Special IUPAC100

Front Cover: Luncheon by The Society of Chemical Industry to the XIth International Congress of Pure and Applied Chemistry at the Mayfair Hotel, London, July 18, 1947. Some impressions by Fred May. See more on page 20.

CHEMISTRY International July-September 2019 Volume 41 No. 3

Editorial

by Brigitte Van Tiggelen, Special issue editor

We embarked on the adventure of researching IUPAC’s history a few years ago, inspired by the looming IUPAC 100 anniversary in 2019 and the desire of the French National Committee to host that year’s Congress and General Assembly in Paris. The proposal to host the fiftieth IUPAC General Assembly and forty-seventh Congress in Paris was received and approved by IUPAC Council during its assembly in 2013. Soon after, Jean-Pierre Vairon, a member of the organizing committee of the IUPAC 2019 Congress, contacted Danielle Fauque, and together we started to think about special symposia devoted to the history of IUPAC. At the Congress in 2015 in Busan, Korea, the idea was met with enthusiasm and interest from Natalia Tarasova, then president of the Union, and the project of this special issue was formed with Fabienne Meyers, Chemistry International editor. We also met with Christopher Brett later that year to speak about this project.

The well-known History of IUPAC by Roger Fennell and its sequel by Stanley Brown sketch the inner workings of IUPAC’s structure, and provide a first basis for historical exploration. IUPAC also published many printed documents over its years of existence as “color books,” articles in Pure and Applied Chemistry, and diverse reports and proceedings including CI. Amazingly, it’s hard to get a hold of complete sets of these kinds of publications, even though they were printed and distributed in large numbers. This “grey literature” had to be assembled piece by piece. The IUPAC archives kept at the Science History Institute were crucial to getting closer to decision processes and to the core of the discussions involved.

What we discovered through the process is the difficulty in approaching the history of such a delocalized, multinational, and multilayered organization, which is in itself a world with many inhabitants and cultures. As such, and with the present knowledge of the historical documentation at hand, it’s a challenge to speak of IUPAC as a cohesive body and to describe its actions and impact. At the core, these actions are, of course, made by men—and more recently also a few women—but while a narrative centered on individuals provides trajectories and explains the fine structure of negotiations before decisions and recommendations, such a narrative is not enough. Another approach would be to simply list the decisions, but then one misses the mediation and the interplay inside and outside of IUPAC—outside because IUPAC is far from alone on the international playground. As working groups, the commissions could also provide coherent objects for a series of dedicated histories, and we hope that someone will take on such research.

As to the present publication, we have chosen a mixed approach, giving a survey that includes persons, topics, and achievements, and putting them in the context of the challenges of the times in which they existed. The results shared in this special issue are but a milestone in a longer research described in the epilogue (p. 58).

As we were working on the history of IUPAC through several workshops and panels over the last two years, we were fortunate to find historians whose interest and research crossed paths with the international organization of scientific work. Some of them have authored a piece in this issue. At the workshop held in Paris in November 2018, the time was ripe to share perspectives with actors who witnessed and participated in IUPAC’s actions over the last decades. We want to acknowledge Maurice Chastrette, Yves Jeannin, Jef Leigh, Roberto Marquardt, and Nicole Moreau, as well as others who could not be present in person but shared their experiences and memories with us by other means: Ted Becker, James Bull, Michael Freemantle, and John Malin.

A special thanks to Yves Jeannin, who dug into his photo albums and helped us to identify people in several older photographs. Last but not least, we want to express our thanks to Fabienne Meyers, who has accompanied us since the project of this special issue to celebrate the 100th anniversary of IUPAC emerged. Over the last year, we have benefitted from her advice and thoughtful remarks, and she was also of crucial help connecting us with many present and former IUPAC active officers and members. She has shepherded the special issue with care, creativity, and imagination.

Professor J Timmermans

Extract from 1947 cartoon by Fred May - see p. 20 or https://doi.org/10.1515/ci-2019-0307

Contents

The Union in the interwar period

1919-1939: The First Life of the Union by Danielle Fauque

The International Research Council and Its Unions, 1919-1931 by Robert Fox Ernst

Cohen and the Challenge of a Truly International Union by Jorrit P. Smit

IUPAC in Brussels in 1921: A Historical Photo by Ernst Homburg, Danielle Fauque, Peter J. T. Morris, Franco Calascibetta, and Santiago Alvarez

Pioneers of Japanese Participation in IUPAC by Yoshiyuki Kikuchi

IUPAC logo, circa 1946

After WWII: a fresh start

London 1947: A Caricature by Brigitte Van Tiggelen, Danielle Fauque and Fabienne Meyers

Rebuilding IUPAC after WWII by Danielle Fauque and Brigitte Van Tiggelen

Ellen Gleditsch: Woman Chemist in IUPAC’s Early History by Annette Lykknes

IUPAC Expansion from 1957 to 1975 by Danielle Fauque and Brigitte Van Tiggelen

The First Russian President of IUPAC: Victor Kondratiev by Elena Zaitseva-Baum

IUPAC Engagement in the Instrumental Revolution by Carsten Reinhardt

Postage stamp issued by the USSR on 15 June 1965 to publicize the 20th IUPAC Congress, held in Moscow a month later (12–18 July). See Daniel Rabinovich, Chem Int Jan-Feb 2009, 29(1), p. 3; https://doi.org/10.1515/ci.2007.29.1.3

IUPAC’s achievements and actions

A History of CNIC by G. Jeffery Leigh

IUPAC and the Naming of Elements by Ann E. Robinson

A Century of Nomenclature for Chemists and Machines by Evan Hepler-Smith and Leah Mc Ewen

The mole and IUPAC: a brief history by Roberto Marquardt

Stepping in the new century

Women’s increasing Responsibilities in IUPAC since 1975 by Nicole Moreau

The Historical Archives of IUPAC at the Science History Institute by Ronald Brashear

Epilogue by Brigitte Van Tiggelen

Cite: Tiggelen, B. (2019). Special IUPAC100, Chemistry International, 41(3), ofc; https://doi.org/10.1515/ci-2019-0301