23^rd IUPAC Conference on Physical Organic Chemistry (ICPOC-23)

The 23^rd IUPAC Conference on Physical Organic Chemistry (ICPOC-23) was held at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, from July 3^rd–8^th, 2016. The ICPOC series was inaugurated in Switzerland in 1972 and has been run every 2 years since then, though this was the first time it had been held in Australia. Along with the more traditional areas of physical organic chemistry (including reactivity, mechanism and structure), the programme of presentations at this conference demonstrated the diversity of fields to which the subject can be effectively applied including biology, materials science, and supramolecular and systems chemistry.

The conference was well attended with 300 attendees, from 35 countries and every permanently inhabited continent. This led to a broad, stimulating programme with over 140 lectures presented (including those by Nobel Laureate Arieh Warshel and the world’s most cited chemical scientist, George Whitesides) along with 80 poster presentations that we hope comes through in this special issue of Pure and Applied Chemistry. In addition to the scientific programme, the conference included an extremely popular conference dinner (with 180 attendees), a cruise on Sydney Harbour and a very successful Forum on the Future of Chemistry, all of which allowed for stimulating discussions, sometimes in a less traditional environment!

As co-chairs, we would like to express our gratitude to everyone who supported this conference, from the attendees through the various members of our committees to our extensive list of sponsors; we would particularly like to acknowledge our principal sponsors – School of Chemistry, University of New South Wales; Faculty of Science, University of New South Wales; The Australian National University; The Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, University of Queensland; The Office of the Chief Scientist and Engineer, New South Wales State Government; Systems Chemistry Australia.

Organising Committee: Jonathon Beves (University of New South Wales), Stephen Blanksby (Queensland University of Technology), Michelle Coote (Australian National University), Jason Harper (University of New South Wales), Katrina Joliffe (University of Sydney), Pall Thordarson (University of New South Wales), Jonathan White (University of Melbourne).

National Advisory Committee: David Black (University of New South Wales), Sally Brooker (University of Otago, New Zealand), Christopher Easton (Australian National University), Stephen Glover (University of New England), Leo Radom (University of Sydney), Colin Raston (Flinders University of South Australia), Carl Schiesser (University of Melbourne), Curt Wentrup (University of Queensland).

International Advisory Committee: Manabu Abe (Japan), Igor Alabugin (USA), Mark Cesa (USA), Maria Cristiano (Portugal), Mirjana Eckert-Maksić (Croatia), Mikhail Egorov (Russia), Slawomir Grabowski (Poland), Eduardo Humeres (Brazil), Ghuo-Zhen Ji (China), Sung Soo Kim (Korea), Tadeusz Krygowski (Poland), Jose Ramon Leis (Spain), Ivo Leito (Estonia), Miroslav Ludwig (Czech Republic), Jean-Claude Micheau (France), Heidi Muchall (Canada), Norma Nudelman (Argentina), Ikenna Onyido (Nigeria), Henrik Ottosson (Sweden), Georgio Pagani (Italy), Charles Perrin (USA), Ivan Pojarlieff (Bulgaria), Hans-Ullrich Siehl (Germany), Pietro Tundo (Italy), Einar Uggerud (Norway), Ian Williams (UK).