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Report from IUPAC-Sponsored Symposium

13th International Conference on Organic Synthesis (ICOS13),
1-5 July 2000, Warsaw, Poland

> Back to Calendar

This conference is the latest in a highly successful series, the most recent of which have been held in Venice (1998) and Amsterdam (1996). The Warsaw Conference was held under the auspices of the Polish Academy of Sciences, the State Committee for Scientific Research, and the Polish Chemical Society, in addition to IUPAC. The Chairman of the Organizing Committee was Prof. Mieczyslaw Makosza, and the Secretary was Dr. Andrzej Konowal. The almost 700 participants were treated to a wonderful conference, which lived up to the standards of its predecessors, both in terms of scientific content and social hospitality.

The scientific program was arranged in four sections covering new synthetic methods, stereoselective synthesis, metal-mediated synthesis, and target-oriented synthesis. Eight plenary lectures were given by Ryoji Noyori, Bernd Giese, Clayton Heathcock, Manfred Reetz, Alessandro Dondoni, Max Malacria, Janusz Jurczak, and Alan Katritzky, and there were 26 invited section lectures. (Manuscripts from ICOS-13 appear in the September 2000 issue of PAC, Vol. 72, No. 9.)

The Thieme-IUPAC Award Lecture was given by Alois Fürstner, and was one of the highlights of the entire conference. The major contribution of this award by Thieme has become a central feature of the ICOS series.

The Fürstner lecture, with its originality, brilliant insight, and clear exposition, was greeted with tremendous enthusiasm by the large audience. There was also a half-day minisymposium on green organic synthesis, which comprised 5 interesting and varied lectures on this fundamentally important area.

A very encouraging aspect of the conference was the presentation of 65 oral presentations and 215 posters, many by young postgraduate students. For the first time in this series, poster prizes were awarded-one for the best poster in each of the two evening sessions. The standard was extremely high, and the choice was almost impossible. The panel eventually awarded prizes to Faye Watson (Southampton) and Mateus Mach (Warsaw), who received the lasting value of a "Gold Book" from IUPAC, and a more immediately gratifying bottle of wine from the conference organizers. May these awards become another tradition!

The conference was held within the impressive and atmospheric Palace of Culture and Science, visible from most parts of Warsaw, and the scene of former major political events. The official social program included a splendid opening reception in the Congress Hall foyer, a delightful chamber music concert in the Congress Hall, and a very jolly conference dinner in the Sobieski Hotel. Unofficially, of course, there was much more. Prof. Makosza and his team are to be congratulated on the great success of ICOS-13, especially as they agreed to stage this meeting on rather short notice. The main outcome of ICOS-13 is that synthetic organic chemistry is clearly a thriving and vibrant activity. The next meeting in this series, ICOS-14, is scheduled to be held in Christchurch, New Zealand from 14-19 July 2002.

Prof. David StC. Black
Secretary, IUPAC Organic and Biomolecular
Chemistry Division III
School of Chemistry
University of New South Wales
Sydney, Australia

> Published in Chem. Int. 23(1), 2001


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