IUPAC—Then and Now

IUPAC—Then and Now Pure and Applied Chemistry and a variety of refer- Reflections on 40 ences listed below. IUPAC sponsors conferences, and one condition Years of Involvement for IUPAC sponsorship is that the government of the by Jeffery Leigh host country will issue visas to bona fide scientists who wish to attend, no matter from which country they come. This was particularly important during the any people have asked me what I actually Cold War and is still necessary in some regions such have done during my time of involvement as the Middle East. Finally, IUPAC encourages interac- Mwith IUPAC, which is now approaching 40 tion between industry and academia, considering and years, especially since a yearly trip to whatever exotic publicizing the value and the dangers of chemistry for spot chosen for a meeting is no longer seen as being the world as a whole. much of a perk. Others want to know what the organi- One of IUPAC’s most contentious functions, carried zation does. That, at least, is easy to answer. IUPAC’s out jointly with IUPAP, its sibling physics organization, mission, the reason for its existence, is to enable is to assess researchers’ claims to have synthesized a chemists to communicate unequivocally and without new element, and adjudicate on priority. Only when misunderstanding. In particular, IUPAC ensures that this has been done are the discoverers invited to sug- different authorities do not start arguing at cross gest a permanent trivial name. Most go for famous purposes because they are not sure that the subject compatriots or home towns and states. Thus, we now of their discussion is understood by both parties. use names such as seaborgium, hassium, dubnium, Regulatory authorities, publishers, and researchers and californium. In the meantime, IUPAC has devised are aware of this problem and ask for an indepen- the peculiar three-letter symbols and related names dent authority to advise them on such matters. That for elements that are yet to be prepared beyond all authority is IUPAC. reasonable doubt, but which are discussed in the literature. The element of atomic number 111 was provi- One of IUPAC’s most important tasks is to develop a sionally called unununium, symbol Uuu, until recently, universal systematic nomenclature for chemical com- when IUPAC recognized that it had been synthesized pounds. This was what first attracted me to IUPAC. unequivocally by researchers in Germany, who have I started by being intrigued by a kind of cross-word now given it the permanent name roentgenium, with approach to nomenclature: Could you define a name the symbol Rg. This name is to honor the German by a set of rules that would always allow anyone to discoverer of X-rays, Wilhelm Roentgen. Evidence for infer the chemical structure from it? This was before the element 112, Uub, ununbium, is currently being the routine availability of computers, which have assessed. When the Dubna and Berkeley laboratories changed the way in which chemical information is were competing in a race to establish new elements stored and manipulated. in the 1980s, there were some unpleasant and difficult Another aspect of IUPAC’s work involves standard- political pressures applied to the chairmen of the com- ization. For example, estimates of atomic weights missions. To their credit, all parties finally accepted the are still being made, and though changes in estab- IUPAC decisions. lished values are small, they are important in some circumstances. IUPAC continuously assesses the new I started by being intrigued by a literature and amends the list of atomic weights every kind of cross-word approach to two years. Isotopic abundances for a given element are not independent of source, as was once believed, nomenclature: Could you define a and they vary from place to place and from heavenly name by a set of rules that would body to heavenly body. IUPAC also reviews new data always allow anyone to infer the in this area. IUPAC advises chemists on how to assess statistical chemical structure from it? data, on how to present analytical results, and on how to teach chemistry, particularly in emerging regions The activities mentioned above have always been with limited resources, by providing teaching aids and principal aims of IUPAC, but how the Union approaches advice, and organizing conferences. IUPAC publishes them has changed significantly since I first became the results of its deliberations in its scientific journal involved. I attended my first meeting, which was of the CHEMISTRY International November-December 2008 9 IUPAC—Then and Now Commission on Nomenclature of Inorganic Chemistry nomenclature rules and IUPAC rules intimately. IUPAC (CNIC), as a stand-in because they could find no reference books are continually revised but subsequent one to act as meeting