International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry

9. Reports of Division Presidents

9.1. Division I - Physical Chemistry
9.2. Division II - Inorganic Chemistry
9.3. Division III - Organic Chemistry
9.4. Division IV - Macromolecular
9.5. Division V - Analytical Chemistry
9.6. Division VI - Chemistry and the Environment
9.7. Division VII - Chemistry and Human Health

9.1. Division I - Physical Chemistry
[Documentation in Council Agenda (pdf file - 64KB)]
The Physical Chemistry Division is most active in the so-called core activities of IUPAC involving terminology, symbols, and evaluated data compilations.

Prof. Cvita� pointed out that some insight into the impact these core activities have can be seen from the contents of the CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, the most frequently used handbook by chemists, under the entry IUPAC. The entries are for: atomic weights, kinetic data for atmospheric chemistry; nomenclature of carbohydrates, nomenclature for organic substituent groups, nomenclature for polymers, symbols for physical quantities, and vapor pressure calibration data.

There are many more places in the Handbook where IUPAC data are given, but the subject index at the back under IUPAC indicates roughly how chemists perceive what IUPAC is doing and probably what it is expected to do. These are the kind of activities we want to see continued in the future.

Prof. Cvita� then described the status of the projects currently listed in the IUPAC Handbook for the Physical Chemistry Division. Of the 55 projects listed, 5 have been closed, 16 will be completed in 1999, 30 by 2001, and 5 will continue beyond 2001.

A brief review of publications by the Division was then given.

9.2. Division II - Inorganic Chemistry
[Documentation in Council Agenda (pdf file - 33KB)]
Prof. Corish pointed out that he had provided a quite comprehensive written report to Council on the activities of the Division. His oral report was intended to highlight some particular items, to describe the outcomes of the Division Committee meeting in Berlin, and to answer any questions. He then reviewed the current structure of the Division, including Commissions and Subcommittees. After describing the activities of the Commissions, Prof. Corish noted that the Division Committee had followed the proposals of the Bureau regarding election of new members. This practice had resulted in five new external members of the Division Committee for 2000-3. The Division believes that this process will open up the Union to new ideas and will improve further the quality of its work.

The Division is confident that it will continue and expand its activities under the new project-driven funding mechanism. This mechanism provides opportunities, especially for interdivisional work, which were not there before. The Division has produced an operational plan for its future, which would see three coordinating groups assisting the new Division Committee. These groups will be in the broad general areas of elements, molecular species and materials. The Division Committee would also like to see new Commissions established to deal with work on atomic weights and isotopic abundances, and on nomenclature.

Prof. Corish then briefly described publications from the Division, including work in progress on "Red Book II", and a revision of the Red Book. He also described the work by Commission II.4 on the International Measurements Evaluation Programmes (IMEP), stressing that the existence of the Commission was essential in bringing the international expertise together and noting the importance of the work to the chemical industry. The participation of the Division in the Strategic Initiative in Materials was also noted.

9.3. Division III - Organic Chemistry
[Documentation in Council Agenda (pdf file - 11KB)]
Prof. Pandit in his report made the following points:

The Division has brought all its activities under the "project structure" organization.
The working groups of the Division have consciously aligned all their efforts with the goals and thrusts of the IUPAC Strategic Plan.
The Division has coordinated the biomolecular program of the Union in Cooperation with Divisions I, II, and VII. A tangible product of this cooperation is the organization of a one-day Symposium on "Novel Porphyrinoids and their Metal Complexes - Chemistry, Photodynamic Processes, and Bio-Medical Applications" at the 37th IUPAC Congress in Berlin. This symposium was a joint activity of the IUPAC Biomolecular Chemistry Group and the GDCh.

Two organizational changes have been proposed for the Division. Consultation with the Commission on Biotechnology has led to the placement of the activities of the Commission in Division III. It has been proposed that the name of the Division be changed to the Division of Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry.

9.4. Division IV - Macromolecular
[Documentation in Council Agenda (pdf file - 39KB)]
Prof. Gilbert reviewed the current structure of the Division and noted the participation of the Division in the Strategic Initiative in Materials. The Division organizes a World Polymer Congress every two years with over 1200 participants. He then described the projects of each Commission and the publications resulting from the Division's work, as well as various educational initiatives of the Division. Many Division projects have extensive industry participation; the resources involved indicate the high value which the world wide polymer industry places in the Division's work. The Division has developed a web site that describes its activities. This web site, which typically receives 500 visits per month, is now being transferred to the main IUPAC web site in North Carolina. Prof. Gilbert commented that the Division members have responded enthusiastically to the new project system and are developing new projects. The examination of the outcomes of projects is expected to be an important new aspect of how the Division operates.

The Division Committee has been restructured. Members act as coordinators for different areas, i.e. nomenclature, characterization, education, special projects, strategy and long-range planning, and conferences.

The Belgian Delegate noted the many activities of the Macromolecular Division are of interest to industry and commented that all Divisions should share with COCI what activities they are conducting that might be of interest to industry. The Delegate from Brazil asked how members of the Division Committee are chosen to act as coordinators. Prof. Gilbert replied that this decision is based on the expertise of the members as much as possible.

