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News & Notices

Minutes of 72nd Meeting of Bureau
11-12 August 1999, Berlin, Germany


24. SPONSORSHIP OF CONFERENCES IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
Prof. Ohtaki outlined his proposal. Some of the key issues to be decided were: the amount of support to be made available by IUPAC; the number of Conferences to be supported per year; the eligibility criteria for the countries requesting support. Prof. Jortner suggested two conferences be supported per year and only conferences held in NAOs be eligible for support. Dr. Norling asked if this program could be operated as part of the project system. Dr. Becker responded by noting that this was intended to be a high visibility grant program, which would be extensively publicized, hence does not fit in with normal projects. There was also a discussion of the question of supporting workshops. The consensus was that workshops were not the kind of major scientific conference at which this program was aimed. The desirability of making a site visit before approving a request for support was discussed. While the Bureau felt this might be useful in some cases the difficulty of arranging for a significant number of site visits made the concept impractical.

Prof. Jortner proposed that the Bureau recommend to Council a program of support for two conferences a year for up to USD 10 000 each. Eligibility is to be limited to developing and economically disadvantaged countries that are NAOs. A committee of four Bureau members would be appointed to review applications. The EC would be authorized to decide on the details of the program.

25. IUPAC PRIZE FOR YOUNG SCIENTISTS
Dr. Becker noted that this program had been approved conceptually by the Bureau in 1998 and that the details of this proposal had been approved by the EC. After some discussion the Bureau recommended that Council approve this significant new program.

26. NAO APPROVAL FOR FUND-RAISING
Dr. Becker described the probable origins of this requirement for IUPAC sponsored conferences. Prof. Jortner suggested that this should be referred to the EC for study and consideration. The Bureau approved this suggestion.

27. UNESCO-IUPAC INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE ON CHEMISTRY

27.1 WORLD CONFERENCE ON SCIENCE
Prof. Fischli described the World Conference on Science, held 26 June - 1 July 1999 in Budapest, Hungary. Over 1800 scientists and policy makers attended the meeting. Many of those attending were UNESCO delegates. The meeting was jointly sponsored by UNESCO and ICSU, but, it followed UNESCO philosophy with cooperation from ICSU in the organization. The WCS approved two non-binding documents: the first on a Science Agenda- Framework for Action and the second a Declaration on Science and the Use of Scientific Knowledge. Other subjects discussed included opening up science for women, the disabled and indigenous people.

IUPAC organized two workshops at the WCS. One, on Science and New Materials, was organized by Prof. Corish and Prof. Gilbert. This was the only purely scientific event at the WCS. Prof. Corish reported that a sentiment expressed by many delegates from developing countries was the difficulty of keeping young people in their home countries.

The second workshop, on Science, Industry, and Knowledge as a Public Good was organized by Prof. Fischli and featured a number of prominent industrialists. It was the only event in which key industry representatives could participate.

27.2 TRAINING PROGRAM IN INDIA
Prof. Fischli described the program that had been approved by the International Chemistry Council EC at its meeting in Paris, January 1998. Due to budgetary problems UNESCO had been unable to provide the promised support. Prof. Rao had been informed that in the interim IUPAC would provide USD 5000 in anticipation of a UNESCO contribution later in 1999.

28. IUPAC COOPERATION IN AFRICA
Prof. Steyn reviewed the major events relating to Africa and IUPAC that had occurred over the past biennium. These included the wide distribution of the Garbers report by IUPAC, the joint IUPAC-AAPAC meeting in Durban, the admission of the AAPAC as an Associated Organization of IUPAC, which was to be made final at this General Assembly. He also reported on a recent meeting of the American Chemical Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the AAPAC. Two proposals that came out of that meeting were the creation of a database on chemistry in Africa and a Newsletter for African Chemists.

Dr. Jost described the web site that Dr. Meyers had created for the Network for the Valorization of Plant Materials in Africa. This site is contained on the IUPAC web site and has already generated some traffic. The creation of the web site has stimulated the VPMA group to provide more material for posting.

29. MEETING OF PRESIDENTS OF REGIONAL CHEMICAL SOCIETIES
Prof. Jortner briefly noted that the meeting of Presidents of Regional Chemical Federations and Societies would take place on Sunday 15 August 1999. This meeting would be a follow-up to the meeting held in 1998. The goal of the meeting is to foster cooperation among the regional federations, which represent many small chemical societies that cannot participate in many international activities.


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