we define the terms separately, noting that an epitope is menclature, this is not always the case in cognate fields a structural feature of an antigen, whereas an antigenthat are in play in the Glossary. Whenever we refer to an enzyme activity, we try to give the current Enzyme ic determinant is a functional attribute. As another exCommission (EC) number to avoid ambiguity, but the ample, a previous IUPAC definition of an enzyme reads assignment of these numbers is a fluid proposition “Macromolecule, usually a protein that functions as a as more is learned about components and true biocatalyst.” This is problematic, as the wording implies that any macromolecule is an enzyme, though usually logical substrates. We try to mention earlier designaa protein catalyst of any reaction. Our revised wording tions when they are still prominent in the literature. specifies a protein or nucleic acid catalyst of a biologic For instance, the E1 ubiquitin ligase is now designated reaction, and recognizes that an apoprotein without its EC 6.2.1.45, but was formerly included in EC 6.3.2.21, coenzyme conjugate does not qualify. and before that EC 6.3.2.19; and all are still found in articles of interest.

To end on a lighter note, there may be some enterMore problematic are naming conventions for tainment value for the reader in examples of trivia, such genes and proteins, where there is no central authority as the derivation of “anandamide”, an endogenous for denoting gene and protein names across species, cannabinoid receptor ligand, from a Sanskrit word for and subsets of biologists use different conventions. A joy; or that the inhibitory membrane protein “klotho” universal convention is to italicize a gene name, but is named for one of the Fates who was responsible human genes are given in roman uppercase, while for spinning the thread of human life. The reader will mouse genes have only the first letter capitalized. For also learn that the G protein “SOS” is a name meaning instance, the human sonic hedgehog gene and pro“son of sevenless”, and the smad proteins derive their name in part from the Drosophila gene product “mad”, tein symbols are written as SHH and SHH, respectivestanding for “mothers against decapentaplegic”, perly, while for the mouse the corresponding terms are Shh and SHH. The Xenopus equivalents are shh and haps demonstrating that not only chemists have a Shh. Other conventions are used in the yeast, bacterial, sense of humor. and zebra fish communities, for example, and we try Chemistry International

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Up for Discussion Hed The Hudlicky case—A reflection on the current state of affairs

by Leiv K. Sydnes In June 2020, an earthquake hit the global chemical community. The epicenter was a paper published by Dr. Thomas Hudlicky, Professor of chemistry at Brock University, Canada, who discussed factors influencing the progress of organic synthesis in the last 25 years in a manner many found offensive. What followed was an avalanche of accusations, attacks, condemnations, criticism, protests, resignations, suspensions, and threats, but also statements of support and defense of the author. To witness the event evolving was strange because so many guidelines governing academic discourse were neglected. This merits a closer look at what happened so that an exchange of views can take place in a dignified manner in the future even when positions are far apart.

For those that have not followed the case, a summary of some the key events is pertinent. The havoc started on 4 June when the paper, an essay entitled “’Organic Synthesis – Where now?’ is thirty years old. A reflection on the currents state of affairs,” was posted as an accepted manuscript on the website of Angewandte Chemie [1]. It drew immediate attention, and within hours, condemnations of the article for its contents, of Dr. Hudlicky for writing it, and of the journal for publishing it appeared in abundance [2]. In addition, members of the International Advisory Board (IAB) of the journal started quickly to withdraw [3]. The following day statements from Brock University [4] and the Editor-in-Chief of Angewandte Chemie [5] appeared, and 6 June, the paper, which had been reviewed and accepted, was withdrawn and disappeared completely from the journal’s domain and its DOI [1].

At the same time, websites of individuals, institutions, and organizations as well as columns in newspapers and magazines started to focus on the case, and opinions criticizing or supporting the parties involved were published speedily [2, 6-8].

The author was most harshly criticized. Not only was the language characterized as offensive and inflammatory [9]; the essay contained statements that were called hurtful and alienating [4]. These statements were integrated in the discussion of eight factors that Hudlicky argued had contributed, positively or negatively, to the development of organic synthesis over the last three decades. The paragraph discussing the impact of the Diversity of work force (see Box [1]) was most forcefully attacked, but some, like then Editor-in-Chief Neville Compton, have denounced the

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whole publication because “[t]he opinions expressed in this essay do not reflect our values” [5]. The journal, on the other hand, has received a lot of criticism for its review process that made the publication of such an “abhorrent” and “egregious” paper possible [3].

Indeed a thorough disapproval of one of the most prestigious chemical journals around, but the judgement has obviously been accepted by Angewandte Chemie and its publisher Wiley-VCH, as evidenced in their open letter to the chemical community where it is stated that the fact “[t]hat this article was published at all has demonstrated a breakdown in editorial decision-making.” Therefore, profound measures are being implemented so that the journal can recover and earn back its trust among chemists [9].

