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Analytical Chemistry Division (V)

Teamwork
- Issue No. 3 -

< Issue No.2

This issue of 'Teamwork' includes:

    • A reminder about the next funding round
    • A comment on the need for stakeholder or end-user involvement in our Projects
    • A report from David Moore on the Bureau meeting and the meeting of Division Presidents held in Paris in September
    • A report from Ryszard Lobinski on his promotion of IUPAC Projects at EUROANALYSIS in September
    • Advance notice of the next call for Project progress reports
    • A call for input data for the Directory of Expertise
    • A report from Jack Lorimer on the 10th International Symposium on Solubility Phenomena.

Teamwork also includes the first of a series of 'Profiles' in which we introduce new TM, AM and NR who have joined the Division committee in this biennium. This issue features Brynn Hibbert.

The next funding round
The next funding round will be based on complete Project proposals received up to October 31, 2002. Now is time to put the finishing touches to your proposal! TM, please consult with your Advisor groups and potential Task groups about this deadline, and assist those who may be working on proposals. We hope to see the fruits of initiatives that are being taken by TM and Advisor groups to formulate and promote new projects.

For the Project submission form, guidelines for its completion and an example of a completed submission form, see: www.iupac.org/divisions/V/projects/index.html

Stakeholders and End-users
To improve the relevance and uptake of project outcomes it is imperative that, where practicable, Project Proposals indicate contributions or support from stakeholders and end-users. Specifically, when ranking projects for funding the Division committee will be looking for evidence of links or consultation with industry or NGO's (non-government organisations) or other stakeholders and with committed end-users. Note in David's report from the Bureau meeting that our Division is asked to be pro-active in this matter.

IUPAC Bureau and Division Presidents' Meetings
The Division President, David Moore, represented our Division at these meetings in Paris, September 12-15.

Meetings with IUPAC President (Pieter Steyn) and Vice President (Leiv Sydnes):
David reports that Pieter and Leiv:

  • were pleased with progress that our Division is making under the new organization;
  • liked our concept of an industry focus meeting, and want us to realise it sometime in the next two years [we are exploring such a meeting for the IUPAC Congress 2003 in Ottawa];
  • would like a future report on the effectiveness of our conference presentations in generating new projects, especially comparing oral vs poster presentations;
  • were concerned about the minimal involvement of industry and education in our projects;
  • asked us to approach editors of analytical chemistry journals to publicise the on-line version of the Orange Book (the IUPAC Secretariat has been asked for help in obtaining appropriate editor names);
  • suggested the possibility of an IUPAC Prize in Analytical Chemistry, with industry financial backing. [David would appreciate your ideas for an appropriate name for the prize. He will approach major instrument manufacturers at the FACSS meeting to discuss the concept.];
  • appreciated what we are doing with our scoring system for ranking new projects, but requested that we not wait until the semi-annual decision period for urgent or important projects.

Pieter thought our division might have (or could propose) a project applicable to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). At the IUPAC Workshop "Impact of Scientific Developments on the CWC", 30 June to 3 July, in Bergen, one third of the presentations involved analytical techniques, in sessions organized by Tom Inch and Boris Myasoedov (a former Division member). David suggested that the WPHQA could appropriately represent division activities, through their projects on harmonization of procedures and traceability; he has written to Alan Hayes, putting him in touch with Ales Fajgelj to see what might be done.

The Division Presidents' meeting:
The election process (for Division Committee Officers and TMs) was discussed at length. It was recommended to the Bureau that:

  • the electorate for TM elections be expanded to include: TM, AM, and NR on the present Division Committee, Task group chairs of present projects, and the six external (non IUPAC) members of both the present and immediate past nominating committees (NCs; three from each);
  • advisor lists and directories of expertise be used for help in finding nominees;
  • allowing a member of IUPAC to be the NC Chair would expedite the election and would not jeopardise the progress away from the "old boys" club.
The Secretariat will include an appendix to the letter to the NAOs (which they send each biennium requesting NAO nominations for the elections to each division), that details the specific TM expertise areas we need covered in the election.

    We were asked to think about:

  • how we might use Chemistry International to more effectively promote the activities of our Division to a wider audience. Rather than an internal newsletter, Division I writes bimonthly articles for CI about its activities. [Both approaches have their function. Please contact David with any ideas for articles.]

