News
& Notices
Organizations & People
Standing
Committees
Divisions
..I
..II
..III
..IV
..V
..VI ..VII
..VIII
..Shortcut
Access
Projects
Reports
Publications
Symposia
AMP
Links
of Interest
Search
the Site
Home
Page
|
|
Analytical Chemistry Division (V)
Teamwork
- Issue No. 3 -
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]
Page last modified 3 June 2003.
Copyright ©1997-2003 International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry.
Questions or comments about IUPAC, please contact, the Secretariat.
Questions regarding the website, please contact Web
Help.
|