Diversity of work force. In the last two decades many groups and/or individuals have been designated with “preferential status”. This in spite of the fact that the percentage of women and minorities in academia and pharmaceutical industry has greatly increased. It follows that, in a social equilibrium, preferential treatment of one group leads to disadvantages for another. New ideologies have appeared and influenced hiring practices, promotion, funding, and recognition of certain groups. Each candidate should have an equal opportunity to secure a position, regardless of personal identification/categorization. The rise and emphasis on hiring practices that suggest or even mandate equality in terms of absolute numbers of people in specific subgroups is counter-productive if it results in discrimination against the most meritorious candidates. Such practice affects the format of interviews and has led to the emergence of mandatory “training workshops” on gender equity, inclusion, diversity, and discrimination [Note 2]. (quoted from Ref. 1) As for me, Angewandte Chemie has not much trust to regain because the flaw under consideration is not pertaining to its scientific papers, but to a non-scientific essay expressing one author’s personal opinions. Chemists read every issue of Angewandte primarily for its excellent scientific contents, not for the essay. That does not mean that reading Angewandte essays has been a waste of time over the years; many of the contributions have been stimulating discussions of interesting topics, but some have also been annoying. An example of the latter is “Chemical Safety in a Vulnerable World - A Manifesto” from 2004, written by Carl Djerassi, who argued for formation of a Chemical Social Service Corps that

would address environmental and chemical challenges of importance in countries lacking resources [10]. As President of IUPAC at that time, it was appalling to see that IUPAC was not mentioned with a single word when several of the multilateral measures Djerassi proposed had been core IUPAC activities for years.

A reply to Djerassi’s article was written and submitted to Angewandte, but rejected, seemingly because the journal had no responsibility for essay contents and could not be blamed [11]. This is common policy in many journals and magazines running essay-like columns, often practiced with a friendly suggestion to contact the author directly. I am therefore surprised that members of the Angewandte IAB held the journal responsible for the opinions in Hudlicky’s essay and likewise, that the Editor-in-Chief felt he had to emphasize that these opinions do not reflect Angewandte’s values. I can very well understand that there are people that are unhappy or upset with the wording of some of the statements in the essay, but considering the legal framework protecting the freedom of expression in general in many countries, the Hudlicky paper is not even close to be objectionable.

What is objectionable, however, is that the paper was withdrawn and completely removed from the Angewandte publication records. From many of the comments the essay generated, a take-home message is that Hudlicky’s essay proves that offensive and discriminatory attitudes are still found in the scientific community. In a statement signed by 28 chemical societies, the situation is spelled out more specifically: “Sexism, racism, discrimination against LGBTQ+ people and many other forms of inequality are sadly all too prevalent in the chemical sciences, both at individual and institutional levels.” [12] When 28 chemical societies agree on this, it is obvious there is a significant problem to address. Angewandte Chemie could have taken up this problem by letting the essay stand and opened a proper discussion based on a statement from the publisher and some central documents like the UN Declaration of Human Rights [13], the document Freedom, Responsibility and Universality of Science of the International Science Council (ISC) [14], and the UNESCO Recommendation on Science and Scientific Researchers [15]. This would have been an act in the best academic traditions, a support of our duty to respect and protect the academic freedom, and a step to bring the issue in focus in a way that would have made both impact and headlines.

When Angewandte Chemie chose not to act that way, IUPAC could take on this important task for the global chemical community. There are several reasons for that. One is the fact that the Union has a long

tradition in scrutinizing statements and definitions to develop clear terminology that enables fruitful discussions. In Hudlicky’s essay there many concepts to define clearly. For instance, when he talks about hiring the most meritorious candidate for a university position in organic synthesis (see the Box), what is meant by the best qualified candidate? Not necessarily the best researcher that would contribute the most to the progress of organic synthesis because a university is much more than a research laboratory in a non-educational institution like a chemical company. And when a new solid compound is made and supported by NMR data only and the yield is reported on the basis of the proton spectrum of an impure sample of the product, does not Hudlicky have a point when he argues for standardization of what constitutes proper characterization of new compounds in scientific journals?

Another reason for IUPAC involvement is its strong position as conference organizer. In general IUPAC conferences are highly regarded from a scientific point of view, but when their programs are studied, it becomes clear that the invited talks are given by scientists from a limited number of countries. This is an example of what the statement from the chemical societies calls other forms of inequality [12], which was discussed in a comment in Nature in Dec 2019 [16]. With the recent advent of hybrid conferences as a backdrop, IUPAC should take charge and aim at developing a conference template where diversity is a conference goal, made possible by a combination of new technology, a will to make a change, and strong conference advisory boards with members that don’t fill a number of the lecture slots themselves. In this way underrepresented groups of chemists will get scientific exposure at conferences, and this can indeed give young or unexperienced scientists a significant scientific boost, a richer creativity, an increased productivity, and subsequently, improved publication records.

A cancer in the scientific community is gift authorship, and as an award-granting union I am sure IUPAC committees must have been exposed to that practice as well. When PhD students have 25+ printed publications after 3 years of degree work, something is horribly wrong. How to curb this malpractice is not evident, but one step in the right direction could be to replace the publication-based PhD thesis with a monograph containing both positive and negative results and supplementary material. Maybe an IUPAC-recommended format could be developed?

From the discussion above, Dr. Hudlicky’s essay, and many comments to this essay, it is clear that the global chemical community has a complex problem to Chemistry International

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Up for Discussion address. Since this very community is IUPAC’s main stakeholder, the union should take a close look at how it can contribute to change a system in need of renovation. Several approaches can indeed be envisaged, but since Angewandte Chemie, Wiley-VCH, and many chemical societies are already on the move, why not start with a symposium at the upcoming IUPAC Congress in Montreal, Canada, at the end of August 2021?

Leiv K. Sydnes (leiv.sydnes@uib.no) is Professor emeritus at University of Bergen, Norway. He was president of IUPAC 2004-2005 and chaired the CHEMRAWN committee in 2008-2015. He also chaired the ICSU (now ISC) Committee for Freedom and Responsibility in the Conduct of Science 2013-2018.