Bureau Meetings:
David's presentation of "where we are going and how we will get there" was very well received. The Bureau was:

  • extremely pleased with the work of our Division;
  • impressed with our multi-pronged system for keeping up with project progress (semi-annual reports; TM as liaisons, etc.);
  • happy with our ideas for generating new proposals (conference presentations, advisor groups, focus meetings) and nurturing of projects to conclusion). [David will report to the Bureau meeting at Ottawa on how they are working.]

Several Division presidents expressed interest in our new web pages, particularly their organization and the specific additional pages we have provided. The Project Committee wants to make our example project submission form, or a similar one, available on the general IUPAC project submission web pages. Fabienne will modify the annotated example to include links to clarifications in the instructions, and vice versa.

We are asked to participate in the scientific program of the 2003 IUPAC Congress at Ottawa. Please take a look at the IUPAC Congress announcement (last page of July 2002 Chemistry International) and find areas where projects within our Division might contribute through submission of a paper or poster. Please let David know what you find (or copy him on any email traffic) so he knows what's happening.

We need a representative from our Division on a subcommittee of the Inorganic Division (II) on Materials Chemistry. Please send your ideas to David.We need to decide the optimal time to select the nominating committee for our TM election. This round we will take care of this at the Officers' meeting (North Carolina, Nov. 30 - Dec. 1, 2002). Is this the appropriate time for the future, or is another time or process more appropriate? Please send your ideas to David.

'Advertising pays'!
One of the most challenging tasks facing each Division committee is encouraging chemists with good ideas to submit proposals for IUPAC projects. We must encourage and nurture new project proposals with every means at our disposal. How can we communicate that message to analytical chemists? One effective way is to meet analytical chemists where they meet. Ryszard Lobinski writes about his experience in presenting the IUPAC project system at a conference:

EUROANALYSIS is the series of biennial conferences on analytical chemistry in Europe, initiated by the Division of Analytical Chemistry of the Federation of European Chemical Societies (DAC-FECS). A broad spectrum of analytical topics is covered while focussing on topics of current importance. Euroanalysis is an highly efficient and informative meeting place for the community of analytical sciences in academia, industry and governance.

I presented a 15-min talk in one of the plenary sessions during the EUROANALYSIS Conference held on 8-13 September in Dortmund (Germany). The focus of my talk was the presentation of the Analytical Chemistry Division, an introduction to IUPAC projects, and the procedures leading to project funding. The presentation generated interest and gave rise to a series of questions related to "how to submit a IUPAC project".

Six-monthly project reports
The regular review of all projects started in June this year. Thank you to all Task Group leaders for your reports. For the first time we were able to review all projects on a coordinated basis and gain a balanced overview of our project portfolio.

You may be thinking that the next report will be due at the end of December? Well, we have news for you!

Shortly we will be sending out a request for the next progress reports, with a submission date of November 20. Sorry that this is a month early, but it would be appropriate to have them all available for the Division officers' meeting at the end of November.

Completion of the Directory of Expertise
The Division is anxious to complete Version I of the Directory of Expertise. We are waiting on the contributions from several TM. If you are one of these TM then please make this task a priority!

10th International Symposium on Solubility Phenomena
Jack Lorimer reports on the 10th International Symposium on Solubility Phenomena, 21-26 July, 2002, Varna, Bulgaria

The symposium was held at the Home of Scientists "Fr�d�ric Joliot Curie" in the St. St. Constantine and Helen resort complex north of Varna, Bulgaria, on the Black Sea. It was chaired by Prof. Christo Balarew of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. Unlike previous symposia, which consisted of invited lectures and papers given in non-overlapping sessions, this was accompanied by a Workshop on Solubility Phenomena - Application for Environmental Improvement, most sessions being held in parallel with the Symposium.

IUPAC sponsored the Symposium as part of the IUPAC program to provide financial support for international symposia in developing and economically disadvantaged countries. There were 180 participants from 37 countries. The Division's Subcommittee on Solubility & Equilibrium Data met over the two days prior to the Symposium.

Professor Ivan Gutzow (Bulgaria) gave the opening plenary address, entitled "Solubility and Crystallization in Biological Fluids and the Problems of Life and Health", a topic that served as an excellent introduction to both the Symposium and Workshop.

