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Report from IUPAC-Sponsored Symposium

 

IUPAC Symposium on Organometallic Chemistry Directed Towards Organic Synthesis (OMCOS)
Taipei, Taiwan, July 2001

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Organometallic Chemistry Directed Towards Organic Synthesis

The idea to organize the IUPAC Symposium on Organometallic Chemistry Directed Towards Organic Synthesis (OMCOS) was expressed by the organic division of IUPAC 20 years ago, and ever since, the biennial conference has attracted an enormous number of chemists in the field of organic synthesis and organometallic compounds. The 11th OMCOS was held in Taipei, Taiwan in June 2001. Fears that the remoteness of Taiwan from many scientific centers would result in lowering of the number of participants fortunately did not come true as more than 800 participants from 32 countries attended. The conference attracted not only eminent scientists from all over the world, but also their young colleagues. Much credit is due to the organizing committee and its chairman Professor T. Y. Luh for managing to engage a large number of sponsors, making the registration fee for the young scientists merely nominal.

Five plenary lectures, 19 invited lectures, and a large number of short reports were delivered at the conference. Over 300 posters were exhibited as well. The lectures, short oral presentations, and posters reflected enormous progress in this field and demonstrated the extraordinary potential of transition metal catalysis in organic synthesis to lead to the creation of new drugs and new materials, the synthesis of complex molecules, and the discovery of new chemical reactions.

The conference was opened with a lecture by Professor F. A. Cotton, which was dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the discovery of ferrocene. The story of this discovery, which has changed the face of organometallic chemistry, as told by one of its authors was certainly an unforgettable episode. Another eminent organometallic chemist, Professor A. Yamamoto, talked about the discovery of the oxidative addition reactions before discussing the most important task of modern chemistry—transforming it into "green chemistry."

The Springer award for young scientists (under age 40) was presented at the conference to Professor G. Fu of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA, for his outstanding contribution to this field of chemistry. In accepting the honor, Fu gave a brilliant "award lecture."

The conference was held at the Grand Hotel, a unique construction in an oriental style that dominates the Taipei cityscape and provides excellent conference facilities. The conference was very well organized so that everything progressed in a highly efficient and orderly manner, and the atmosphere, as usual at OMCOS, was exceptionally friendly.

A selection from the plenary and invited lectures is published in the Janaury 2002 issue of Pure and Applied Chemistry, for which the Conference Chairman, Tien- Yau Luh, acted as editor.

Irina Beletskaya
Professor, Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia.
and President, Organic Chemistry Division, IUPAC, 1989–1991.

> Published in Chem. Int. 24(3), 2002


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