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References 1.

2.

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4.

5.

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Dr. Hudlicky’s essay appeared with the DOI 10.1002anie.202006717; that code no longer gives access to the article. However, it can be found elsewhere, for instance https://sites.krieger.jhu.edu/chemdna/files/2020 /06/10.1002anie.202006717.pdf (2020.11.01) A Google search for Hudlicky gives numerous links to site substantiating this statement. Some relevant links are the following (2020.11.01): http://drennan.mit.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/ Angewandte-200616.pdf https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlehtml/2020/mh/ d0mh90049d http://www.safs.ca/issuescases/case.php?case=brockchemistry http://emilkierkegaard.dk/en/?p=8759 http://adamprada.net/blog/hudlicky http://www.safs.ca/issuescases/brock-chemistry/ Canadian%20Society%20for%20Chemistry.pdf https://www.chemistryworld.com/4011923.article https://cen.acs.org/research-integrity/ethics/Essaycriticizing-efforts-increase-diversity-in-organic-synthesisdeleted-after-backlash-from-chemists/98/web/2020/06 https://retractionwatch.com/2020/06/08/controversialessay-at-german-chemistry-journal-leads-to-suspensions Chemistry World, 9 June 2020; https://www. chemistryworld.com/news/angewandte-essay-callingdiversity-in-chemistry-harmful-decried-as-abhorrentand-egregious/4011926.article (2020.11.01) An open letter to the Brock community, Gregory C. Finn, 7 June 2020; http://www.safs.ca/issuescases/ brock-chemistry/3%29%20Provost-G-Finn-Letter-to-theCommunity-June-7-2020.pdf (2020.11.01) A Statement from [Angewandte Chemie] Editor-in-Chief, Neville Compton, 5 June 2020; https://onlinelibrary. wiley.com/page/journal/15213773/homepage/archive ; also at http://www.safs.ca/issuescases/brockchemistry/4%29%20A%20Statement%20from%20 the%20Editor-in-Chief.pdf (2020.11.01)

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9.

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

16.

Society for Academic Freedom and Shorlarship: Brock Provost issues letter condemning chemistry professor Tomáš Hudlický’s views of diversity, inclusion, and equity and the teacher-student relation, http://www.safs.ca/ issuescases/case.php?case=brock-chemistry (2020.11.01) The St. Catharines Standard, 9 June 2020, https:// www.stcatharinesstandard.ca//news/niagararegion/2020/06/09/brock-university-professorslammed-for-hurtful-and-alienating-article.html or http://safs.ca/issuescases/brock-chemistry/Brock%20 University%20professor%20slammed%20for.pdf (2020.11.01) Letter from David Robinson, Executive Director of the Canadian Association of University Teachers to the President of Brock University, 9 Juen 2020; http:// www.safs.ca/issuescases/brock-chemistry/6%29%20 CAUT%20letter%20to%20President%20Fearon.pdf (2020.11.01) An Open Letter to Our Community, Guido Herrmann, 9 June 2020; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/page/ journal/15213773/homepage/archive; or at https:// www.gdch.de/fileadmin/downloads/Service_und_ Informationen/Presse_OEffentlichkeitsarbeit/PDF/2020/ Wiley_open_letter09_06.pdf (2020.11.01) C. Djerassi, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2004, 43,2330-2332 (DOI: 10.1002/anie.200330079) When the submitted paper was rejected, a request for permission to republish ref. 10 in IUPAC’s Chemistry International was sent and granted. Djerassi’s essay was printed in Chem. Int. 2004, Sept-Oct, pp. 12-14. In the following issue, I published a comment entitled Chemists in a Vulnerable World (Chem. Int. 2004, Nov-Dec, pp.2-3).

RSC Statement on inclusion and diversity in the chemical sciences, 8 June 2020; https://www.rsc.org/ news-events/articles/2020/jun/id-joint-societiesstatement (2020.11.01) The Universal Declaration of Human Rights; https:// www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights (2020.11.01) Freedom, Responsibility and Universality of Science, ICSU (since 2018, International Council for Science); https://council.science/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/ CFRS-brochure-2014.pdf (2020.11.01) Recommendation on Science and Scientific Researchers, UNESCO document SHS/BIO/PI/2017/3, 2018; https:// unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000263618 (2020.11.01) Heather L. Ford, Cameron Brick, Margarita Azmitia, Karine Blaufuss, and Petra Dekens, Nature 2019, 576, No. 7785 (5 December); https://www.nature.com/articles/ d41586-019-03688-w

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect the view of IUPAC or its officers, nor do they imply an endorsement by the Union.

Conference Call

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

Frontiers in Chemical Technology

by Priyani A. Paranagama The Institute of Chemistry Ceylon has always believed in “uplifting the quality of life for a better world through the advancement of chemical sciences.” In keeping with this vision, the 1st International Conference on Frontiers in Chemical Technology (FCT-2020) was organized, and was held from 20–22 July 2020, at the Institute of Chemistry Ceylon. The first of many, the conference served as a kaleidoscope, offering a glimpse of a multitude of domains under chemical technology. It covered innovations in drug discovery and development, modern challenges in environmental and green technology, alternative energy sources for sustainable development, genomics and metabolomics, innovative strategies in chemical education, nanotechnology for sustainable development, engineering technology in the chemical industry, electrochemical and sensor technology, chemical technology in food and agro-industry, and cosmeceutical, nutraceutical, and herbal product industry.

