WTL SYMPOSIUM PAPER
Salt Lake City. UT 84112
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It is a nrivileee to narticinate in this svmnosium honorine Tom ~ i i ~ i n c o H& & . impressive contributibns to chemistr; and to chemical education include: (a) significant research work, (h) superb handling and brilliant organization of very large general chemistry programs, (c) effectively written co&rihutions raneine ,. .. from a~zeneralchemistrv text to wise edittmals, and rd) w t s t n n d i n ~service as the Kditor of the .IOI'HSAL OF CHKMICAI. KDUCA'IWK. 'l'ht. srientif~c community will always remember Tom as the man who guided this Journal with skill and couraee throueh a troubled neriod. In all of his activities Tom has done a first quality job, characterized by skill, professionalism, and wisdom. During his stewardship as editor, an already impressive puhlication grew in stature and extended its influence far beyond the houndaries of the U.S. It is widely distributed internationallv, and its success has prompted chemists of 011it.r l n ~ l r 1,) l ~bunch their o w n jmrrnnl-. One i u h~p~~ld~cation s t ndmwa i m rhr JOUHNAI. OF in Latin America, l I ~ ~ ~ . ihni CIIE\IICAI. f,>rarticles. These are ireauentlv - - - ~ I?I)IJ(:A1'1ON translated into Spanish and repuhlished. Certainly international education is better because of the JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION. As supersonic aircraft, satellite communications, technical journals, and television shrink the world to an ever smaller cultural sohere. chemistrv and chemical education assume i n the intern~tionalarea. I wo~rlrl evrrgrtater r(.ir)o~isil~il~tie* I~kcI U desrrihe h r i 4 . a iuint internalionnl urlwam of mutual education carried oui h i the American chemical Society and the National Research Centre of The Arab Republic of Egypt. This program was initiated in 1975; it was formally launched with a workshop in Cairo in 1977, and it continues today with mutually shared research. It represents a continuing effort by the American Chemical Society to build bridges between cultures through the magic of chemistry. I believe such programs will occupy more and more of our time in the future; thev renresent the challenee of tomorrow. ~~
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was more difficult than current communication between Washington and Cairo. Hate, fear, and suspicion grow with great difficulty in a climate of friendly cooperation where mutual prohlems are discussed openly. History is on our side. It comes as no surprise to anyone that Egypt has crushing ~ ~ ~ ~ m;and ~ . .wi~,lt~girnl mic pn~hiems.Same . I : I ~ I * I ~ V + put the ~ ~I ij S ~l ! U~l , I~U ~I, prol)lrm intt, I'm us. 111 lcIO7K ~ v ~ ~ I ' ~ ~ )was rind 1 he! cultivarrd fiSUUl.0Od acre-. d i6,rtilr lnnd alonl! the Nile. ~ i t h o u g hEgypt hah only 'A acre of arable land per oerson as comnared to 5 acres . ner . nerson in the US...thev.were able to achieve high production rates through very intensive cultivation. In 1907 Ervnt ... . was self-sufficient in food production. In 1978 Egypt faced a completely new set. of p n h lems. They have 40,000,000 people and the same fi,OOO,OOO acres of arahle land. This arnnnnts to ahout I17 of an acre per person. Although their yields are still high (wheat yields in Egypt run 1.26 tons per acre versus 0.78 in the U.S.; rice runs 2.1 1 tons per acre versus a world average of0.93 tons), no level of cultivation can produce the food needed. In 1977 Egypt
imuorted one billion dollars worth of food. Proiections for the year 2000 indicate sixty million people in ~ g ~ pIf tthe . arable land remains a t 6,000,000 acres this would give only %o of an acre per person in the year 2000. If one is faced with these statistics, the appeal of the Aswan Dam hecomes overwhelming. By storing water upstream, the possibility of reclaiming desert land and bringing it into production hecomes a realistic goal. So far the ;es&s of these efforts a t land reclamation are somewhat disappointing. Yields on new land are running only 20-5075 of those hoped fur and even these benefits are tempered by unforseen prohlems. For 10,000years floods of the Nile had renewed Egyptian soil each spring and had washed out insect pests and excess salt. The Aswan Dam controlled these floods and in doing so, cut off a valuable nrocess for land enrichment and insect control. Fertilizers gnd insecticides are now of great importance and some relativelv rich apricultural areas will have to he carefully drained and irrigated to prevent creeping salinization of the soil. Egypt's future is tied to sound science. Fortunately, Egyptian leaders are well aware of this. In the fall of 1977 the Egyptian National Research Centre and the American Chemical Society held a workshop in Cairo in which technical problems of mutual interest were addressed. The Egyptian leaders identified the suhject areas which would he of special importance to them. The topics which they selected for cooperative study indicated their realistic approach to Egyptian development. The five areas are considered individually here. The projects and members of the U.S. teams responsible for these projects follow. 1) Pesticide Svnthesis. Analvsis, and Use
'l'hr Egyptians w r r int~rvrrednot only in the possibility mnnuiarturine. and using r)r.t~cides, hut alsu they had a very special concern ahout?l;e nature of the residues which drained into the Nile, their only source of water. The problem :a a complrx one requiring the very hest avaimhli~science. I'ht: tr:lnj 01ll.S. rhemists addrr.;s~ngt h ~prohltwn i was led hv Dr. I'hilio C'. Kenrnev. ('hiel'. Pecti
