Towards A Sustainable Partnership Between ACS & FACS: What's

Chapter 11

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Towards A Sustainable Partnership Between ACS & FACS: What’s Next? T. S. Andy Hor* President, Federation of Asian Chemical Societies (FACS) President, Singapore National Institute of Chemistry (SNIC) Executive Director, Institute of Materials Research & Engineering (IMRE), A*STAR, Singapore Professor of Chemistry, National University of Singapore, Singapore *E-mail: [email protected].

Today, the Chinese economy (GDP US$9 trillions) is bigger than those of Germany ($3.6 t), France ($2.7 t) & UK ($2.4 t) put together. The combined economies of China, Japan ($5.1) and India ($2.0) are matching that of the USA ($16.2). By 2018, the Chinese economy alone is expected to reach 70% of the U.S. economy. The accelerating growth of Asian economies has brought along immense opportunities not only in business but also in research collaboration, adoption of new technologies, and education exchanges. The emergence of Asia has presented exciting prospects in the chemical sciences – from education to technology, from environment to energy, from health to business. How do we grow the partnership between ACS and FACS (Federation of Asian Chemical Societies) amidst these vigorous developments and changes? What are the biggest opportunities that Asia has presented and the challenges that the strategic partnership will face? In this article, the author touches on these topics and gives his views on the way forward.

Introduction The Asian economies have grown remarkably in recent years in chemical sciences, from education to technology, environment to energy, and health to business. This development opens up opportunities for collaboration between © 2015 American Chemical Society Cheng et al.; Jobs, Collaborations, and Women Leaders in the Global Chemistry Enterprise ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2015.


American Chemical Society (ACS) and Federation of Asian Chemical Societies (FACS). Indeed, FACS and ACS have agreed to enter a three-year collaboration alliance characterized by mutual benefit, impact and a commitment to cooperation in service to chemical scientists, engineers and professionals. This alliance serves to strengthen the shared interest of each organization in engaging the Asian and U.S. chemical communities in collaborations, research, education, and meetings (1). In 2011 the Asia America Chemical Symposium (A2CS) was organized as a partnership between the ACS and the FACS. It was first held at the ACS national meeting in Anaheim in March 2011, where the theme was “Energy and Food.” The second symposium was held at the Asian Chemical Congress (ACC) in Bangkok in September 2011, and the theme was “Quality of Water.” These were followed by the next two symposia at the ACS national meeting in Philadelphia in August 2012 with the theme “Materials for Health and Medicine” and the ACC meeting in Singapore in August 2013 with the theme “Advanced Materials.” In the ACS national meeting in San Francisco in August 2014, the fifth A2CS was held, where the theme was “Global Stewardship and Chemistry Innovations for Sustainable Agriculture & Food Products.” The next meeting opportunity will come at the ACC meeting in Bangladesh in November 2015, which will focus on “Scientific Ethics.” Whereas the A2CS is a fruitful collaboration between FACS and ACS, the question may be asked, “What’s next?” How do we grow the partnership between ACS and FACS? What are the biggest opportunities that Asia presents and the challenges that a strategic partnership will face?

Perspectives from FACS The Federation of Asian Chemical Societies (FACS) is a federation of 28 chemical societies of countries and territories in the Asia Pacific (2). Membership of the Federation is open to all not-for-profit chemical societies whose membership consists largely of individual qualified chemists and which are national professional chemical societies of countries and territories in the Asia Pacific. Individual membership is open to individual chemists from the Asia Pacific. The general objective of the Federation is to promote the advancement and appreciation of chemistry and the interests of professional chemists in the Asia Pacific. There are many challenges and opportunities facing FACS. Among the challenges, one issue relates to the differences that exist between the FACS member countries. On an economic level, there are countries at different stages of development, from third-world to first-world nations. There are also different and often contrasting cultures, practices, and priorities between these countries. The member countries’ divergence and occasional tendency towards fragmentation require prudent management. Furthermore, part of the chemical industry is being commoditized, resulting in lower commercial value. As for FACS itself, it has limited institutional and public resources, and there is a challenge to assure leadership continuity. 114 Cheng et al.; Jobs, Collaborations, and Women Leaders in the Global Chemistry Enterprise ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2015.


Despite these challenges, many opportunities for FACS can be envisioned. Many of the Asian countries have fast-growing economies and large populations. There is a substantial commitment to education and innovation in FACS member societies, and research output is increasing exponentially in several FACS member countries, with Singapore and China among the examples. The open innovation concept has been a positive driver in this growth. The member countries are also rich in diversity, and most of them have significant room for growth. In any successful partnership, a number of factors need to be considered (Figure 1). First, there needs to be mutually beneficial outcomes due to the partnership. For example, these benefits may result from synergistic or complementary skills, services, or resources. Secondly, there needs to be mutual trust and respect. The partnership can agree to disagree and be willing to give and take. Thirdly, the partnership must be responsive to needs, changes, and opportunities. There should be regular reviews of activities, including efforts to look far and wide for opportunities – all guided by common, long-run goals. In the case of FACS-ACS relationship, perhaps we can use the three-step process shown in Figure 2. A good starting point towards realizing the partnerships potential is through symposia. Symposia provide an opportunity to build on common themes, create networks and community awareness, help both partners drive for membership and allow them to share knowledge with each other. Indeed, we have started the A2CS as our first step in our interactions.

