International
lUPAC raises dues, ponders industry's role Biennial council meeting of International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry also accepted East Germany as union's 45th member Dermot A. O'Sullivan C&EN, London Organizations, like individuals the world over, are feeling the pinch of inflationary prices. The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry is no exception. For several years now, the income and expenses of this august body of chemical experts have stood perilously close to the breakeven point, and unless it gets a new injection of funds, it will slip into the red next year. This fact, brought up by Dr. Jack Barrett, chairman of IUPAC's finance committee, was debated at some length during the IUPAC council meeting in Munich, West Germany, late last month. Dr. Barrett's committee predicts that IUPAC's deficit could run as high as $50,000 or more in 1975 if additional money isn't forthcoming. To offset rising costs, IUPAC councilors voted overwhelmingly to boost the annual payments that each member country pays on the basis of the sales of its chemical industry. The minimum subscription will rise from $100 to $200 yearly. At the higher end of the dues scale, the figure goes up from $39,200 to $50,000. The revised payments scale, the first since 1961, should bring in some $36,000 more in dues beyond the present figure of $121,350 a year. The higher payments structure, IUPAC hopes, will stimulate each country to seek more participation by private and state chemical enterprises in IUPAC's company associates scheme, which was introduced about six years Barrett: greater industrial influence
ago. Company subscriptions help offset dues coming from the national adhering organizations. IUPAC councilors would like to add to the present 150 or so companies worldwide now in the plan. On the other hand, industrial chemists at Munich indicated dissatisfaction with the direct benefits flowing to their firms from IUPAC activities. Some company representatives, for instance, voiced the criticism that studies undertaken by commissions of the various IUPAC divisions tend to concentrate more on the "pure" aspect of chemistry than on the "applied." Rebutting this argument, Phillips Petroleum's Philip M. Arnold, IUPAC bureau member and prime mover in setting up the company associates scheme, points out, "The difference between pure and applied chemistry is that pure chemistry just hasn't been applied yet." IUPAC's Applied Chemistry Division has active programs under way in such areas as food chemistry, pesticides, and air and water quality studies, and the division's newly appointed president, Dr. Harold Egan of the U.K., notes, "While I am willing to accept the criticism that much of our work is centered around analytical methods and that there are many other areas of applied chemistry of-great potential interest, I won't accept the argument that our work is not [of an] applied [nature]." Other IUPAC council members at Munich point to study programs that have a direct bearing on industrial chemistry and in which members from industry are playing an active role. The Macromolecular Division, for example, has enlisted industry's help in fundamental work on the mechanical properties and molecular parameters of commercial polymers. It has collaborative programs under way involving the cooperation of as many as 10 of the world's top chemical companies. Nevertheless, the consensus at Munich was that more ways should be sought to relate to industry's needs. Dr. Barrett chaired an ad hoc committee to explore this aim. The committee proposed the formation of an IUPAC company associates group communicating directly with IUPAC's bureau officers in, addition to the present practice of communicating through the national adhering organizations. In this way, Dr. Barrett argues, industrial chemists could have a greater influence on the activities of all IUPAC divisions and sections. Another idea is to promote formation
of national groups of company associates that would meet regularly. "The main objectives," remarks Dr. Barrett, a board member of Monsanto U.K. and president-elect of The Chemical Society (London), "are to advise and influence IUPAC on chemical and related work directly relevant to industry's needs, and to ensure a continuing flow of information to industry about IUPAC's activities, its organization, and its potential." He is hopeful that a mechanism can be established before year's end to set up the national company groups, leading to a meeting of the central group next summer. By a show of hands, IUPAC delegates at Munich approved the membership application of the German Democratic Republic. Immediately following the vote, the East German delegates, Dr. Walter Friedrich and Prof. HansJoachim Bittrich, entered the conference hall to the applause of the assembled chemists. East Germany's inclusion in IUPAC membership raises to 45 the number of countries that are party to the world body. Toward the close of the Munich meeting, Dr. Charles Overberger, leader of the U.S. delegation to the conference, urged that a mechanism be devised in IUPAC whereby the council could aid in identifying and providing input to important problems of chemistry having direct impact on the world at large. "This union has enormous intellectual resources at its command," he notes. "Discussion within IUPAC and sponsorship by IUPAC are powerful means of focusing world attention on the importance of what is undertaken, and of disseminating information about programs that may be in existence elsewhere." One such area of concern that Dr. Overberger identifies is the lack of a global account of the annual production of chemicals having a significant potential effect on the environment, how they get into the environment, the chemical changes they undergo, and their ultimate fate. Before the 700 or so chemists in Munich headed for their home countries, Dr. Jacques Bénard of France formally handed over the reins of the IUPAC presidency to Oxford University's Sir Harold Thompson. And ACS Executive Director Robert W. Cairns was voted vice president (C&EN, Sept. 10, page 2). Dr. Cairns automatically moves up to the presidency at IUPAC's next conference in Spain in 1975. (For more on IUPAC see page 17.)
