History
and Effectiveness of CHEMRAWN Conferences, 1978-2006
John
M. Malin
Chair, CHEMRAWN Committee
The 28-year history of CHEMRAWN (CHEMical Research Applied
to World Needs) has produced 14 full-fledged CHEMRAWN conferences.
The meetings have varied in subject, location, size, and budget,
but they have all addressed a single goal-to catalyze the use
of chemistry and related sciences and engineering to meet world
needs. This article summarizes those conferences to form an
understanding of how the CHEMRAWN process has fostered new ideas
and supported solutions to world problems.
Bryant Rossiter, the first Chair of the CHEMRAWN Committee,
described the beginnings of IUPAC's CHEMRAWN conferences and
their purposes as follows:
"138 years ago at Cambridge, England, the 18-year-old
William Perkin undertook an independent research study that
resulted in the discovery of aniline dyes. Against the advice
of his teacher, Professor Hoffman, Perkin applied his research
to world needs-and launched the coal-tar-dye industry. Therefore,
in reality, the concept of CHEMRAWN, "CHemical Research
Applied to World Needs," is not new. What is new is the
increasingly complex, interdependent world, with a burgeoning
population, limited resources, rising middle class expectations,
vastly improved communications, the possibility of nuclear war,
and the new spectre of global terrorism. These and other major
world problems are not unique to chemists, but afflict the whole
of humankind. Solutions to many of the world's material, economic,
social, and even political problems rest in our ability to:
transform basic elements of raw materials into new means to
increase food production; provide alternative sources of energy
and chemical feedstocks; deliver new drugs for the alleviation
of human disease; supply less costly and corrosion-free substances
for building and fabrication; and innovate new materials for
communications. These are the domain of chemistry and chemists,
therefore, and have a special and vital role to play. Stated
simply, chemistry is a central discipline that interacts with
virtually every aspect of human endeavor. Indeed, chemistry
is the wellspring of life itself. Little wonder then that chemists
should be called upon to address the world's most pressing needs.
...
> donwload
full text, including summaries of individual conferences [pdf
file -146KB]; 50 pages - online
27 Oct 2006
> supplement
CHEMRAWN XV: Chemistry
for Water [pdf file
-11KB]
2 pages - online 30 April 2007
> Review/feature
published in Chem.
Int.
Mar-Apr 2007, pp 4-7
