Resilience in Pandemic Time

President's Column by Christopher Brett

Last 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 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.

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Cite: Brett, C. (2021). Resilience in Pandemic Time, Chemistry International, 43(1), 2-3; https://doi.org/10.1515/ci-2021-0101