Federation of Asian Chemical Societies (FACS)

  Last updated on 28 Oct., 2004      

Report on 10-ACC

by: Prof. Huynh Van Trung

The tenth Asian Chemical Congress (10-ACC) was held in Hanoi from 21 to 24 October 2003 in association with the 8th-Eurasia Conference on Chemical Sciences.

In adjacent to the above two conferences, the 4th National Chemical Congress (4th NCC) was held one day earlier and that was organized by the Chemical Society of Vietnam (CSV) with about 450 national Vietnamese chemists attended. Majority of participants of the 4th NCC also presented at both of the international meetings.

Including the 8th-Eurasia Conference, there were a total of 800 delegates (440 Vietnamese, 257 overseas attendees from 32 countries and territories), in which about half designated to attend the 10-ACC (455 delegates including 105 overseas attendees).

The 10-ACC consisted of 6 Sessions (Analytical Chemistry; Medical Chemistry and Natural Products; Food Chemistry; Organic Chemistry; Physical and Theoretical Chemistry; and Polymer), and 7 Symposia (Environmental Chemistry; Chemical Education; Green Chemistry; Chemometrics and Chemo-informatics; Exploitation of Environmental Chemistry via Low-Cost Instrumentation and Micro-scale Chemistry; Medicinal Chemistry and Natural Products) with 114 presentations, 101 posters in the Poster Session and 11 Plenary Lectures in conjunction with 8th-Eurasia Conference, in which 3 Nobel laureate lectures (Asymmetric Catalysis: Science and Opportunities, Prof. R. Noyori; Molecular Beam Studies of Chemical reaction Dynamics, Prof. Y. Tse Lee; Supramolecular Chemistry - From Molecular Recognition toward Self-Organization, Prof. J. Marie Lehn) and 4 award lectures (Phosphorescent Metal-organic Compounds. From Electron Transfer Reaction in Biological Systems to New Molecular Materials for Organic Optoelectronics, Prof. Chi-Ming Che; The Role of Public Sector Research in the Economic Development of Nations, Prof. T. H. Spurling; Bringing Chemistry to the Community - the Australian Experience, Prof. C. Fogliani; Controlled Bringing of Metal Ions by Heterocycles: the Consequences, Prof. S. Brooker) were delivered. All 10-ACC Sessions, Symposia and Poster Session were organized parallel with those of 8th-Eurasia Conference in the Daewoo Hotel. 

The Vice-Prime Minister and the Minister of Sciences and Technology were present in the opening ceremony and delivered the welcome speeches.

More than 100 invited guests, including officials and leaders of scientific institutions, and several journalists attended the opening ceremony and in the first day of the conferences. 

Along with the two conferences, the CSV was responsible for arranging and supporting three other meetings: 12th General Assembly and 44th EXCO meeting of the FACS, and the meeting of IAB of Eurasia CCS. In general, all events had been run successfully. 

The conference rooms were adequately equipped with presentation facilities such as power-point projector, proceedings documents such as book of abstract and the conferences programs were printed and delivered on time. Overseas guests and majority of the participants stayed at the Daewoo Hotel, where the conferences were held; a few participants stayed at nearby hotels, whereby transport to the meeting halls was provided. Variety of high quality lunch was served to all participants everyday.

Most of the presented papers, especially the lectures by the Nobel Laureates were of high level of chemical science, updated for all branches of the science concerned at the conferences. All lectures, except for the plenary lecture of Prof. M. Fujita from Japan due to missing of the flight, were presented. 

Many fruitful and interesting meetings and discussions had been conducted during and post conferences; relationships and cooperation between Vietnamese and foreign scientists had been established and fostered.

Before October last year,

We faced with many difficulties such as SARS disease, probable conflict between 10-ACC and 8th-Eurasia in scientific programs and the lack of experience of the organizing committee to organize large scale international conferences. In addition, most Vietnamese scientists found English language a problem in the international communications.

Despite the difficulties, we could say that the 10-ACC was very good and successfully held. It was one of the biggest events of Asian chemical history and it has considerably contributed to the development of chemistry in Vietnam. The young generation of Vietnamese was highly motivated by this splendid event (i.e. Prof. Noyori wrote in the letter to us after finishing the conferences).

All the logistics and organization carried out very well in the scientific program, in the accommodation preparation for the major participants and in other matters and activities such as entry visa, welcome and closing banquet, tourism, etc. We amicably avoided the conflict between 10-ACC and 8th-Eurasia Conference. Many European scientists fully recognized this matter, though they did not believe during the conference preparation process.

There have been, due to lack of experience, some minor confusions occurred in the registration and in receiving of abstracts as well as in providing visa for overseas participants. Also the national organizing committee without much knowledge about money transfer matters through international and domestic banks, has resulted troubles to senders, some transmissions were being double-charged on fees causing small lost in registration fees for the host.

There were not many full text papers presented by overseas participants being received thus far and therefore the conference Proceedings is still in the pending preparation stage for printing. The Proceedings would be very useful and informative to the Vietnamese colleagues. 

To conclude, the International Organizing Committee, the National Organizing Committee and the International Advisory Board have contributed significantly to the success of the 10-ACC.

National Organizing Committee

International Advisory Board (IAB)

	Presentation of 2003 FACS Foundation Award to Prof. Chi-Ming Che (Hong Kong) (middle) by Prof. Barry Noller (left) and Prof. Ho Si Thoang (right)
	Presentation of 2003 FACS Distinguished Young Chemists Award  to Associate Prof. Sally Brooker (New Zealand) by Prof. Barry Noller
	Presentation of 2003 FACS Award for Distinguished Contribution to Economic Advancement to Prof. Tom Spurling (Australia) (left) by Prof. Barry Noller
	Photo taken after the lecture given by Associate Prof. Charles Fogliani (Australia) (left), recipient of the 2003 Inaugural FACS Award for Distinguished Contribution to Advancement in Chemical Education.
	Prof. Sane (India) (right) received his FACS Citation from FACS President, Prof. Barry Noller

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