Having received over 130 abstract submissions from renowned institutions placed both nationally and internationally, the conference saw the participation of intellectuals and professionals from state universities and research institutes in Sri Lanka. Foreign institutions located across countries such as the USA, the UK, India, Bangladesh, Russia, New Zealand, Nigeria and Israel participated in FCT-2020 as well. The event was graced by many eminent local and foreign scientists who participated both physically and online to share knowledge and experience in their areas of expertise.

The Chief Guest for the event was Janitha Liyanage,

Prof Priyani Paranagama, Conference Chair of FCT-2020 and President of the Institute of Chemistry Ceylon

Vice-Chairperson of the University Grants Commission.

The keynote addresses were delivered by Subramaniam Sotheeswaran (Emeritus Professor, The University of the South Pacific, Fiji), Ashok Pandey (CSIR-Indian Institute of Toxicology Research, India), Amelia P. Rauter (Vice President, IUPAC Division of Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry), Sarah Thomas (Senior International Development Manager, Royal Society of Chemistry, UK) and Neelakanthi Gunawardena (Director, Semiochem Lanka Private Ltd, Sri Lanka). The plenary speakers at the conference were Ayanthi Navaratne (Department of Chemistry, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka), Suryanarayanan Trichur Subramanian (Vivekananda Institute of Tropical Mycology, Chennai,

The audience at the inauguration ceremony of FCT-2020. All photos by Chatura Abeysinghe. © Snapr CCS. All Rights reserved Photographic Club of college of Chemical Sciences.

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

Conference Call India), Dinesh Mohan (School of Environmental Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, India), P A Nimal Punyasiri (IBMBB, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka), Nilwala Kottegoda (Department of Chemistry, University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka), Todd Mlsna (Department of Chemistry, Mississippi State University, USA), Kapila Seneviratne (Department of Chemistry, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka), Sameera Samarakoon (IBMBB, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka), Rohan Perera (Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, The Netherlands), Channa R De Silva (Department of Chemistry and Physics, Western Carolina University, USA), Deb Mlsna (Department of Chemistry, Mississippi State University, USA) and Namal Priyantha (Department of Chemistry, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka).

Other highlights of FCT-2020 were the poster presentation session held on the second day of the conference, and the special technical session held on the third day, dedicated to the Womens’ Chemists Committee of Sri Lanka. In this session, five women chemists, Lankani Hettigoda (Research and Development, Siddhalepa, Sri Lanka), Amelia P Rauter (IUPAC representative), Renuka Jayasundara (Managing Director, Analytical Instruments (Pvt) Ltd), K M Thilini Gunasekara (Senior Lecturer, Department of Polymer Science, Faculty of Applied Sciences, University of Sri Jayawardenapura) and Julie Franklin (Career and Professional Development Advisor, Royal Society of Chemistry, UK), shared their stories, inspiring all those who were present.

The organizing committee comprised of Priyani Paranagama, President of the Institute of Chemistry Ceylon (Conference Chair), Sameera R Gunatilake, Hony. Editor, Institute of Chemistry Ceylon (Conference Secretary), . A A P Keerthi, Hony. Treasurer, Institute of Chemistry Ceylon (Conference Treasurer), Kapila Seneviratne (Editor-in-Chief), Ireshika De Silva and Chayanika Padumadasa, Hony. Joint Secretaries, Institute of Chemistry Ceylon, P A Nimal Punyasiri, Hony. Assistant Treasurer, Institute of Chemistry Ceylon, Dinusha Udukala, Hony. Assistant Editor, Institute of Chemistry Ceylon, Medha Gunaratna, N M S Hettigedara, Samadhi Nawalage and Sahan Jayasingha.

Furthermore, FCT-2020 would not have been possible if not for the dedicated team of teaching assistants and officials who were involved in organizing the proceedings. Despite the prevailing pandemic, the team behind FCT-2020 toiled day and night to make this event a reality. Owing to their unwavering faith and

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tireless efforts, the conference was brought back on track following a month’s postponement, enabling participants worldwide to join the sessions either physically or via online.

Further to this, the 49th Annual Session and 79th Anniversary Celebrations of the Institute were held at the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute. The highlights of the event included the presidential address which was delivered by Priyani Paranagama on the theme of “Shaping careers of chemists through the advancement of chemical technology”, followed by the award ceremony of the Institute. Three special awards were distributed on this day to individuals who have made significant research contributions in the field of Chemistry in Sri Lanka. The Ramakrishna Memorial Award 2020 was awarded to Sameera R Gunatilake for his work under the theme “From biomass to biochar: A potential means of solid waste management in Sri Lanka”, and Chathuri Peiris was awarded the Kandiah Memorial Graduateship Award 2020 for her research on “Exploring the role of biochar as a soil amendment”.

The Kandiah Award for Applied Chemistry 2020 was awarded to C P Ekanayake for her research on “Toxicity studies on ethyl acetate soluble proanthocyanidins and aqueous extract of the immature inflorescence of Cocos nucifera L. in female Wistar rats”.

As the Institute celebrates its 79th anniversary, FCT2020 has marked an important milestone in the Institute’s glorious history of serving as “the center of excellence in chemical sciences for the socio-economic development through education, research and innovation” in Sri Lanka. We at the Institute believe that FCT2020 has served as a stepping stone for graduates, undergraduates, scientists and industrialists to explore the frontiers in chemical technology and conquer the frontiers of a better tomorrow.

