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Analytical Chemistry Division (V)

Teamwork
- Issue No. 9 - Nov 2004 -

< Issue No.8

This issue of 'Teamwork' includes:

ACD Officers meeting in Boston 20-21 November

The ACD Officers met on the 20-21 November at the Boston University. In the center of debate were the Division's Team structure, project reports and preparations for the GA assembly in Beijing. The minutes of the meeting will be available on the ACD WEB page soon. Thanks to Fabienne Meyers for making available the venue and all the help!

Working in teams: six months of experience
Following the decisions taken at the ACD Committee meeting in Vienna (cf. Teamwork N°7) the Division has been trying to involve all its members by grouping everyone into a small number of Teams. The Teams are aligned with "Priority areas" and are Communications, Terminology, Quality Assurance, Critical Evaluations, Bioanalytical chemistry, Nano-chemistry, and Needs of developing countries. The teams have become the principal tool through which the Division carries out his core business, i.e. development and management of projects (executed by Task Groups).

The Officers' meeting gave us a first chance to evaluate the performance of these teams. The existing activities within the teams were much appreciated but the needs for focusing the objectives and for complying with the intended modus operandi were emphasized. The role of each team should be to act as a consultative group in the stimulation, solicitation, formulation and propagation of project ideas within their broad portfolio. The Team members do not necessarily become involved in each or any project. However, the involvement of individual Division members in a project at some stage is critical in terms of their being a part of the Division and in terms of their capability to advise others on formulation of projects and to review project proposals.

Working within the Teams structure is new territory for us all and it is reasonable to expect that evolution of an effective Team modus operandi may take more than one biennium. The officers greatly appreciate what has been achieved so far but encourage the sharing of any comments or feelings (positive or negative) and experiences relevant to the team structure.

The composition of the teams can be found on the web at: www.iupac.org/divisions/V

Project reports soon on the WEB
Important changes regarding the project reporting system were discussed and will be implemented gradually. We are moving to project reporting 3 times a biennium to align the reporting times with the Division even-year meeting (February), the Officers' meeting (November) and the General Assembly (August).
An htxt link at the bottom of each Division V project page will serve to attach the individual project reports. In this way a valuable record and archive of project progress will be created to provide the public with a regular update. We are thankful to Fabienne Meyers for investment of her time to make the new system possible.

ACD at the General Assembly in Beijing
The Officers are making an effort to organize a half day workshop on "Innovative methods for instrumental analytical chemistry" by trying to persuade some Congress plenary lecturers to take part at our Division Committee meeting, as was the case during the last GA in Ottawa. Also, The Division should have about 5-6 poster slots. Ideas for posters to be presented are more than welcome
.

 

IUPAC General Assembly in Beijing

The IUPAC General Assembly is the occasion for meetings of the statutory bodies of the Union, specifically of the Council, Bureau, Division Committees, and Standing Committees. The 43rd IUPAC General Assembly will be held 13-21 August 2005, in Beijing, China, concurrently with the 40th IUPAC Congress. The GA site will be the Beijing International Convention Center (BICC).

> Link to GA info

The Information Booklet has been e-mailed (not mailed) to all expected participants on 15 November 2004. Please do contact the Secretariat if you have not received this e-mail and yet expect to participate in the GA. Please take a moment to also review the Congress 2nd Circular, which includes the Congress preliminary program, map, pre and post Congress tour options, and visa information. The Chinese Chemical Society has arranged an impressive program on the theme of Innovation in Chemistry. Titular members should request a Claim Form by e-mail to [email protected]

IUPAC members are encouraged to take advantage of the considerably reduced registration fee to take part at the World Chemistry Congress.

Looking forward to seeing you in Beijing!

 

Analytical Capacity Building in Africa: Walter Benson presents his project
Cooperative Project with IUPAC's Analytical Chemistry Division (V) and Division of Chemistry and The Environment (VI) led by Dr. Walter Benson

> link to project

A grant of $10,000 from IUPAC/ACD/DCE to the International Organization for Chemical Sciences in Development (IOCD) will finance participation of selected IUPAC chemists in the project. IOCD will assist laboratories in Africa (initially Kenya and Uganda) to provide reliable and internationally acceptable results when testing commodities for export to markets in the USA, EU, and Japan.

A recent World Bank study, reported in the book "Standards and Global Trade," states that trade is a crucial driver of growth, but reveals that African countries fail to reap the potential income from trade on foreign markets because, among other constraints, they lack well developed regulatory infrastructures with laboratories able to produce test results that meet international standards.

The IOCD project plans to address this problem in three-phases:
Phase 1 in which IOCD scientists with knowledgeable associates will determine essential features of each country's regulatory system and identify the laboratories to be assisted;
Phase 2 in which IOCD/IUPAC scientists will visit the African laboratories to assess with their personnel those inadequacies that hinder them from obtaining the reliable testing results needed;
and Phase 3 in which IOCD will organize the delivery of appropriate remedial measures to the African laboratories to raise their capabilities to the required level.

These remedial measures can be characterized as a) Human capacity building and b) Laboratory up-grading. IOCD has received a grant of $15,000 from the US National Academy of Sciences to initiate the project and UNESCO is preparing a contract with IOCD to provide $10,000 for needed laboratory investigations in Africa. For more details see the IOCD web site www.iocd.org. IOCD anticipates starting the project in March 2005.

 

Elena Dominguez: new National Representative from Spain

Professor Elena Dominguez was appointed to the ACD Committee as the Spanish National Representative. She will be linked with the nanochemistry Team lead by Brynn Hibbert

Elena Domínguez (Spanish born 1956) graduated in Pharmacy with a Ph D in 1982 and after staying for four years at the Department of Analytical Chemistry in the University of Lund (Sweden) is now Full Professor of Analytical Chemistry at the University of Alcalá (Madrid, Spain). Her research interests center in bioelectrochemistry and the surface sciences, especially in the interfacing of the advantages in manipulations of biological molecules and the advances in microelectronics. The main technology innovations and transfer efforts of her research group focus on biosensors and their varied applications in environmental, clinical and food analysis.

 

If you would like to make suggestions for Teamwork please let the editor of Teamwork know.

 

Ryszard Lobinski
[email protected]

 
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