News & Notices
New
IUPAC Officers Take Office
release 9 Jan 2006
revised 13 Feb 2006
Bryan Henry, Professor of Chemistry at the University
of Guelph, Canada, assumed the presidency of IUPAC - the International
Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry - on 1 January 2006. The central
theme of Prof. Henry's research concerns the experimental and theoretical
study of molecules in highly excited vibrational states. Henry, who
served as IUPAC Vice-President and President-elect during 2004-2005,
has maintained a distinguished and active research career and is recognized
as one of Canadas leading physical chemists.
Also on 1 January, Kazuko Matsumoto, Professor of
Chemistry at Waseda University, Japan, became Vice-President and President-elect
at the IUPAC General Assembly in Beijing, China, in August 2005. Meanwhile
David StC Black, Professor of Chemistry at the University
of New South Wales, Australia, continues as Secretary General and Dr.
Christoph F. Buxtorf (Switzerland) as Treasurer. Prof.
Leiv K. Sydnes (Norway) is now Past President for 2006-2007.
2006-7 IUPAC Officers
President Bryan Henry
(Canada)
Vice President Kazuko
Matsumoto (Japan)
Secretary General David
StClair Black (Australia)
Treasurer Christoph
F. Buxtorf (Switzerland)
Past President Leiv K.
Sydnes (Norway)
Bryan Henry of Canada becomes IUPAC President
The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) will
begin 2006 under the leadership of a world-renowned scientist from Canada.
Bryan Henry of Guelph, who served as IUPAC Vice President during 2004-5,
will assume the role of IUPAC President for the 2006-7 Biennium.
In 1963, Prof. Henry received his bachelor's degree from the University
of British Columbia; he later earned his doctorate at Florida State
University in the United States. Between 1969 and 1986, Prof. Henry
was an Associate Professor, a Professor, and Department of Chemistry
Head at the University of Manitoba. Henry has recently retired as Professor
of Chemistry at the Department of Chemistry at the University of Guelph,
where he held the position of Department Chair from 1988-1993.
Bryan Henry has served as Vice President and President of the Canadian
Society for Chemistry (CSC), and as Chair and Vice Chair of the Chemical
Institute of Canada (CIC). A member of Canadian Section of the Society
of Chemical Industry since 1992, he has been both Chair and Vice Chair.
He was also a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the Canadian
Journal of Chemistry (1996-1998). Additionally, he was part of the Selection
Committee for the Canadian Science and Engineering Hall of Fame from1996-2000
Prof. Henry has been a Member of the Canadian National Committee for
IUPAC since 1995, and served as Chair (1998-2003). He was the Scientific
Program Chair of the 39th IUPAC Congress, which was held concurrently
with the 42nd General Assembly in Ottawa.
>
Read the President's Column
Chem. Int.
2006, Jan , p. 2
Kazuko Matsumoto of Japan becomes IUPAC Vice President
Kazuko Matsumoto began her two-year term as IUPAC President-elect and
Vice President on 1 January 2006. Matsumoto received her B.S. in 1972
and Ph.D. in 1977, both from the University of Tokyo. She started her
academic career in 1977 as a research associate working with Prof. Keiichiro
Fuwa at the University of Tokyo, and then moved to Waseda University
as an associate professor in 1984. She was promoted to a full professor
at Waseda University in 1989, and has served there ever since. During
these years, she spent two years (19911992) at the Institute for
Molecular Science (Japan) as an adjunct professor, and spent half a
year (1993) with Prof. Steve Lippard at MIT as a visiting professor.
In addition, she visited and gave lectures at major Japanese and foreign
universities (Bari, Florence, Dortmund, Leiden, Bazel, California Institute
of Technology, Stanford) as a visiting professor. She also has given
invited lectures at many internationally renowned academic meetings,
including the recent IUPAC Congress in Beijing (Aug 2005). She has published
more than 200 scientific papers in analytical and inorganic chemistry
and holds 40 patents.
Matsumoto is a member of the Engineering Academy of Japan, and is also
a member of the Council for Science and Technology Policy, cabinet office.
For more than 10 years, she has served on the advisory board of major
scientific journals including the Bulletin of the Chemical Society of
Japan and the European Journal of Inorganic Chemistry. She also served
as the vice president of the Japan Society for Analytical Chemistry
(2001) and is now the chairperson of the international relations committee
of the Chemical Society of Japan. She has worked as the national representative
in FACS (the Federation of Asian Chemical Societies) and organized the
EurAsia conference (an international conference between Asia and Europe)
in Asia.
Matsumoto has earned honors for her outstanding contributions to chemistry,
which include the Award for Promotion of Young Researchers from the
Japan Society for Analytical Chemistry (1984), the Division Award from
the Chemical Society of Japan (1989), and the Ichimura Award (2000).
In Japan, she is a member of the chemistry division of the Science Council
of Japan, which is the National Adhering Organization for IUPAC in Japan.
