Chemists and IUPAC: Taking Responsibility and Taking Action

Since its foundation in 1919, many famous chemists have contributed to the International Union for Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), fueling the drive to improve standardisation of methods, nomenclature, units and standards, among other things. Without a doubt, progress has been made, despite power struggles, uncompleted projects, and unproductive commissions.

A special session titled, “Chemists and IUPAC: Taking Responsibility and Taking Action,“ to be held during the 11th International Conference on the History of Chemistry, will aim at shedding light on the activity of chemists invested with responsibilities in IUPAC, whose actions are often overlooked in national biographical dictionaries. This session falls into the broader project on the centennial of the IUPAC in 2019. Each paper will focus on the responsibilities and actions of individual chemists, alone or combined in a small national or disciplinary group, inside IUPAC. The case study can, however, expand to roles in other international organisations (e.g. IRC, ICSU, SDN or UNESCO). A first survey is provided by the books of R. Fennell (1994) and S. S. Brown (2001). By focusing on individual actions, the aim is to get a better sense of the articulation between the local and the international, and how this articulation was constructed through the work and actions of chemists dispersed across the world.

For more information, please contact Danielle Fauque (danielle.fauque@u-psud.fr) or Brigitte Van Tiggelen (vantiggelen@memosciences.be)