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This year we celebrate the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements in the format proposed by Mendeleev in 1869, and its continued development to this day. This issue of CI describes several aspects of the Periodic Table, its history and celebration, and also addresses the pathways to possible new elements. In this preface we address some highlights of the papers and pay attention to the history of events that have led to IYPT2019.

The Periodic Table is now regarded as such a fundamental part of current chemical research and teaching that it is salutary to learn that this prominence is a relatively recent development. IUPAC was established in its present form in 1919, but the roots of the Table go back much further. The general realization of the value of the Periodic Table to rationalize and teach chemistry has only come about since the new flowering of inorganic chemistry, which can be dated to the 1960s. Today the most popular form of the Table and its updating and dissemination owe much to IUPAC, though this was not always the case.

Allure and romance are rarely expected in an article presented under the bulky headline “Criteria that must be satisfied for the discovery of a new chemical element to be recognized.” However, the members of the Transfermium Working Group (TWG) worked out a most fascinating publication on a difficult subject during the years from 1988 to 1991 [1].

Since the periodic table has reached the ripe old age of 150 years it may be an appropriate time to look back at the development of this unique scientific icon. It is also an opportunity to look forwards to any changes that the periodic table may undergo in view of the ever-growing list of new elements that continue to be synthesized. The way that the past and future will be examined in this article will be to follow a main thread that focuses on the number of columns in the periodic table at various stages in its development.

Atomic weights are of fundamental importance in science, technology, trade and commerce. In particular, atomic weights relate mass to molar quantities. It is therefore not surprising that the measurement of atomic weights has played a central role in the development of chemistry and continues to be a key component in the progress of discipline.

It is hard to imagine IUPAC without the Periodic Table, and in turn, without atomic weights. As IUPAC celebrates its centennial, its oldest body, the Commission on Isotopic Abundances and Atomic Weights (CIAAW) turns 120. The parent Commission was formed in March 1899 and its inaugural task was to decide the atomic weight standard: should it be based on hydrogen or oxygen? Although the issue was settled in favor of oxygen, when the CIAAW formally joined the IUPAC in 1919, the question of the atomic weight scale was back for debate suggesting that many issues before this Commission transcend their scientific merit. In fact, many view the Periodic Table and changes therein as a part of larger cultural fabric of science so any changes are likely to be debated for a long time.

Two years ago, the King’s Centre for Visualization in Science (KCVS) at The King’s University, Edmonton released a new digital interactive version of the IUPAC Periodic Table of the Elements and Isotopes with accompanying educational resources at an International Conference on Chemistry Education. It can be found at www.isotopesmatter.com. The effort was part of an IUPAC project [1]. The science behind this new table was developed by Inorganic Chemistry Division scientists working for over a decade on an earlier IUPAC project [2]. These projects were joint efforts between the IUPAC Committee on Chemistry Education (CCE) and the Inorganic Chemistry Division.

M etrology, the science of measurement, is part of the essential but largely hidden infrastructure of the modern world. We need it for high-technology manufacturing, human health and safety, the protection of the environment, global climate studies, information transfer and the basic science that underpins all these. Highly accurate measurements are no longer the preserve of only the physical sciences and engineering. The International System of Units, the SI (Système International d’unités), provides the internationally agreed means by which we make such measurements.

At its General Assembly in Paris, France, on 10-11 July 2019, the IUPAC Council will be asked to elect a Vice President, a Secretary General, a Treasurer, and members of the Bureau to fulfill the vacancies created by retiring members. IUPAC National Adhering Organizations are invited to submit nominations no later than 31 March 2019 .

On 16 Oct 2018, The Analytical Scientist released their Top 40 Under 40 Power List celebrating the gifted young scientists making waves in analytical science. Among them is Juris Meija, the current Chair of the IUPAC Commission on Isotopic Abundances and Atomic Weights (CIAAW).

The 2018 IUPAC-ThalesNano prize has been awarded to Professor C. Oliver Kappe. The prize will be presented at the 15th International Conference on Microreaction Technology (IMRET15) in Karlsruhe on 21 October 2018. The award address will be delivered at the Flow Chemistry Europe Conference in Cambridge, UK on 26 February 2019. The prize consists of an award of 10 000 USD.

During the 3rd edition of the OPCW Forum on the Peaceful Uses of Chemistry, held at the OPCW Headquarters in The Hague on 23 October, Professor Pietro Tundo, Chair of IUPAC’s Interdivisional Committee on Green Chemistry for Sustainable Development, provided insights into the approaches of supporting sustainable development through peaceful uses of chemistry. With that Forum, and in a bid to strengthen international security through development, the Member States of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) identified activities to help achieve the United Nation’s (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

UNESCO and 1001 Inventions will launch a new educational initiative celebrating the 8th century polymath Jabir ibn Hayyan as part of the 2019 International Year of the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements. The new multimedia initiative, titled “1001 Inventions: Journeys from Alchemy to Chemistry”, focuses on contributions to the foundations of modern chemistry by ancient cultures and civilizations, in particular the remarkable work of the pioneering polymath Jabir ibn Hayyan, also known as Geber, in the 8th century.

The International Chemistry Olympiad (IChO) is an annual worldwide competition for high school students in which their chemical knowledge and skills are tested through a series of theoretical and practical problems. The first IChO was held in Prague in 1968 with three teams of six students representing Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Poland. Humble beginnings perhaps, but interest in the IChO rose quickly and, by 1980, a total of 52 competitors from 13 countries attended the 12th IChO, held for the first time outside Eastern Europe, in Linz, Austria. Participation expanded steadily in the ensuing years and 186 students from 47 countries were present at the 30th IChO in Melbourne, Australia, in 1998.