secretary. My boss at work editions retain the cover color of the first version, so was Joseph Chatt, a long- organic nomenclature is time IUPAC enthusiast. At . it was always necessary to reach always found in the Blue home, we subordinates Book, and inorganic in the were frustrated by his the conclusion that the chairman Red Book, whatever the insistence that we use cor- wanted, and on many occasions we editions, and so on. The rect IUPAC nomenclature, worked from nine till nine, when the first version of the inor- which we didn’t appreci- ganic rules (Report of the ate or understand. It was a exhausted and hungry members of Committee for the Reform laboratory joke that every- the commission finally capitulated. of Inorganic Chemical thing in a written report Nomenclature) was actu- had to be presented with a plethora of square brackets ally written in German and had been completed just in order to satisfy Joseph. He would disappear from before the Second World War. An English translation the country annually for mysterious IUPAC meetings, was published in 1940. The first Red Book version was but eventually he asked me if I were prepared to come published in 1957 and had parallel texts in English and to Munich to act as secretary for this one meeting of French. For most of the members of CNIC at that time, CNIC. As I had worked in Munich with E.O. Fischer, and that publication was regarded as finished, but regular was very fond of the city, I was delighted to do so. This meetings of IUPAC still provided a good opportunity was in 1973, and I have been a member of IUPAC in one to see old friends, argue about angels and points of capacity or another ever since. needles, and to gain prestige at home, if any of your When I first became involved in IUPAC, the sec- colleagues actually knew what IUPAC was supposed retariat was run by Mo (Maurice) Williams and his to be. The agenda of a meeting was drawn up at the devoted assistant Ann Troughton. The office was beginning of the first day, and was worked through housed in a small shopping mall on the outskirts of solidly. However, it was always necessary to reach the Oxford. Chatt relied on the IUPAC office for consider- conclusion that the chairman wanted, and on many able help, even in arranging his journeys to meetings. occasions we worked from nine till nine, when the Mo also seems to have been a exhausted and hungry members of the commission Most of the part-time travel agent. Certainly finally capitulated. After dinner, however late, the archives were he and Ann were the most per- secretary had to write the minutes for approval the manent aspect of the admin- following morning! When the CNIC meeting coincided carried about in istration of the Union. Most of with the General Assembly, the chairman would sud- Mo’s head. the archives were carried about denly announce that he had to go to another meeting, in Mo’s head. Members of the and depart with a throw-away line such as: “It’s up commissions did not worry much about finance since to you to decide this matter without me.” In truth, it Mo handled everything. Nowadays, the permanent never was, unless the decision was what the chairman staff occupies a small office with five employees in actually wanted. North Carolina and an even smaller office with one CNOC worked rather similarly, but we did try to hold proud independent employee in Boston, both in the joint meetings of CNIC and CNOC, because overlaps United States. Everything is much more professional, of nomenclature were becoming evident, with the but, unavoidably, less personal. The use of e-mail development of areas such as organometallic chemis- rather than the telephone, more efficient but requiring try. These meetings were often a dialogue of the deaf. much less human interaction, has undoubtedly caused Both commissions knew how to name the compounds this to happen. that fell within what they regarded as their aegis, and A main characteristic of CNIC (and of its sister no quarter was asked or given. CNOC also had the Commission on Nomenclature of Organic Chemistry, benefit of a long established and widely accepted CNOC) at that time was its iron-willed chairman. It methodology, whereas CNIC were relative ingénues. became evident to me that CNIC had no defined pro- So we ran along parallel lines, due to meet only at infin- gram apart from the plans of the chairman. Most of the ity, and few of us were likely to survive long enough to members of CNIC and CNOC had been in their posts see that happy event. Evidently things had to change, for many years, and they knew the published inorganic and with the proper application of rules concerning 10 CHEMISTRY International November-December 2008 Reflections on 40 Years of Involvement terms of membership, things eventually did.

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