ACS NTS Committee Report to Council – San Diego, Spring 2016 Nomenclature, Terminology, and Symbols NTS convened a task force that, after extensive evaluation and discussion, reported on the designation of the chemical technician as a job title. That evaluation revealed that the use of the term is not uniform in industry. NTS reported the results of that task force study to the chair of the Chemical Technician Activities Committee (CTA). It is likely that CTA will use that information to construct a recommendation for the delineation of job titles based on required academic credentials into the categories of technician and chemist. Addition of adjectives to the job title was recommended as a company specific designation based on past practices. NTS will continue working with CTA to resolve and finalize recommendations. Based on the results of its recent survey of approximately 2400 ACS members, NTS is hosting a booth in the exposition at the 2016 San Diego meeting. The booth allows ACS members to interact with NTS to learn about the committee’s activities and about newly discovered elements in the periodic table. Given the success of this information booth, NTS is considering similar activities at a future ACS National Exposition in conjunction with NIST or the AACT. NTS continues to be involved in outreach to the ACS membership. This has involved potential liaison opportunities with CHED, CINF, SOCED, COMSCI, ANYL, PUBS, and NUCL. In addition, NTS has been involved in updates to the online Periodic Table Live and in submission of articles for publication in newsletters (such as the Senior Chemist’s Newsletter.) NTS is currently planning a workshop or symposium on nomenclature (with topics such as PIN, InChI, or RInChI systems) for the upcoming ACS fall meeting. NST is also working to maintain a strong relationship with IUPAC. This involved recent comments on the IUPAC, Division II provisional recommendation “How to Name New Chemical Elements”. NTS continues to be actively involved in evaluation and recommendations for the redefinitions of the SI units kilogram and amount of substance. Written and edited by Dr. Michael Mosher and Dr. Jeffrey Rahn
