International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry

Abbreviation	IUPAC
Formation	1919; 105 years ago (1919)
Type	International non-governmental organization, standards organization
Headquarters	Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, United States
Region served	Worldwide
Membership	International Science Council
Official language	English
President	Ehud Keinan
Secretary General	Mary Garson

The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC /ˈaɪjuːpæk, ˈjuː-/) is an international federation of National Adhering Organizations working for the advancement of the chemical sciences, especially by developing nomenclature and terminology. It is a member of the International Science Council (ISC). IUPAC is registered in Zürich, Switzerland, and the administrative office, known as the "IUPAC Secretariat", is in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, United States. This administrative office is headed by IUPAC's executive director, currently Greta Heydenrych.

IUPAC was established in 1919 as the successor of the International Congress of Applied Chemistry for the advancement of chemistry. Its members, the National Adhering Organizations, can be national chemistry societies, national academies of sciences, or other bodies representing chemists. There are fifty-four National Adhering Organizations and three Associate National Adhering Organizations. IUPAC's Inter-divisional Committee on Nomenclature and Symbols (IUPAC nomenclature) is the recognized world authority in developing standards for the naming of the chemical elements and compounds. Since its creation, IUPAC has been run by many different committees with different responsibilities. These committees run different projects which include standardizing nomenclature, finding ways to bring chemistry to the world, and publishing works.

IUPAC is best known for its works standardizing nomenclature in chemistry, but IUPAC has publications in many science fields including chemistry, biology, and physics. Some important work IUPAC has done in these fields includes standardizing nucleotide base sequence code names; publishing books for environmental scientists, chemists, and physicists; and improving education in science. IUPAC is also known for standardizing the atomic weights of the elements through one of its oldest standing committees, the Commission on Isotopic Abundances and Atomic Weights (CIAAW).

Creation and history

Friedrich August Kekulé von Stradonitz

The need for an international standard for chemistry was first addressed in 1860 by a committee headed by German scientist Friedrich August Kekulé von Stradonitz. This committee was the first international conference to create an international naming system for organic compounds. The ideas that were formulated at that conference evolved into the official IUPAC nomenclature of organic chemistry. IUPAC stands as a legacy of this meeting, making it one of the most important historical international collaborations of chemistry societies. Since this time, IUPAC has been the official organization held with the responsibility of updating and maintaining official organic nomenclature. IUPAC as such was established in 1919. One notable country excluded from this early IUPAC is Germany. Germany's exclusion was a result of prejudice towards Germans by the Allied powers after World War I. Germany was finally admitted into IUPAC in 1929. However, Nazi Germany was removed from IUPAC during World War II.

During World War II, IUPAC was affiliated with the Allied powers, but had little involvement during the war effort itself. After the war, East and West Germany were readmitted to IUPAC in 1973. Since World War II, IUPAC has been focused on standardizing nomenclature and methods in science without interruption.

In 2016, IUPAC denounced the use of chlorine as a chemical weapon. The organization pointed out their concerns in a letter to Ahmet Üzümcü, the director of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), in regards to the practice of utilizing chlorine for weapon usage in Syria among other locations. The letter stated, "Our organizations deplore the use of chlorine in this manner. The indiscriminate attacks, possibly carried out by a member state of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), are of concern to chemical scientists and engineers around the globe and we stand ready to support your mission of implementing the CWC." According to the CWC, "the use, stockpiling, distribution, development or storage of any chemical weapons is forbidden by any of the 192 state party signatories."

Committees and governance

IUPAC is governed by several committees that all have different responsibilities. The committees are as follows: Bureau, CHEMRAWN (Chem Research Applied to World Needs) Committee, Committee on Chemistry Education, Committee on Chemistry and Industry, Committee on Printed and Electronic Publications, Evaluation Committee, Executive Committee, Finance Committee, Interdivisional Committee on Terminology, Nomenclature and Symbols, Project Committee, and Pure and Applied Chemistry Editorial Advisory Board. Each committee is made up of members of different National Adhering Organizations from different countries.

The steering committee hierarchy for IUPAC is as follows:

• All committees have an allotted budget to which they must adhere.
• Any committee may start a project.
• If a project's spending becomes too much for a committee to continue funding, it must take the issue to the Project Committee.
• The project committee either increases the budget or decides on an external funding plan.
• The Bureau and Executive Committee oversee operations of the other committees.

Nomenclature

Scientists framed a systematic method for naming organic compounds based on their structures. Hence, the naming rules were formulated by IUPAC.

Basic spellings

IUPAC establishes rules for harmonized spelling of some chemicals to reduce variation among different local English-language variants. For example, they recommend "aluminium" rather than "aluminum", "sulfur" rather than "sulphur", and "caesium" rather than "cesium".

