Appointment of New Executive Director
John W. Jost will be the new Executive Director of the International
Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), according to an announcement
today from the IUPAC Secretariat. Jost will organize and direct the
IUPAC Secretariat when it moves to Research Triangle Park, North Carolina,
USA later this year. He replaces Maurice (Mo) Williams who has headed
the Secretariat for 29 years since its establishment at Oxford, UK
in 1968.
Jost comes to the IUPAC post from Unocal (a large international oil
company), where he has held managerial and executive positions. Born
in Germany, Jost moved as a child to USA, where his education and
career have been centered. He received Bachelor's and Master's degrees
in chemistry from Columbia University, obtained his Ph.D. in physical
chemistry from the State University of New York in Stony Brook in
1971, and did postdoctoral research at the University of California
in Berkeley. He has been at Unocal since 1974, serving in recent years
as Senior Vice- President for Administration, President of Unocal
Process Technology and Licensing, and Vice-President of the Fred L.
Hartley Research Center.
IUPAC President Albert Fischli pointed out that Jost's appointment
comes against a backdrop of intensive evaluation of IUPAC's mission
and plans for restructuring of the organization, which was founded
in 1919. Fischli added, "Dr. Jost has superb qualifications to
organize and manage the new Secretariat. I expect that he will build
on the successes of our Secretariat under Mo Williams and will introduce
enhancements to permit the Union to meet the challenges of the coming
years."
To ensure continuity, transfer of functions to RTP from the present
Secretariat in Oxford will be gradual. The administrative staff in
Oxford will remain intact until after the biennial IUPAC General Assembly,
to be held in Geneva, Switzerland, 23-30 August.