Figure 1. Key to a sustainable partnership. The next logical step is collaboration. This means putting ideas such as faculty and student exchanges, collaborative projects, one-on-one society interactions, grant agency reach-out, and co-developments of emerging technology areas into action. 115 Cheng et al.; Jobs, Collaborations, and Women Leaders in the Global Chemistry Enterprise ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2015.


The final step is propagation. This may involve catalyzing the development of chemistry in Asia, designing activities to specific country needs, introducing other societies into the partnership, and promoting industry and capability building.

Figure 2. Possible steps and activities in the development of Asia-American partnerships.

What Does ACS Bring to the Table? Like FACS, ACS is a professional organization that is focused on chemistry and allied disciplines. Meetings and publications are major parts of ACS activities. These are obvious areas for possible FACS-ACS collaborations. The A2CS (as mentioned above) is a good example Over the years ACS has developed a wide array of resources and services for its members (3). Many of these resources are very useful to practicing chemists and students. For example, ACS has developed useful professional workshops (Figure 3). These workshops will be of interest to FACS and its member societies. Students can certainly benefit from workshops on resume writing, career opportunities, presentation and communication, and ethics training. Academics can learn how to better compete for grants, engage in emerging research fields and publications, and share experience with editors. Industrial professionals can learn more about laboratory management, quality control, technique development, and lab and process safety. 116 Cheng et al.; Jobs, Collaborations, and Women Leaders in the Global Chemistry Enterprise ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2015.


Figure 3. ACS workshops and some of the benefits for students, academics, and industry professionals.

ACS International Chapters are also important in the interactions with FACS. They provide visibility and stimulate local development through their scientific activities. ACS International Chapters can facilitate chemistry education, career and professional development, and present opportunities for partnerships with local chemical societies, networking, and regional outreach.

Further FACS-ACS Interactions There are a number of possible areas for future FACS-ACS collaboration, such as faculty and student exchange programs, industrial consortia, trilateral agreements with a third party, and collaborative programs with individual chemical societies within FACS.

FACS-ACS Exchanges, Travel Grants, and Awards One way for ACS and FACS to work together is to promote faculty and student exchanges; education and industry tours; conferences, symposia, and workshops. This may lead to joint conferment of FACS and ACS-styled awards, fellowships and lectureship opportunities, and global ambassadors, which may in turn propagate a new round of exchanges, tours, and workshops. 117 Cheng et al.; Jobs, Collaborations, and Women Leaders in the Global Chemistry Enterprise ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2015.


International Chemistry Olympiad The International Chemistry Olympiad (IChO) is an annual academic competition for high school students. It is one of the International Science Olympiads. The first IChO was held in Prague, Czechoslovakia, in 1968. The event has been held every year since then, with the exception of 1971. In the IChO 2013 in Russia, there were 75 participating countries with 300 student contestants. Among the 34 gold medallists, 19 or 56% came from FACS member-countries. In the IChO in July 2014 held in Hanoi (Vietnam), the top student came from Singapore. This shows the advancement of a small country in FACS. Over the course of three decades, Singapore started by joining the IChO, then started its own Singapore Chemistry Olympiad (SChO) for senior high school students, and later created the Junior Chemistry Olympiad (JChO) for junior high school students. This completed the education value chain for chemistry learning in an open environment in the entire secondary and pre-university space. Of course, the U.S. has been active in IChO as well. What can we do together and learn from each other? If so, this would show the potential of cross-Atlantic and cross-Continental chemistry learning and exposure. Catalysing Industry Engagement Industrial engagement can be a fruitful activity for ACS and FACS. Of the top 20 global chemical companies, eight of them, or 40%, are Asia-based. These companies include Sinopec (China, 2nd), SABIC (Saudi Arabia, 4th), Formosa Plastics (Taiwan, 4th), Mitsubishi Chemicals (Japan, 11th), LG Chem (S. Korea, 13th), Mitsui Chemicals (Japan, 17th), Sumitomo Chemical (Japan, 19th), and Reliance Industries (India, 20th). These companies are key drivers of the knowledge-based economy that we are in. We should seriously consider bringing these industry partners on board to enrich the collaboration between ACS and FACS. Opportunities for Single-Country Platforms There are several chemical societies within FACS that are rife for collaboration with ACS. In each case, FACS can serve as a bridge to facilitate interactions. For example, ACS can work with individual chemical societies to form industrial consortia, to present professional workshops, or to collaborate on the organization of National Chemistry Week A few suggested chemical societies include Institute of Chemistry Ceylon (IChemC), the Institute of Chemists, Papua New Guinea (ICPNG), the Chemical Society Located in Taipei (CSLT), the Chinese Chemical Society (CCS), Chemical Society of Thailand (CST), and the Singapore National Institute of Chemistry (SNIC). There are of course many others. Many of these societies are eager to work with ACS, may it be in educational projects or technical workshops, or cross-continental symposia. FACS can facilitate such partnership. IChemC is a professional learned society with a membership of 1,500. Its activities include an annual session, international conferences, science 118 Cheng et al.; Jobs, Collaborations, and Women Leaders in the Global Chemistry Enterprise ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2015.


