On behalf of the Organizing Committee for IUPAC|CCCE 2021, I am delighted to invite you to the 51 st IUPAC General Assembly (GA) and 48 th World Chemistry Congress (WCC), in conjunction with the 104 th Canadian Chemistry Conference and Exhibition (CCCE). The IUPAC|CCCE 2021 events will be hosted by the Canadian Society for Chemistry (CSC), the Canadian National Committee for IUPAC (CNC-IUPAC) and the National Research Council Canada (NRC). Canada has previously hosted the IUPAC GA & WCC in Vancouver (1981) and Ottawa (2003). The original plans for IUPAC|CCCE 2021 were for the events to take place in Montréal, QC, Canada, 13-20 August 2021. Unfortunately, as travel to Montréal are impeded by the global pandemic, all events associated with IUPAC|CCCE 2021 will occur virtually. As chemical sciences professionals, we know conferences are a key venue for professional development, networking, and scientific advancement, and we will work to ensure that these principles stand true for the virtual event as well. While not a replacement for in-person events, this new endeavour will synthesize the best of our in-person events, with the convenience and accessibility of a virtual event. Beyond that, a virtual experience provides unique opportunities to engage a global audience, reach more young professionals, reduce our environmental impact, and stay safe.

Chemists find careers in the chemical industry very rewarding. The focus is on applied chemistry and in delivering solutions that meet customer needs, whether the customers are other industrial companies or individual consumers. Chemistry provides solutions to the global challenges facing our society, including the need for clean water, nutritious food, improved healthcare and wellness, affordable housing, and sustainable infrastructure. Within industry, chemists serve in a wide variety of roles. The largest fraction may be in research and development (R&D), although opportunities in manufacturing, technical service and development, supply chain, marketing, intellectual property protection, sales and commercial functions, and many other options are also open to chemists who want to apply their skills [1]. I was drawn to a career in industry because I’m results oriented and I wanted my work to be applied immediately and have an impact.

In a year marked by unprecedented challenges, IUPAC hosted the largest ever Global Women’s Breakfast (GWB2021) on 9 February 2021, bringing together more than 20,000 people around the world to celebrate the achievements of women scientists, to strengthen and expand professional networks, to inspire the next generations, and to challenge the status quo with respect to equality for women scientists in the workplace.

At the start of 2020, IUPAC’s Committee on Publications and Cheminformatics Data Standards (CPCDS) formed a Task Force to propose guidelines for the dissemination and sharing of machine-readable chemical data. These guidelines would be for IUPAC to adopt internally and recommend to the wider chemistry community.

The G-Science Academies of Science and of Medicine published a statement in 2020 titled “Digital Health and the Learning Health System." The statement is interesting and relevant to the work of the Div. VII Chemistry and Human Health, and especially to the Subcommittee on Nomenclature for Properties and Units (SC-NPU).

COMEST, an acronym for the French name of the World Commission on the Ethics of Scientific Knowledge and Technology [1], is an advisory body within United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and a forum of reflection, “mandated to formulate ethical principles that could provide decision-makers with criteria that extend beyond purely economic considerations.” [2] Over the years, the Commission has addressed ethical issues in many areas where science and technology have an impact on people, nature, and society. The deliberations result in reports, which are put forward to the biannual General Conference of UNESCO for discussion and adoption. The outcome has often been ethical recommendations and guidelines to consider and hopefully abide to so that science can interact with society in a responsible way and without adverse consequences.

Owing to their potential for eco-friendly matter upgrading by molecular sieving and shape-selective conversion, nanoporous materials are among the pioneers of green chemistry. The performance of their application is often controlled by diffusion, i.e. the rate of mass transfer within these materials. This mass transfer, however, is rather complex and subject to numerous influences. Unambiguous diffusion measurement has thus remained a challenge to this day with errors in the interpretation of experimental data being all too common. The present feature reports the efforts of an IUPAC initiative to overcome these limitations.

Following the recent publication of the IUPAC Technical Report on the variation of lead isotopic composition and atomic weight in terrestrial materials [1], the IUPAC Commission on Isotopic Abundances and Atomic Weights (CIAAW) is recommending changes to the standard atomic weight ( i.e . relative atomic mass) of lead:

P ure and Applied Chemistry Special Issue— Call for Papers: Cheminformatics: Data and Standards.

Following the success of the IYPT2019 [10.1515/ci-2020-0204], IUPAC continued the Periodic Table Challenge which not only had more questions, but also welcomed more participants! Since its start in 2019, more than 100 000 tests have been taken by keen players from 155 countries/territories all over the world. Since, the PT Challenge saw not only continued popularity but was translated into Arabic, Chinese, Russian, and Spanish. Countless schools have participated throughout the year and we are proud to announce the list of 15 most active schools that have showed great and sustained interest in the IUPAC Periodic Table Challenge:

The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry and Solvay announce the winners of the 2021 IUPAC-Solvay International Award for Young Chemists, presented for the best Ph.D. theses in the chemical sciences, as described in 1000-word essays.

In 2019, the IUPAC Analytical Chemistry Division established two awards:

During the 51 st IUPAC General Assembly, now to be held online early August 2021, the Council will be asked to elect a Vice President, a Treasurer, and members of the Bureau to fulfill the vacancies created by retiring members. IUPAC National Adhering Organizations have been invited to submit nominations. (see News posted 30 December 2020)

Provisional Recommendations are preliminary drafts of IUPAC recommendations. These drafts encompass topics including terminology, nomenclature, and symbols. Following approval, the final recommendations are published in IUPAC’s journal Pure and Applied Chemistry (PAC) or in IUPAC books. During the commentary period for Provisional Recommendations, interested parties are encouraged to suggest revisions to the recommendation’s author. https://iupac.org/recommendations/under-review-by-the-public/