Organic nomenclature

IUPAC organic nomenclature has three basic parts: the substituents, carbon chain length, and chemical affix. The substituents are any functional groups attached to the main carbon chain. The main carbon chain is the longest possible continuous chain. The chemical affix denotes what type of molecule it is. For example, the ending ane denotes a single bonded carbon chain, as in "hexane" (C₆H₁₄).

Another example of IUPAC organic nomenclature is cyclohexanol:

Cyclohexanol

• The substituent name for a ring compound is cyclo.
• The indication (substituent name) for a six carbon chain is hex.
• The chemical ending for a single bonded carbon chain is ane.
• The chemical ending for an alcohol is ol.
• The two chemical endings are combined for an ending of anol indicating a single bonded carbon chain with an alcohol attached to it.

Inorganic nomenclature

Basic IUPAC inorganic nomenclature has two main parts: the cation and the anion. The cation is the name for the positively charged ion and the anion is the name for the negatively charged ion.

An example of IUPAC nomenclature of inorganic chemistry is potassium chlorate (KClO₃):

Potassium chlorate

• "Potassium" is the cation name.
• "Chlorate" is the anion name.

Amino acid and nucleotide base codes

IUPAC also has a system for giving codes to identify amino acids and nucleotide bases. IUPAC needed a coding system that represented long sequences of amino acids. This would allow for these sequences to be compared to try to find homologies. These codes can consist of either a one-letter code or a three-letter code.

These codes make it easier and shorter to write down the amino acid sequences that make up proteins. The nucleotide bases are made up of purines (adenine and guanine) and pyrimidines (cytosine and thymine or uracil). These nucleotide bases make up DNA and RNA. These nucleotide base codes make the genome of an organism much smaller and easier to read.

The codes for amino acids (24 amino acids and three special codes) are:

International Year of Chemistry

International Year of Chemistry logo

IUPAC and UNESCO were the lead organizations coordinating events for the International Year of Chemistry, which took place in 2011. The International Year of Chemistry was originally proposed by IUPAC at the general assembly in Turin, Italy. This motion was adopted by UNESCO at a meeting in 2008. The main objectives of the International Year of Chemistry were to increase public appreciation of chemistry and gain more interest in the world of chemistry. This event is also being held to encourage young people to get involved and contribute to chemistry. A further reason for this event being held is to honour how chemistry has made improvements to everyone's way of life.

IUPAC Presidents

IUPAC Presidents are elected by the IUPAC Council during the General Assembly. Below is the list of IUPAC Presidents since its inception in 1919.

Term	President	Nationality
1920–1922	Charles Moureu	France
1923–1925	William Jackson Pope	United Kingdom
1926–1928	Ernst Julius Cohen	Netherlands
1928–1934	Einar Biilman	Denmark
1934–1938	N. Paravano	Italy
1938–1947	Marston Taylor Bogert	United States
1947–1951	Hugo Rudolph Kruyt	Netherlands
1951–1955	Arne Tiselius	Sweden
1955–1959	Arthur Stoll	Switzerland
1959–1963	William Albert Noyes Jr.	United States
1963–1965	Lord Todd	United Kingdom
1965–1967	Wilhelm Klemm	Germany
1967–1969	V.N. Kondratiev	Soviet Union
1969–1971	Albert Lloyd George Rees	Australia
1971–1973	Jacques Bénard	France
1973–1975	Sir Harold Thompson	United Kingdom
1975–1977	Robert W. Cairns	United States
1977–1979	Georges Smets	Belgium
1979–1981	Heinrich Zollinger	Switzerland
1981–1983	Saburo Nagakura	Japan
1983–1985	William G. Schneider	Canada
1987–1989	Valentin A. Koptyug	Soviet Union
1989–1991	Yves P. Jeannin	France
1991–1993	Allen J. Bard	United States
1993–1995	Kiril I. Zamaraev	Russia
1996–1997	Albert E. Fischli	Switzerland
1998–1999	Joshua Jortner	Israel
2000–2001	Alan Hayes	United Kingdom
2002–2003	Pieter Streicher Steyn	South Africa
2004–2005	Leiv Kristen Sydnes	Norway
2006–2007	Bryan Henry	Canada
2008–2009	Jung-Il Jin	South Korea
2010–2011	Nicole J. Moreau	France
2012–2013	Kazuyuki Tatsumi	Japan
2014–2015	Mark Cesa	United States
2016–2017	Natalia Tarasova	Russia
2018–2019	Zhou Qifeng	China
2020–2021	Christopher M.A. Brett	Portugal
2022–2023	Javier García-Martínez	Spain
2024-2025	Ehud Keinan	Israel

See also

In Spanish: Unión Internacional de Química Pura y Aplicada para niños

• CAS registry number
• Chemical nomenclature
• Commission on Isotopic Abundances and Atomic Weights
• European Association for Chemical and Molecular Sciences
• Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements (IRMM)
• International Chemical Identifier (InChI)
• International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (IUBMB)
• International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP)
• List of chemical elements naming controversies
• National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
• Simplified molecular-input line-entry system (SMILES)