International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry

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.Since this time, IUPAC has been the official organization with the responsibility of updating and maintaining official organic nomenclature. One notable country excluded from early IUPAC was Germany. Germany's exclusion was a result of prejudice towards it 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. At this time, IUPAC was affiliated with the Allied powers, but had little involvement with the war effort itself. East and West Germany were only readmitted to IUPAC in 1973. Since World War II, IUPAC has focused on standardizing nomenclature and methods in science. In 2016, IUPAC denounced the use of chlorine as a chemical weapon. In a letter to Ahmet Üzümcü, director of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the organization pointed out their concerns in regards to chlorine weapon usage in the Syrian civil war and other places . 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. • 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 main parts: the substituents, carbon chain length, and chemical affix. Another example of IUPAC organic nomenclature is 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" 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. It 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. And they make the genome of an organism much smaller and easier to read. The codes for amino acids (22 amino acids and six special codes) are: == Publications ==

Non-series books Experimental Thermodynamics book series The Experimental Thermodynamics books series covers many topics in the fields of thermodynamics. Series of books on analytical and physical chemistry of environmental systems Coloured cover book and website series (nomenclature) IUPAC colour code their books in order to make each publication distinguishable. == International Year of Chemistry ==

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. == See also ==