David StC. Black Continues his Term as IUPAC Secretary
General
David StC. Black began his four-year term as IUPAC Secretary General
on 1 January 2004. David Black, born in Wollongong, earned his bachelors
and masters degrees at the University of Sydney. He was awarded an Overseas
Scholarship by the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851, and
earned his doctorate at Cambridge. He completed his postdoctoral research
at Columbia University, and then began work at Monash University. After
nearly 20 years at Monash, he was appointed to the Chair of Organic
Chemistry at University of New South Wales (UNSW) in 1983.
His research, described in almost 250 publications, has led to the
synthesis of new types of organic molecules and the discovery of new
synthetic methodologies, particularly in heterocyclic chemistry. He
has also co-written a monograph (with J. M. Swan) entitled "Organometallics
in Organic Synthesis". His current interest centers on new aspects
of indole chemistry.
Prof. Black has engaged in many overseas opportunities. He spent periods
of study leave at the ETH Zürich (1968-9), Würzburg University
(1974 - as an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow) and Cambridge University
(1980). He has also held Visiting Professorships at the Science University
of Tokyo (1988), the University of Auckland (1992), Göttingen University
(1994), Innsbruck University (1999) and Kobe Pharmaceutical University
(2000). He has given numerous invited lectures at international conferences
and major universities.
Since 1993, he has been the Leader of the Joint Selection Team for
Australian Development Scholarships for Indonesian postgraduate students.
At UNSW he was Head of the School of Chemistry from 1987-1990, and acting
Dean of the Faculty of Science from January to July 1987. He was appointed
Associate Dean (Research) for the Faculty of Science and Technology
in 2000, and re-appointed to that position in the Faculty of Science
in July 2001.
David Black's honors include the Rennie Medal (1970), H. G. Smith Medal
(1993), and the A. J. Birch Medal (2003) of the Royal Australian Chemical
Institute (RACI). In 1990, he was both the Liversidge Lecturer of the
Royal Society of New South Wales and the Royal Society of Chemistry
Lecturer. He was President of RACI in 1998, and served as Chair of the
National Committee for Chemistry from 1999-2003.
Prof. Black has been a committee member of the Division of Organic and
Biomolecular Chemistry of IUPAC since 1994. He served as Division Vice
President during 2002-3, and now, as Secretary General, does conduct
the specified business of the Union and oversee the IUPAC Secretariat.
Christoph Buxtorf Continues his Second Term as
IUPAC Treasurer
Christoph Buxtorf of Basel began his second four-year term as IUPAC
Treasurer on 1 January 2004. A native of Basel, Dr. Buxtorf received
a degree in chemistry from the Engineering School in Burgdorf, and his
doctorate from the University of Fribourg, Switzerland. He completed
a post doctoral fellowship at McGill University, Montreal, Canada, and
pursued further education in Finance Management and Corporate Strategy
in Europe and at Harvard.
Dr. Buxtorf retired in 2000 after 34 years with Novartis Crop Protection
(now Syngenta) as head of Manufacturing and Technology. He has held
technical and managerial responsibilities in manufacturing and chemical
development in both Switzerland and the USA. He was a member of the
Executive Committee of Novartis Crop Protection, and was responsible
for worldwide manufacturing operations and technical development; he
was also a member of the Novartis Technology Advisory Board and the
Safety and Environmental Council.
Dr. Buxtorf is a member of the Swiss Chemical Society (SCS) and the
Swiss Society of Chemical Industries. He was actively engaged in the
SCS division of Industrial Chemistry 12 years. He was chairman of the
manufacturing section of the European Crop Protection Association, with
extended responsibilities for worldwide industry standards.
Christoph Buxtorf has served as Treasurer and as a member of the Executive
and Finance Committees of IUPAC since 1999. He was Chair of the ad hoc
special working group on national subscriptions and related finance
matters, was a member of the Conference Policy Development Committee,
and a member of the ad hoc working group on industrial relations.
Leiv K. Sydnes of Norway becomes IUPAC Past President
Leiv K. Sydnes of Bergen, served as IUPAC President during 2004-5,
will assume the role of IUPAC Past President for the 2006-7 Biennium.
Born in Haugesund, Norway, Prof. Sydnes finished high school in Stavanger,
Norway, and subsequently attended the University of Oslo, Norway, obtaining
his Ph.D. in 1978. Immediately following the completion of his doctorate,
he worked as a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Western Ontario,
Canada, until 1980. Sydnes was an Associate Professor and a Professor
of organic chemistry at the University of Tromsø, Norway from
1980 until 1993. In 1993, he became Professor of organic chemistry at
the University of Bergen, Norway.
Professor Sydnes has been involved in academic research for almost
30 years and has published a large number of scientific papers in the
field of synthetic organic chemistry. He has written textbooks in chemistry,
made television programs shown on national television, and has had appointments
as a visiting professor at Universities in Austria, Australia, Japan,
and the USA. He has served as President of the Norwegian Chemical Society,
and has been heavily involved in the European Association for Chemical
and Molecular Sciences (EuCheMS) for almost 10 years. Leiv Sydnes has
received a number of awards, including the FECS Award for Service in
2003.