Priyani A. Paranagama <priyani123@yahoo.com> is the Director at the Institute of Indigenous Medicine, University of Colombo, the Immediate Past President at the Institute of Chemistry, Ceylon and Chair and Senior Professor of the Department of Chemistry at the University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka.

Hed

Conference Call OPCW Convenes International Experts to Develop Strategy for Greener, Safer, and More Sustainable Chemistry Scientists and chemistry professionals, and including IUPAC representatives, met online on 4 and 5 August 2020 for a meeting on Green and Sustainable Chemistry for Safety and Security organised by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). The meeting focused on discussing recent developments in green and sustainable chemistry and how these can relate to the objectives of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). Participants also proposed projects to be considered by the OPCW. The meeting gathered eighteen professionals from thirteen Member States, comprising scientists, technologists and members of professional chemical societies and associations, as well as representatives of international organisations, including the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), European Chemical Industry Council (CEFIC), and IUPAC. Seventeen speakers made presentations in the following subject areas: Chemistry Going Safe, Green and Sustainable; The Industry Perspective; Educating Chemists for a Green and Sustainable Future; The Voice of Americas; and Organizations Moving Green and Sustainable Chemistry Forward. Two discussion sessions followed on concrete actions for the OPCW moving forward.

Mark Cesa, former IUPAC president, spoke about sustainability and capacity building programs at IUPAC.His overview mentioned IUPAC’s strategic plan

Participants, all together representing Bangladesh, Belgium, Brazil, China, Ethiopia, France, Germany, Italy, Pakistan, Philippines, Russia, South Africa and the United States, also seized the opportunity to discuss cooperation opportunities and ways in which the OPCW can best support its Member States to develop sustainable chemical industries.

and its areas of scientific emphasis, the Safety Training Program (STP) of COCI, the e-learning modules on scientific ethics developed by CCE, the terms of the recently established Interdivisional committee on Green Chemistry for Sustainable Development (ICGCSD), the Top Ten Emerging Chemical Technologies, and relevant projects in the Analytical Chemistry Division, the Chemistry and the Environment Division, and the Chemistry and Human Health Division. Prof. Hemda Garelick (Div VI), Prof. Anna Makarova (COCI), and Dr. Fabian Benzo Moreira (STP coordinator) provided specific input include in that presentation. Prof. Makarova also spoke, and there were talks about the OPCW Advisory Board on Education and Outreach, on which IUPAC has permanent observer status, and about the Hague Ethical Guidelines, which IUPAC has endorsed.

For more information and background on OPCW, see link from https://iupac. org/opcw-convenes-international-experts-to-develop-strategy-for-greener-safer-and-more-sustainable-chemistry/

Green Chemistry Postgraduate Summer School Online

by Aurelia Visa, Pietro Tundo, and Fabio Arico As a result of the crisis caused by COVID-19 ongoing outbreak and the limitations on travelers mobility, the Green Chemistry Postgraduate Summer School was held online 6-10 July 2020; this was for all of us our first experience in running such an event online. This 12th edition of the Green Chemistry Summer School follows the most recent event was at the Palazzo Ducale in Venezia, in July 2018.

The event was proposed by Pietro Tundo, President of Green Sciences for Sustainable Development Foundation and Chair of IUPAC Interdivisional Committee on Green Chemistry for Sustainable Development (ICGCSD). The organizing committee included Fabio Aricó (Italy), Aurelia Visa (Romania) and the Secretaries of the Conference, Elena Alfine and Emilia Pasta (Italy), and was supported by the ZOOM Manager, Paula de Waal and the Web managers, Enrico Siviero, Daniele Barzazzi, Andrea Cester and Fabrizio Romano from Italy. The Summer School website www.unive.it/ssgc was created by the team of the Web Office of ASIT -Ca’ Foscari.

The organization began eight months before the School with correspondence and students selection.

Due to the health crisis, we were forced to plan and organize the school remotely. From that point forward, Chemistry International

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Conference Call everything was new and challenging for all of us! In this uncertain period the students and also all the professors were constrained to join the school remotely.

The schedule was organized accordingly to professor’s time zones and availability.

The organizing committee

with other participants and professors for fruitful joint projects and research activities. This was a real success for this Summer School, as these opportunities will speed up the participants’ careers, as it occurred in former schools.

In fact, five alumni who now occupy important positions in their respective countries came back to the School as instructors: Peter Licence (United Kingdom), Katalin Barta (Austria), Sergey Zinoviev (The Netherlands), Fabio Aricò (Italy) and Aurelia Visa (Romania).All the lectures were recorded and made available on the Green Sciences for Sustainable Development Foundation’s website (www.gssd-foundation. org) for one week after the end of the Summer School.

Afterwards, the recordings could be shared with those who request them.

This virtual Summer School was of course more challenging than an event in person: while the students had the opportunity to be connected from everywhere at the same time, it was necessary to keep their attention high; this was possible only by the engagement reached with the scientific quality of the instructors. The engagement of the students in the Summer School activities was secured by involving them in discussions following the lectures and through virtual poster sessions.

The School was held in collaboration with ICGCSD of which all 15 members of the International Scientific Committee belonged, and Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. The Summer School was sponsored by various Organizations that are acknowledged in this article.

With their generous contributions, about half of the postgraduate students attending the School, coming from developing countries, have been awarded with a scholarship.

