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Pure Appl. Chem. Vol. 76, Nos. 7-8, p. vi-vii (2004)

Pure and Applied Chemistry

Vol. 76, Issues 7-8

Lectures presented at the 39th IUPAC Congress and 86th Conference of the Canadian Society for Chemistry: Chemistry at the Interfaces, Ottawa, Canada, 10-15 August 2003

> link to conference calendar

Foreward
I am delighted to provide a Foreword to this issue of Pure and Applied Chemistry, which is devoted to a selection of papers presented at the joint international event comprising the 39th IUPAC Congress and 86th Conference of the Canadian Society for Chemistry.

The Congress and Conference took place in Ottawa on 10-15 August 2003. In all, despite problems with SARS and an uncertain world situation in the Middle East, more than 2700 participants, including 850 students, attended with slightly over 2000 papers presented, 800 as oral presentations and over 1200 posters. A special effort was made to attract scientists, early in their careers, to attend. Among those presenting results were 85 young chemists from 45 countries, all of whom had been awarded partial support from a variety of sponsors. In addition, a highlight of the opening ceremony was the presentation of IUPAC prizes to 9 young scientists for essays based upon their Ph.D. topics, and awarded in international competitions conducted during 2002 and 2003. Although the 21st General Assembly of IUPAC had been held in Montreal in 1961 and the 28th Congress in Vancouver in 1981, this was the first occasion in North America that the national chemical society had joined with IUPAC for the scientific meeting.

The title of the Conference -Chemistry at the Interfaces- was chosen to indicate the breadth of chemical science and to confirm the vitality of our subject not only in the macro-interfaces through its intellectual thrust from biology through materials science to physics and computing science, but also within the micro-interfaces of the various sub-disciplines of chemistry.

The continued progress of the discipline, in addition to its central status, was outlined by Dr. Arthur Carty, President, National Research Council of Canada in his opening address to the delegates. As he remarked, “many of the advances in these interfacial interdisciplinary areas and much of the potential have been driven by three scientific revolutions which are now occurring simultaneously. The first is the information technology revolution sparked by the discovery and development of the all-electronic digital computer. This digital revolution is being rivaled by a second in molecular biology and biotechnology through genomics and proteomics which stands to revolutionize health care, re-engineer agriculture, and help drive a new bio-energy industry. The third revolution, only in its infancy, is in nanomaterials science”. These revolutions, particularly biotechnology and nanoscience, have one characteristic which is quite distinctive and appealing in that they are not in the domain of a single discipline, but are multidisciplinary in nature.

The program included six specific chemical themes:analytical, chemical education, inorganic, macromolecular science and engineering, organic and physical, and theoretical. There was also a special symposium devoted to synchrotron radiation and the opening of the Canadian Light Source in early 2004. However, within broad symposia topics were areas as differing as: nanoparticles and carbon nanotubes, environmental quality and human health, metalloproteins and metals in medicine, activation of small molecules by early transition metals, polymers in electronics and photonics, the chemistry of nucleic acids, organic synthesis and chemical biology and a special symposium on the public understanding of chemistry.

Plenary lectures were delivered by Nobel Laureate John Polanyi (“Reactions at surfaces, studied one molecule at a time”); Chemical Institute of Canada (CIC) Medallist, Raymond Kapral, (“A hop, jump and a skip: Quantum reactions in classical solvents”); Professor Jean Fréchet (“Organic chemistry and molecular design at the interface of biology, engineering and physics”); and Michael Gait (“50 years of nucleic acids synthesis: A central role in the partnership of chemistry and biology”).

This Congress publication confirms themes involving the interdisciplinary aspects,with details of papers delivered in the programs in Macromolecular Science and Engineering and in the Chemistry of Nucleic Acids, a symposium held jointly with the Biological and Medicinal Sections. The work described represents leading edge science in these areas, and it is a pleasure to see them presented in this manner as a record of the international meeting.

 

Prof. Alex McAuley
Congress President

Local Organizing Committee:
P. Sundararajan, Chair, Carleton University, Canada; J. Giorgi, University of Ottawa, Canada; L. Johnston, National Research Council, Canada; E. Lai, Carleton University, Canada; C. Levert, The Canadian Society for Chemistry, Canada; P. Mayer, University of Ottawa, Canada; J. Trohon, The Canadian Society for Chemistry, Canada.

International Advisory Board:
Robert Gilbert, University of Sydney, Australia; Joshua Jortner, Tel Aviv University, Israel; J. Fraser Stoddart, University of California, Los Angeles, USA; Stephen Hanessian, Université de Montréal, Canada; John C. Polanyi, University of Toronto, Canada; Brian R. James, University of British Columbia, Canada; Gerhard Ertl, Fritz Haber-Institute der MPG, Germany; Ahmed H. Zewail, California Institute of Technology, USA; Steven Ley, Cambridge University, UK; Sir John Meurig Thomas, The Royal Institution of Great Britain, UK; C. N. R. Rao, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, India; Norm Dovichi, University of Washington, USA; Lars-Ivar Elding, Lund University, Sweden; Keitaro Yoshihara, Japanese Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Japan.

 


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