The Symposium was organized in four sections (each with plenary lectures, contributed papers and posters):

  • Quantitative Structure-Solubility Relationships;
  • Solubility Diagrams, Phase Relationships and their Application;
  • Application of Solubility Data for Environmental Improvement of Polluted Waters and Soils;
  • Application of Solubility Data in Marine-Type Solutions and Industrial Waste Treatment.

Contributions covered a wide spectrum of solubility phenomena, from fundamentals of dissolution processes, through new data and modelling of solubility processes, to many applications. The plenary lectures from the Symposium and Workshop will be published in Pure and Applied Chemistry (edited by David Shaw).

The Workshop covered:

  • Pollution Level and Pollution Sources of Danube, Dnieper, Dniester, Bug and Other Rivers Flowing into the Black Sea;
  • Black Sea Fluxes, Monitoring of the Black Sea;
  • Reinforcement of Regional Participation in Integrative European Programmes for Solving Ecological Problems (with discussion on regional cooperation).

The extensive participation of delegates from countries with Black Sea coastlines, as well as from those countries that have historical, economic and political connections with the Black Sea, was noteworthy. The Workshop provided a valuable forum for scientists to meet and to learn of the national and international programs that are addressing problems connected with the ecological health of the Black Sea.

Division Profiles
Through Teamwork we will introduce new TM, AM and NR to our readers. It is important that Division and Task Group members become aware of the expertise of each other. As this newsletter has quite a wide circulation it is also a good way for new members to become known within IUPAC. This issue introduces Brynn Hibbert who is an AM of the Analytical Division.

Brynn Hibbert occupies the first, and possibly still the only, Chair of Analytical Chemistry in Australia. Trained as a Physical Chemist (Kings College, University of London) he rediscovered himself as an analytical chemist when he migrated to Australia in 1987. Brynn�s background is in electrochemistry [D B Hibbert, Introduction to Electrochemistry, Macmillan Press, London, 1993], and chemometrics [D Brynn Hibbert, Introduction to intelligent data analysis, in Intelligent Data Analysis, ed H Cartwright, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2000. Chapter 1 pp 1 - 18], and more recently metrology in chemistry [D B Hibbert, Compliance of analytical results with regulatory or specification limits: a probabilistic approach Accreditation and Quality Control, (2001) 6, 346-351]. Along the way his interest in fractals and chaos gained the front cover of Nature for one of his group�s fractal growths [Fleury, V., Kaufman, J.H. and Hibbert, D.B., A Mechanism of Morphology Transition in Ramified Growth, Nature 367, 435-438, (1994)] .

Australia�s approach to analytical chemistry has been through the building of novel instruments (for example Alan Walsh and Atomic Spectroscopy), and this was the focus of the department at the University of New South Wales in 1987. While maintaining this tradition with his electronic nose research [Hibbert DB, Barnett D, Doran D, Odour sensor, Australian Provisional Patent, PQ 9371 15th August 2000], under his direction the emphasis has expanded to embrace concerns about sampling, data analysis and overall fitness-for-purpose of analytical results.

Brynn was one of a small band of people who lobbied the Australian Government in the mid-1990�s for the establishment of a laboratory dedicated to chemical metrology. This was eventually realised, not as a separate entity, but under the auspices of the Australian Government Analytical Laboratory (AGAL), becoming the National Analytical Reference Laboratory. He chairs a committee which oversees organic pure reference materials synthesised by NARL. Recently appointed as a National Standards Commissioner by the Governor General (Australia is still ruled by Elizabeth II of England!), Brynn has a keen interest in the proposals to merge the National Standards Commission (NSC), NARL and the National Measurement Laboratory which curates other physical standards, into a National Measurement Institute. Australia is one of a minority of countries that possesses a National Measurement Act (1960) which lays down Australian Legal Units of Measurement. A lacuna in the Act was discovered a few years ago, when it was realised that concentration was not a physical quantity recognised by the Act! The ramifications of this problem are still being worked through.

Brynn is a member of the IUPAC project on Metrological Traceability in Chemical Measurements (chair P De Bièvre). He has just completed a term as Chair of the Analytical Division of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute, and was awarded the RACI Analytical Medal in 1999. He finds himself giving legal opinion in diverse cases such as drug importation, bogus health products, drink driving and recently a murder!

 

Teamwork could be the vehicle for you to share concerns or interesting news items. Do let me have your contributions!

Kip Powell
October, 2002.

[email protected]

 
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