In total, 210 applications were submitted and 180 were considered eligible to attend the school. A strict selection by the members of the International Scientific Committee was made based on the applicants CVs, publications, recommendation letters from their tutor, and their motivations letter to attend the Summer School. The 180 selected post-graduated attendees came from 42 different countries, a diversity nearly matched by the 30 instructors who participated online in the Summer School. Special guest Nobel Prize Jean-Marie Lehn gave his lecture directly before the Closing Ceremony.

The rigorous selection of the participants contributed to form a class of high cultural level students, and who all find themselves at a point of their life where they are ready to invest their talents and scientific know-how in their future professional careers in a mature and responsible way. The top-level and diverse range of topics offered at the Summer School provided the students the chance to look around, exchange scientific knowledge and esA few teachers of the Green Chemistry Postgraduate Summer School 2020 tablish important links

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Conference Call The welcome and opening address was delivered by the chair Pietro Tundo on 6 July 2020. The following five days made for an ambitious program. The main topics of the Summer School were: Exploitation of renewable resources, New reaction pathways, Energy saving, Food safety, Green Chemistry for cultural heritage, Climate Change damages mitigation, and Education. The program was divided in 13 lecture sessions and 7 poster sessions. Every morning before each session a 30-minute period was reserved for sponsors and institutions represented as follows: • Tiziana Lippiello, Vice Rector of Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Italy and Representative for International Relations; • Christopher Brett, IUPAC President and Professor of Chemistry at University of Coimbra, Portugal; • Natalia Tarasova, Member of Governing Board of the International Science Council, Director of Institute of Chemistry and Problems of Sustainable Development, Mendeleev University of Chemical Technology of Russia and Chairholder of UNESCO in Green Chemistry for Sustainable Development, Russia; • Andrey Guryev, CEO of PhosAgro, Russia; • Zhigang Shuai, Vice President of Chinese Chemical Society, China; • Gaetano Guerra, President of Società Chimica Italiana, Italy; • Massimiliano De Martin, Councilor of the Municipality of Venice, Italy;

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Ana Aguiar-Ricardo, President of EuChemS Division on Green and Sustainable Chemistry, Portugal; Buxing Han, Secretary of IUPAC Interdivisional Committee of Green Chemistry for Sustainable Development, China; Mary Kirchhoff, Director of the ACS Green Chemistry Institute, USA; Gaetano Carminati, Senior Technical Expert from the National Authority for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, Italy, Ca’ Foscari; Alessandra Zorzi, Director of Ca’ Foscari Library of Scientific Area, Italy; Fun Man Fung, elected Secretary of the International Younger Chemists Network, Singapore; Martyn Poliakoff, The School of Chemistry, University of Nottingham, UK; Carmine Capacchione, Member of Società Chimica Italiana, Italy; Marco Bella, Professor of Organic Chemistry at La Sapienza University of Rome and Member of Parliament of the Italian Republic in the Chamber of Deputies, Italy.

After each lecture session was 30-minute Q&A session where the moderators select questions from the students and ask the speakers. The students could use the feature to vote the most relevant question to be answered first.

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Chart Title Summer Summer Summer school schoolschool participants participants by by country country Summer school participants by co 40 1 35 Country participants by 30 country 20 Argentina 5 10 Australia 1 0 Azerbaijan 1 Bangladesh 1 Belgium 1 Brazil 5 Bulgaria 1 Canada 7 China 35 Ecuador 1 Egypt 1 Ethiopia 5 France 2 Germany 5 Ireland 1 India 6 Italy 16 Kenya 1 Chart Title Lithuania 1 Malaysia 1 Summer school Summer school participants by country 40 Moldova 1 participants by country 1 35 Mongolia 1 30 Morocco 5 20 Netherlands 2 Powered by Bing Nigeria 6 © GeoNames, Microsoft, Navinfo, OpenStreetMap, TomTom, Wikipedia 10 Pakistan 1 180 post-graduate students from 42 different countries attended the 2020 Green Chemistry Summer School online.

0 Paraguay 1 Philippines 1 Poland 4 Chemistry International January-March 2021 49 Portugal 4 Rwanda 6 South Africa 26

Conference Call Program by day First day, 6 July 2020, Pietro Tundo opened the Summer School. The program consisted on 3 lecture sessions and 2 poster sessions. The lecturers of the first day were as follows: Michael Graetzel (Switzerland) Energy Beyond Oil, Solar Cells that Mimic Natural Photosynthesis; Mario Marchionna (Italy) Hydrogen: the Missing Piece of the Zero-Carbon Puzzle?; Giuseppe Mazzitelli (Italy) An affordable and clean energy: nuclear fusion, Emiliano Cazzola (Italy), Green Radiochemistry: dream or reality?; Buxing Han (China) Catalysis in Green Chemistry; Natalia Tarasova (Russia) Green Chemistry within Planetary Boundaries. The moderators of the sessions were: Aurelia Visa (Romania), Fabio Aricò (Italy) and Neil Coville (South Africa).