9.5. Division V - Analytical Chemistry
[Documentation in Council Agenda (pdf file - 20KB)]
Prof. Ingman began by describing the structure of the Division Committee. He noted that the inclusion of the Commission Chairmen in the Division Committee had greatly facilitated discussions within the Division about moving into a new modus operandi.

At this General Assembly, the Commissions have taken steps to ensure that present projects are completed during the next biennium in order to be ready to adapt to a project-driven system in the year 2001. Different bodies of the Division have already successfully gone through the new process of handling project proposals.

Since the last General Assembly, the Working Party on revision of the Compendium of Analytical Nomenclature (the "Orange Book") has completed its work and been terminated. The task of keeping the Orange Book up to date has been given to Commission V.1.

The Interdivisional Working Party on Redefinition of pH Scales includes members from IUPAC Divisions I and V as well as from National Metrological Institutes, BAM (Germany), NIST (USA), and NPL (UK). It will have successfully completed its work by the end of September and will then be terminated. The Working Party will then have succeeded in establishing a link between pH and the SI system of units, making pH measurements traceable to SI.

The Interdivisional Working Party on Harmonization of Quality Assurance Schemes is a continuously ongoing activity coordinating work being performed in IUPAC, ISO, IAEA, and EURACHEM, to give but a few examples. The Working Party has published three projects during the past biennium. Notable among them are:

Harmonized Protocol for the Use of Recovery Factors
Compilation and Clarification of Quality Assurance Nomenclature, and
A project aiming at a Harmonized Protocol for In-house Method Validation is well under way.

Commission V.6, in cooperation with Academic Software, has successfully completed a project resulting in a series of Teaching Tutorials on CD-ROM, utilizing the IUPAC databases, and making it possible to demonstrate - graphically and in numbers - in real time the effects of changing conditions in the system under study. Among the new projects, Prof. Ingman highlighted the following:

The Working Party on Harmonization of Quality Assurance Schemes has initiated three new projects:

Updated Harmonized Protocol for Proficiency Testing
New structure of the information system on Certified Reference Materials (COMAR)
Traceability concept in chemical measurement

Commission V.8 has initiated a project on the use of solubility in the teaching of chemical concepts (with CTC)

A joint project, Nomenclature of hyphenated techniques, has been initiated in cooperation with, at least Commissions V.2, V.3, V.4, V.5, and IV.

In addition, the Division is aiming to become increasingly active in Bioanalytical Chemistry and in submicro-analytical techniques.

Prof. Ingman concluded his presentation by saying that the Division members have responded in a very constructive way to the propositions to take up targeted, mission-driven projects of global importance, and are ready to respond to future propositions from Council and Bureau in an interactive way.

9.6. Division VI - Chemistry and the Environment
[Documentation in Council Agenda (pdf file - 23KB)]
Dr. Miyamoto described the current organization of the Division and noted that Commissions VI.5 and VI.6 will be combined into a new Commission on Food Chemistry. He then noted that the Division has an active program of collaboration with international organizations such as the International Forum for Chemical Safety (IFCS), ISG-3, the International Council of Chemical Associations (ICCA), the International Programme for Chemical Safety (WHO-IPCS), CICAD, OECD/BIAC (Sustainable Chemistry), and ICSU/SCOPE.

The participation of the Division in the preparation of the special issue on Environmental Oestrogens was noted as a major activity in the past biennium.

The Division Committee felt that there were many positive aspects to the proposed changes to the management of IUPAC's scientific work. It was felt that these should be emphasized and the possible drawbacks could be overcome by careful planning. To help in the transition to the new structure, the Commission Chairmen have been added to the Division Committee for the period 2000-2001.

Dr. Miyamoto then reviewed the numerous publications of the Division in the past biennium.

9.7. Division VII - Chemistry and Human Health
[Documentation in Council Agenda (pdf file - 13KB)]
Prof. Wermuth described the plans of the Division to expand its activities beyond the traditional areas of Clinical Chemistry and Medicinal Chemistry. The work of the Division is to be divided into seven program areas with 3-7 projects in each area.

Comtox: Toxicological exposures (food, environment);
Nomenclature, Publications, Units, Guidelines;
Emerging Technologies: Combinatorial and automated syntheses, nanotechnologies, robotics, artificial materials and health;
Pharmaceutics: Drug metabolites, pharmaceutical salts, chemical aspects of drug formulation;
Nutraceuticals and Self-Medication: Assessment of pharmaceutical and toxicological properties of nutraceuticals and self-medications;
Biomarkers; Markers for receptors, enzymes, proteins, and mycotoxins; and
Bioinformatics: Drug design, modeling, and monitoring.

These programs will require the recruitment of new members from disciplines not currently represented in the Division. It is felt that the new project system lends itself to the development of these interdisciplinary programs.

The delegate from Portugal suggested that all Divisions should use a common report format, which should include fundamental information such as publications, web site, etc.

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