www.asiachem.news December 2021 | 11 funding to a selected proposal on the topics annually specified by the donor, such as novel materials for lithium-ion batteries. In 2021, based on another private legacy endowment fund, CSJ has set a brand-new award, the Saburo Nagakura Award named after the donor, an honorary Society member, to recognize and promote a promising researcher either in academia or industry with original, creative, and novel research, development, and/or education. For the first time for the Society, the award presents a non-restricted cash prize of 10 million Japanese yen (ca. 100 thousand USD) to a single recipient a year to be selected from the awardees of the afore-mentioned CSJ Awards except for the Award of the Chemical Society of Japan. International Exchange. Quite naturally, the CSJ actively commits to international exchange activities (Figure 5) in collaboration with the chemistry-related societies and organizations worldwide, including the American Chemical Society (ACS), the Canadian Society for Chemistry (CSC), the Chinese Chemical Society (CCS), the Chemical Research Society of India (CRSI), the Chemical Society Located in Taipei (CSLT), German Chemical Society (GDCh), the Israel Chemical Society, (ICS), Korean Chemical Society (KCS), the New Zealand Institute of Chemistry (NZIC), the Royal Australian Chemical Institute (RACI), the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), and many others. The Japanese Chemical Society is an active member of international chemistry organizations, such as the International Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) and the Federation of Asian Chemical Societies (FACS) (Figure 5). The CSJ, ACS, and CSC are the three founding societies of the International Chemical Congress of Pacific Basin Societies (Pacifichem). This Congress, held in every five years in Honolulu, HA, USA, is perhaps one of the largest and most comprehensive chemistry congresses with over 15,000 participants, co-organized by the seven Pacific Rim chemical societies (the founding members with CCS, KCS, NZIC, and RACI). Another interesting activity is the Chemical Sciences and Society Summit (CS3), a series of symposia jointly held by pairs of a chemical society and a funding agency in China, Germany, Japan, UK, and USA; the Japanese pair consists of CSJ and the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST). Every 2-3 years CS3 provides a forum to discuss topics important for chemistry relative to the world society, such as sustainability, environment, climate change, water, etc., and the next meeting will be hosted by CSJ and JST. With the Korean (KCS) and the Taipei (CSLT) partners, the CSJ holds a bilateral exchange agreement. Alternatingly every year, one partner society invites the president and/or younger chemists of the other to its annual meeting for lectures and human networking. Outreach. To foster next generation chemists and strengthen the relationship with the general public, the CSJ Headquarters and the Regional Sections regularly hold outreach events open to the public and particularly to school children and pupils. Of particular interest is the “I-Love-Chemistry Club” meeting, featuring chemistry experiments for kids, exhibitions, and Q&A sessions. To the delight of the CSJ members, juvenile participants show intense curiosity in chemical science and ask tough questions that often puzzle the instructors. For example, they may ask “Why does an orange-flavored jelly that looks a soft solid soon melt in our mouth and taste sweet?” To answer such questions, instrutors cannot use any technical terms, however commonly used by professional chemists, such as hydrogel and hydrogen bonding. Future Perspective The CSJ has been consistently active and steadily growing in promoting the progress in chemical science and technology. Its activities have been expanding in scope to encompass not only chemistry per se but a wide variety of related fields as biology, physics, medicine, pharmacy, and materials science. As stated above in the CSJ’s missions, Chemistry for Sustainable Society and the World is an eminently important mission. As an expert group of professionals in molecules, substance transformation, materials creation, and process innovation, the Chemical Society of Japan has decided to meet the global challenges with concrete, viable, and implementable solutions, including sustainability, resilience, energy demand, food and water supply, global warming, and preserving the environment. ◆ Figure 5.CSJ’s international activities
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