The second day, 7 July 2020 followed the same template containing 3 lecture sessions and 2 poster sessions. The lecturers of the day were: Haoran Li (China) Aerobic oxidation in vitamin industry; Pietro Tundo (Italy) Reaction mechanism and energy profiles: how Green Chemistry complies with them: The case of Dimethyl Carbonate; Krzysztof Matyjaszewski (USA) Towards green atom transfer radical polymerization; Paul Anastas (USA) The Periodic Table of the elements of green and sustainable chemistry; Aleksander Antonov (Russia) Green Chemistry for life; Klaus Kümmerer (Germany) Design of chemicals and pharmaceuticals for environmental mineralisation; Jane Wissinger (USA) Green Chemistry education: pathway to a sustainable future. The moderators of the sessions were: Buxing Han (China), Christopher Brett (Portugal) and Ana Aguiar-Ricardo (Portugal) The third day, 8 July 2020, contained 2 lecture sessions and 2 poster sessions. The lecturers of the day were: Konstantinos Triantafyllidis (Greece) Adding value to biorefinery and pulp industry side-streams.

Lignin valorization to fuels, chemicals and polymers; Peter Licence (United Kingdom) Chemistry in-vacuo: Suck it and see!; Zhimin Liu (China) Ionic Liquids-catalyzed chemical reactions, Philip Jessop (Canada) CO2-Switchable Materials; Fabio Aricò (Italy) Biobased platform chemicals and dialkyl carbonates: synthesis, functionalization and applications; Katalin Barta (Austria) Cleave and couple: embracing complexity in renewable resources. The moderators of the sessions were: Katalin Barta (Austria), Neil Coville (South Africa), Florent Allais (France) and Mary Kirchhoff (USA) The fourth day, 9 July 2020, program consisted in 3 lecture sessions and 1 poster session. The lecturers of the day were: Marco Eissen (Germany) Synthesis design with mass related metrics and health metrics; Francesco Trotta (Italy) Exploitation of renewable resources in

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Poster winner awardees

Chemistry; Sergey Zinoviev (The Netherlands) Green Chemistry in the context of the chemical weapons convention, its contribution to chemical safety and security and the peaceful uses of chemistry; Jonathan Forman (USA) Chemical disarmament, non-proliferation, and security. Is there a role for green and sustainable chemistry?; Ferruccio Trifirò (Italy) The elimination of toxic reagents to realize a sustainable chemistry; Mary Kirchhoff (USA); Liliana Mammino (South Africa) The study of molecules and the design of substances: interfaces between green chemistry and computational chemist. The moderators of the sessions were: Aurelia Visa (Romania), Gloria Obuzor (Nigeria), Philip Jessop (Canada) and Jane Wissinger (USA) The fifth day, 10 July 2020, program consisted on 2 lecture sessions and the closing ceremony. The lecturers of the day were: Oliver Kappe (Austria) Going with the flow – The use of continuous processing in organic synthesis; Florent Allais (France) Biomass upgrading through the combination of biotechnology, Green Chemistry and downstream process; James Clark (United Kingdom) Bio-based Solvents and their selection; Jean-Marie Lehn, Nobel Price in 1987 in Chemistry for the synthesis of Cryptands: innovation in the field of supramolecular chemistry (France) Perspectives in Chemistry: Molecular – Supramolecular – Adaptive Chemistry. The moderators of the sessions were: Konstantinos Triantafyllidis (Greece), Neil Coville (South Africa) and Pietro Tundo (Italy).

Poster sessions A significant number of young scientists, 60 students, had the opportunity to expose their poster in 7 poster sessions from Monday to Thursday. The poster sessions were considered a highlight of the Summer School. The student contributions were scientifically noticeable and often original. The way of sharing their research with the other attendees and the interest and curiosity shown by the participants was a real benefit. Each student was allowed to talk on his/her own poster for 5 minutes. Out of these presentations, six posters were awarded.

Conference Call The jury for poster awards included Neil Coville, Ana Aguiar-Ricardo, Mary Kirchhoff, Gloria Obuzor, and Aurelia Visa. To select the winners was a very hard job, taking into account the high number of very good presentations.

Poster winner awards & closing ceremony During the poster awarding ceremony six participants were awarded for their posters and each gave a 10-minute presentation on their work.

The 6 winners were: • Carlos Alberto Da Silva Junior (Brazil) Teaching Green Chemistry to deaf students: a Brazilian case study; • Melissa Greta Galloni (Italy) Iron functionalised hydroxyapatites as efficient eco-friendly catalysts for air-quality protection; • Tafadzwa Precious Mabate (South Africa) Inorganic-perovskite catalyzed transfer hydrogenation reaction of cinnamaldehyde using glycerol as a hydrogen donor • Li-Qi Qiu (China) Highly efficient visible lightdriven rhenium catalysis for CO2 Reduction through second-sphere-modification strategy, • Kristy Stanley (Ireland) Effect of Ni NP morphology on catalyst performance in non-thermal plasma-assisted dry reforming of methane; • Kevin Weibel (Germany) A more sustainable and highly practicable synthesis of aliphatic isocyanides.

The Closing Remarks were given by Christopher Brett, IUPAC President, Ana Aguiar-Ricardo, President of EuChems Division on Green Chemistry, and by members of the Summer School Organizing Committee: Fabio Aricò, Paula De Waal, Elena Alfine and Aurelia Visa. The final remarks were given by the Chair, Pietro Tundo. At the end of the closing ceremony a group photo with all the participants of the Summer School, including teachers and students, were taken.

Photos can be found on the Green Sciences for Sustainable Development Foundation’s website (www. gssd-foundation.org) as well as the proceeding of the Summer School. After the Summer School, all participants have received a certificate of attendance.

Conclusions Basic sciences are needed now more than before, as they are the pillars of our growth. While we pay attention to the increasing emission of CO2 and the increasing number of new chemical compounds that are spreading in the environment, it is difficult to foresee an end to this sinister and destructive trend.