popularization programs, and professional lectures among others. Its educational arm, the College of Chemical Sciences, offers a Graduate program in Chemistry and a Diploma in Laboratory Technology in Chemistry. ICPNG, established in 2006, conducts several activities in promoting chemistry. It supports upper secondary chemistry education, including preparing syllabi and publishing two chemistry textbooks. ICPNG also supports tertiary education, with its members teaching bachelors’ programs, conducting research, and supervising graduate level programs. The organization also holds chemistry conferences and publishes an annual Chemistry Journal. In addition, The President of ICPNG chairs the Chemical Standards Committee of Papua New Guinea. The Chemical Society in Tapei has four regional divisions, 2,000 active members, three society publications, and a number of activities including annual meetings, workshops, a chemistry camp for high schools, a chemistry show truck for middle schools, and training courses for professionals. The Chinese Chemical Society, founded in 1932, has over 50,000 members, 31 local branches, three overseas branches, and a number of discipline and working committees. CCS Congress is the largest meeting in the field of chemistry in China, with over 5,000 attendees, and is the co-organizer of CS3 (Chemical Sciences and Society Summit) with ACS and several other groups. The Chemical Society of Thailand has over 3,000 members, hosts the PACCON International Conference, and runs the Standard Chemistry Test Project. It has also been involved in 11 FACS projects, as well as several ACS meetings. The Singapore National Institute of Chemistry (SNIC) was formed in 1970. It organizes professional meetings, seminars, symposiums, talks, congress and exhibitions and publishes newsletters and a bulletin. SNIC promotes chemical education by organizing talks on chemistry and chemistry-related contests for secondary students. In 2013, it organized the hugely successful 15th Asian Chemical Congress with nearly 1,500 local, regional and international delegates. This was followed by another major meeting in 2014 in the 41st International Conference on Coordination Chemistry. In 2015, it will celebrate Singapore’s 50th national birthday in hosting the Golden Jubilee Chemistry Conference in August.

Conclusions There are several collaboration models that may be applicable to the relationship between FACS and ACS. The first relates to the ongoing A2CS meeings. The question is what we should do next. Also in consideration are the possible catalytic and propagating effects of this symposium. The Gobal Innovation Imperatives (Gii) bought to Asia under the partnership of ACS and SNIC held in Singapore in December 2014 was an example of such propagation. It created the Water Innovation Treatment & Solutions (WITS) to discuss innovative methods and technological solutions in water purification and desalination in an urban environment. Workshops of this nature could offer significant value to many developing countries in Asia where reliable fresh and clean water supply is still one of the national priorities. 119 Cheng et al.; Jobs, Collaborations, and Women Leaders in the Global Chemistry Enterprise ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2015.


Another option is to establish a possible tri-lateral consortium involving ACS, FACS, and a third partner. Such consortium may also accept industry partners to join force to take on some of the global challenges. An example would be the cooperation between SNIC and ACS as well as a global giant such as Procter & Gamble (P&G) in raising the awareness of consumer care needs and R&G growth. P&G’s recent establishment of a major research center in Singapire is a good example of public-private partnership that strives to raise the quality of life through science and innovation. FACS and ACS should participate in such a partnership. A third option is for ACS to engage in the region with FACS acting as a facilitator. The engagement may involve regional workshops, meetings, and exchanges. The WITS forum in Dec 2014 in Singapore is just one of the many possibilities. Different types of engagement may be tailored for developing and developed regions. Finally, a one-to-one partnerships with ACS and a local society (single country platform) may be considered. The FACS can act as a bridge to these partnerships to assist with industrial consortia, professional workshops, National Chemistry Week, and other activities.

Acknowledgments I am indebted to the assistance of H. N. Cheng, Brad Miller and John Brodish in the prepation of this manuscript as well as the FACS and SNIC Council members for their support and encouragement.

References 1.

2. 3.

ACS/FACS Collaboration Alliance Home Page; http://www.acs.org/content/ acs/en/global/international/alliances/facs-alliance-page.html (accessed April 30, 2015). More information on FACS Home Page; http://www.facs-as.org (accessed April 30, 2015). More information is given on ACS Home Page; www.acs.org (accessed April 30, 2015).

120 Cheng et al.; Jobs, Collaborations, and Women Leaders in the Global Chemistry Enterprise ACS Symposium Series; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2015.

Towards A Sustainable Partnership Between ACS & FACS: What's

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