The AsiaChem magazine is born

doi:10.1515/ci-2021-0209

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The AsiaChem magazine is born

Published/Copyright: April 1, 2021

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From the journal Chemistry International Volume 43 Issue 2

Abstract

The newly born AsiaChem magazine echoes the voice of the Federation of Asian Chemical Societies (FACS). We believe that this biannual, free-access magazine will attract worldwide attention because it features cutting-edge science, history, essays, interviews, and anything that would interest a broad readership within the chemical community. All articles are authored by scientists who were born in Asian countries or actively working in Asia. Accordingly, the inaugural issue represents eight FACS countries, including Australia, China, India, Israel, Jordan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Turkey: https://www.facs.website/november-2020

In his best-seller, Clash of Civilizations, Samuel Huntington argues that after the end of the Cold War, when the age of ideology had ended, the world had returned to a state of affairs characterized by cultural conflicts at the cultural interfaces. Huntington never suggested that one culture has an advantage over the others; rather that all should be equally respected. By comparison to other regional federations of chemical societies, including the European (EuChemS), Latin American (FLAQ), and African (FASC), the FACS represents the most diverse organization, spanning seven different cultures: Buddhist, Chinese, Hindu, Islamic, Japanese, Orthodox, and Western. This enormous heterogeneity, which has created significant challenges over the long Asian history, offers exciting opportunities in our times.

The center of gravity of the global economy is steadily shifting to Asia, and so is the scientific activity. These trends position the FACS member societies at a unique intersection with new opportunities and significant responsibilities. Asian countries notoriously known for brain-drain symptoms have become increasingly attractive to their scientists. We witness an increasing reverse flow of scientists who previously preferred to develop their professional careers abroad. Homeland culture, social awareness, and national solidarity attract emigrant scientists and their descendants born and educated abroad. Nobel Prize Laureate Yuan-Tseh Lee proposed replacing the term brain-drain with the adequate notion of brain-circulation.

Most global challenges, including global warming, food for everybody, the race for sustainable energy, water quality, dwindling raw materials, and health problems, are chemical problems by nature. Therefore, humankind cannot meet these challenges without the chemical sciences and will not solve any of these problems without global cooperation. Chemists have always been doing much better than politicians in meeting these challenges, working together across borders through unique collaboration and friendship. Despite fundamentally different political systems and cultural diversity, chemists go beyond borders, find each other, share their findings, and solve problems together.

The global changes and the unique role of chemistry in meeting global challenges offer the IUPAC and regional federations, such as the FACS with new opportunities and significant responsibilities.

As the Communications Director at the FACS, AsiaChem’s Editor-in-Chief, and a member of the IUPAC Bureau, I am proud to help catalyze the unification and cooperation among multiple chemists’ communities of various cultures. I’ll be grateful for receiving comments and new ideas on how to improve the magazine.

Ehud Keinan <keinan@technion.ac.il>, Technion—Israel Institute of Technology and President, Israel Chemical Society

https://www.facs.website/asiachem-magazine

Online erschienen: 2021-04-01

Erschienen im Druck: 2021-04-01

©2021 IUPAC & De Gruyter. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. For more information, please visit: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

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https://doi.org/10.1515/ci-2021-0209