Nature is not in a hurry, but humankind is: we must keep in high consideration the consequences of our rapid industrial development. A new partnership is necessary among academic, governmental and industrial researchers, to share scientific bases and to cooperate in the management of sustainable development issues.

The outcomes and the success of this online Summer School will pave the way for the next Summer Schools which will be held in person in Venice; the Green Sciences for Sustainable Development Foundation will support and follow the activities of this relevant initiative.

Overall, the experience we made during the first online Summer School and the student feedbacks are very positive.

Acknowledgments The Summer School was the first international initiative organized and managed by the new-born Green Sciences for Sustainable Development Foundation (www.gssd-foundation.org), a non-profit Foundation based in Venice, Italy.

The event was endorsed by IUPAC and Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, the Italian National Commission for UNESCO Roma, the Ministero dell’Ambiente e della Tutela del Territorio e del Mare, the GREENOMIcS UNESCO/UNITWIN Network, the Municipality of Venice and ENEA. The Summer School was sponsored by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, PhosAgro Russia, Kaimei Technology Co. Ltd. China, the European Chemical Society, the American Chemical Society/Green Chemistry Institute, the International Young Chemists Network, ICAS International, the Royal Society of Chemistry, and GreeNovator.

In 2021 this school will continue with the 13th Edition of the Post-graduate Summer School on Green Chemistry that will be held from 4-10 July 2021 in Venice (www.greenchemistry.school) - both on site and on-line modalities - organized by the Green Sciences for Sustainable Development Foundation (www. gssd-foundation.org). As before, the event is realized in tight collaboration with the IUPAC Interdivisional Committee on Green Chemistry for Sustainable Development ICGCSD (https://iupac.org/body/041) and the Venice Ca’ Foscari University (www.unive.it).

Aurelia Visa <aureliavisa@acad-icht.tm.edu.ro> is from the Romanian Academy, “Coriolan Drăgulescu” Institute of Chemistry, Timișoara, Romania; Pietro Tundo and Fabio Arico are from the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Italy.

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Foreword The International Year of the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements 2019 (IYPT 2019) was proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly during its 74th Plenary Meeting, at the 72nd Session on December 20th, 2017, following the resolution of UNESCO General Conference, adopted at its 39th Session, on November 2nd, 2017. In proclaiming an International Year focusing on the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements and its applications, the United Nations has recognized the importance of raising global awareness of how chemistry promotes sustainable development and provides solutions to global challenges in energy, education, agriculture and health. Indeed, the resolution was adopted as part of a more general Agenda item on Science and Technology for Development. This International Year was to bring together many different stakeholders including UNESCO, scientific societies and unions, educational and research institutions, technology platforms, non-profit organizations and private sector partners to promote and celebrate the significance of the Periodic Table of Elements and its applications to society, in particular during 2019. An International Year of the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements in 2019 aimed to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the establishment of the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements by the Russian scientist Dmitri I. Mendeleev, who is regarded as one of the fathers of modern chemistry.

IYPT2019 saw thousands of events take place with an impact that reached over 130 countries. The diversity of events was remarkable. The Opening Ceremony in Paris on January 29, 2019 set the scene, and throughout the year we saw and enjoyed activities including: education and outreach for students and the public; specialist workshops in science and industry; forums on the

historical development of the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements; conferences on the role of chemistry and the Periodic Table in sustainable development; public chemical festivals and displays; works of art, music, and literature. Events were targeted at all levelsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;from preschool children learning science for the first time, to politicians, and diplomats, convening high-level meetings discussing the importance of the Periodic Table and science and technology for the future.

When discussions of IYPT2019 first began in 2016 within the scientific community, we do not think that anyone could have foreseen the extent of the worldwide enthusiasm around the theme of the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements, and neither did we anticipate the many new links that would appear between the Periodic Table and art and culture. We feel personally that a major contributor to the success of IYPT2019 has been the fact that the IYPT2019 partners reached out beyond their traditional memberships and audiences to engage more broadly and to make new connections. We would like to thank UNESCO and all our partners and supporters worldwide for their commitment and efforts. And a special word of thanks is due to all our student volunteers who brought their passion and energy to the IYPT2019 organization.

This report aims to give a synthetic account of IYPT2019, first describing its origins and goals, and then providing a summary of the many events and activities that took place worldwide. The report also contains information on organization and communications, and it is hoped that these details may provide guidance for others who may wish to organize a similar global outreach initiative in the future.

We believe that everyone involved in IYPT2019 can feel immensely proud of what has been achieved. We can also feel confident that many of the partnerships established during IYPT2019 will continue. It is sometimes difficult to see how we as individuals can contribute to solving issues of global importance, but we believe that the International Year of the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements has provided a timely reminder that through our commitment to education and outreach, we can really make a difference.

It is now up to us to build on what we have learned and what we have accomplished during 2019 to continue to work together for the betterment of all.

Natalia Tarasova and Jan Reedijk Co-Chairs of the IYPT2019 Interunion International Management Committee Moscow/Leiden, April 2020

PARTNERS OF THE INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF THE PERIODIC TABLE 2019

MENDELEEV RUSSIAN CHEMICAL SOSIETY

FOUNDING PARTNERS

PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT PARTNERS

SPONSORS

COMMON LANGUAGE FOR SCIENCE

GLOBAL REPORT 2019