Fabienne Meyers

Article Masthead - Full issue pdf was published on July 1, 2021 in the journal Chemistry International (volume 43, issue 3).

New Year, New Team, New Plan, & New Goals for IUPAC—despite all of the new, we must open 2016 with the hope of shifting away from the tumultuous transitions of the past few years. In several ways, the new year will be special. A few features in this issue of Chemistry International allude to these points.

If at this point you are still looking for a New Year’s resolution, you may find inspiration in Natalia Tarasova’ s feature focusing on where and how chemistry can meet the world’s needs. (see page 4) The key topics underlined by the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the recent focus on their delivery by 2030 provide a renewed momentum for scientific communities to set well-focused targets. As Tarasova points out, “Chemistry and chemical technology might be considered as a means to achieve these strategic goals.”

Article From the Editor was published on November 1, 2014 in the journal Chemistry International (volume 36, issue 6).

Every day, we all make choices. In reviewing “Multiple Uses of Chemicals—IUPAC and OPCW Working Together Toward Responsible Science” (feature p. 9), we are presented with a website resource that explores the beneficial uses, misuses, and abuses of multi-use chemicals, both historically and presently. This educational material considers how to make responsible choices in chemistry and what it means to practice chemistry responsibly. If the topic intrigues, I recommend that you read these pages, visit the website, and preview the video. Most informative, the video showcases the hands-on workshop held last year during the IUPAC Congress in Istanbul and explores how to use the resource by examining how chemists/students make choices. This project builds on the premise that education and outreach are key to prevent the abuse of chemical substances. While such a topic might seem far from the concerns of chemical warfare, it is really not a big leap to teach chemists and teachers about the importance of regulatory agencies such as the Chemical Weapons Convention and the creation of codes of conduct. In that context, the “About” section of the website ends with the following statement: “Each of us as scientists and citizens have a responsibility to ensure responsible uses of the chemical substances that are important to every aspect of our everyday lives.”

It is difficult to remember a time when one asked a question and wondered how to even find the answer. Now, obviously, we have the World Wide Web and whatever your question, it is likely that Wikipedia will help you find exactly what you’re looking for. In just a few years, Wikipedia has changed our ability to search.

It is a real treat to introduce a new series called “Youth Views on Sustainability” on page 10. The idea came about last summer during the GA in Istanbul, when I met Nuno Bacharel. Nuno, the community manager for www.yourformula.eu, attended the World Chemistry Leadership Meeting with the intent to cover the event in the YourFormula blog. The WCLM 2013 was special as it involved a forum of young chemists assembled to debate IUPAC’s future and global issues. Nuno’s post on the WCLM 2013 is available at www.yourformula.eu/internalposts/the-future-of-chemistry-by-the-young-observers-wclm13-conclusions; another report, prepared by Michael Droescher, is published in the CI Jan-Feb 2014 issue, page 24, http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/ci.2014.36.1.24.