Volume 38, Issue 5

Beginning a fantastic voyage beyond the frontiers of contemporary chemical sciences, the creative power of synthetic chemistry imbues chemists with the confidence needed to enter many unknown molecular worlds. The beauty of Nature’s functional molecular structures offers, of course, a fantastic source of inspiration, yet chemists are not limited by the molecular building blocks selected by evolution to sustain the intricate systems of a living organism. Nature has developed on the principle of the minimal chemistry set—imagine what we can achieve with the whole of chemistry available to us.

What is Coade Stone? When was Bakelite invented? What is the chemical structure of indigo? Is it safe to use mineral spirits? The answer to all of these questions and much more can be found in CAMEO, the Conservation and Art Materials Encyclopedia Online, available at www.cameo.mfa.org, [1] a set of Internet databases that serve art-related professionals as well as the general public.

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Beltsville Agricultural Research Center (BARC) in Beltsville, Maryland, USA was recently designated an American Chemical Society National Historic Chemical Landmark for the seminal work of USDA scientists in the discovery of phytochrome, the ubiquitous plant pigment that controls plant growth and development in response to light. The discovery team was inspired by the work of Harry A. Borthwick and Marion W. Parker in the 1930s, which quantified photoperiodic phenomena and recruited Sterling B. Hendricks into the search for a chemical basis for non-photosynthetic responses of plants to light. Hendricks was a world famous soil chemist and member of the National Academy of Sciences before he became engaged in plant science. He hypothesized the existence of a photoreversible pigment that controls photoperiodism in flowering, seed germination, and many photomorphogenic processes in plants. Karl Norris and Warren Butler created the specialized spectrophotometer that was needed to detect the pigment in vivo. Harold W. (Bill) Siegleman provided the biochemical expertise to isolate the pigment. The scientific stars aligned in one place, as they rarely do, to make the discovery complete.

In 2019, IUPAC will celebrate 100 years. A Centenary is a notable milestone and a unique opportunity to recognize what we have accomplished and to acknowledge our role and responsibility in the future of chemistry.

Every two years, IUPAC holds an election for its officers and committee members. About 120 individuals are to be elected or reelected, either as Titular Members, Associate Members, or National Representatives. Information concerning the voting process and the role of each kind of member is contained in the Union bylaws (see www.iupac.org/who-we-are/organizational-guidelines).

The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry and Solvay announce the winners of the 2016 IUPAC-Solvay International Award for Young Chemists, presented for the best Ph.D. theses in the chemical sciences, as described in 1000-word essays.

Professor Volker Hessel has been awarded of the 2016 IUPAC ThalesNano prize for flow chemistry, prize coordinated by the IUPAC Committee on Chemistry and Industry (COCI). The prize will be presented at International Conferences on MicroREaction Technology (IMRET14) in Beijing on 14 September 2016. The prize consists of an award of $10,000 US Dollars. At the awards ceremony Professor Hessel will make a short technical presentation.

On 21 March 2016, the IUPAC Division on Chemistry and the Environment announced that the 2016 “IUPAC International Award for Advances in Harmonized Approaches to Crop Protection Chemistry” will be presented to Dr. Daniel L. Kunkel of the IR-4 Project based at Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA.

Ali Maleki (Iran) has been awarded the 2016 IUPAC-CHEMRAWN VII Prize for Green Chemistry. Dr. Ali Maleki received this award in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the field of green chemistry.

Zafra Lerman has been named a recipient of the 2016 Andrei Sakharov Prize for her outstanding leadership and achievements upholding human rights. The Andrei Sakharov Prize is awarded every second year by the American Physical Society (APS) since 2006. The recipients are chosen for “outstanding leadership and/or achievements of scientists in upholding human rights”. The prize is named after Andrei Sakharov (1921-1989), Soviet nuclear physicist, dissident and human rights activist.

Paul De Bièvre was born in Blankenberge (Belgium) on 7 July 1933. He obtained his PhD from Gent University in 1959 where he continued to work as a lecturer until 1961. In 1961 he joined the Central Bureau for Nuclear Measurements of the European Commission (renamed Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements in 1994) where he was Head of the Isotope Measurement Unit until 1998 and Advisor to the Director until 2002.