HISTORY of ICSC

Since 1967 International Conferences on Solution Chemistry, ICSC, have been held in various guises. The original idea of a meeting to discuss the widely diverse subject areas encompassed by solution chemistry was floated about 1965/6 by Professors Ron Gillespie (McMaster University, Ontario, Canada), Cliff Addison (Nottingham University, England), Viktor Gutmann (Technische Hochschule, Vienna, Austria), and Alex Popov (Michigan State University, USA). These founding fathers decided to arrange a Summer School on Non-Aqueous Solutions but firstly funding assistance had to be obtained. Eventually excellent support for the whole venture came from the scientific branch of NATO. So it was that 109 of us gathered for a two weeks’course of lectures in the pleasant semi-rural campus of McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario in late May 1967. Those funded by NATO included a few young aspiring in-post academics like myself, together with about 90 graduate students; from about 20 different nations. The funding support to these attendees was generous and included all accommodation costs and fees; for example, in my own case, I had to only to find the cost of the flight to Canada. Like some others I took with me one of my graduate students who had all his costs paid, including the transatlantic fare.

That NATO Summer School on Non-Aqueous Solutions ended with a two and a half day symposium at which we were invited to present our own research results; the usual conference-type oral papers of about 25 minutes’duration. I remember that symposium very well, particularly the fierce arguments between Viktor Gutmann and Russell Drago each arguing the case for his own interpretation of donicity and each doing his utmost to demolish the other’s case - I think it was just about the most heated argument I have ever seen at an international chemistry conference. There is little doubt that that productive symposium set the scene and the demand for more, it being abundantly clear that more than ample scope existed for another international gathering of research minds on non-aqueous solution chemistry. Although not named as such in 1967 we have always counted this Symposium at McMaster University as the first of a series of Conferences which became known as ICNAS, International Conferences on Non-Aqueous Solutions.

So it was that invitations went out for 2.ICNAS (1970) in Manchester, England where 149 participants were gathered together. The organising host was Ken Bagnall, who not long before had accepted the chair of inorganic chemistry at Manchester University following his earlier distinguished career at Harwell where his work on transuranic chemistry had involved much non-aqueous solutions research work. I firmly believe though that the main stimulus behind the 2.ICNAS meeting came from Cliff Addison, that doyen of the non-aqueous solution world whose excellent work at Nottingham University on nitrogen dioxide as a solvent, and anhydrous nitrates, was so much to the fore in British inorganic chemistry in the 1950’s and 1960’s.

There was no turning back after 2.ICNAS, continuation was secure. A nucleus of people was already be identified as a central core group for further ICNAS Meetings, not only to organise the scientific content of the events but also with the wide range of all the participants’interests in mind; a family group of solution chemists was being firmly established with the aim of meeting together regularly. At Manchester it was decided to hold 3.ICNAS and 4.ICNAS at the Kellogg Center at Michigan State University, USA and the Technische Hochschule in Vienna, respectively under the local able chairmanships of Alex Popov and Viktor Gutmann. Then, while at 3.ICNAS (1972) at MSU, I offered to host 5.ICNAS (1976) at Leeds, England and so became one of the inner international steering group. Further offers from Don Irish and Josef Barthel for 6.ICNAS and 7.ICNAS at Waterloo, Canada, and Regensburg, Germany were then gratefully received. The local organising chairmen of previous ICNAS Meetings then essentially became a semi-formal International Steering Committee; in setting up a semi-formal constitution it was agreed that a host chairman would automatically be a member of the steering group for the period including the Conference immediately preceding his/her own Meeting and the two Conferences following his/her Meeting.

Not long after the establishment of ICNAS a group of like-minded people formed another group concerning itself with solution chemistry: the International Society for the Study of Solute-Solute-Solvent Interactions. I possess a letter from Pierre Huyskens in which he states that the idea was first floated by Professor G. Carpéni who was on a visit to Leuven in 1971. This Society first met in September 1972 in Marseilles under Professor Carpéni’s chairmanship. Its success led to another Meeting in 1974, in the dual locations of Leuven and Wépion in Belgium; unfortunately Pierre Huyskens, who masterminded the organisation of the events in Belgium was unable to attend because of illness. The Society Meetings were concerned principally with physical and molecular interactions in solution and almost all the reported work concerned chemistry in the aqueous phase, and remained so over the next five Meetings. After the third Meeting in 1976 in Karpacz, Poland (organised jointly by Professors L. Sobczyk and B. Jezowska-Trzebiatowska) it was now fully realised that two series of International Meetings on Solution Chemistry were running concurrently; one concerned mainly with the aqueous phase, and ICNAS entirely concerned with non-aqueous solutions. The fourth Meeting of this group in 1978 in Vienna, organised by Viktor Gutmann and Peter Schuster, was entitled, 4th International Symposium on Solute-Solvent-Solute Interactions (IS4I), the first in the series to be sponsored by IUPAC; ICNAS had received IUPAC sponsorship since the Manchester Meeting.

With two important International Conferences on solution chemistry in the same year serious dating clashes were arising; IS4I and ICNAS were meeting biennially but unfortunately in the same year. 7.ICNAS and 5.IS4I were both already planned for 1980, in Regensburg and Florence respectively. Participants complained that they had to make a choice of which conference they attended, thereby reducing the total number of overall participant attendances; grants and funding for travel to meetings have always been a major problem for many especially when they had to travel abroad from their home countries more than once in the same year.

Amicable resolution came about in 1980 at a lunch-time meeting at 7.ICNAS in Regensburg when one new International Steering Committee was agreed upon to deal both Series of Meetings; nearly all leading participants of ICNAS and IS4I were present. 8.ICNAS (1982) was to proceed as planned at Nantes, France, under Martial Chabanel’s leadership, and with Hitoshi Ohtaki’s agreement 6.IS4I was to take place at Minoo, Osaka, Japan in 1983. Thereafter ICNAS and IS4I could meet in alternate years thereby providing an improved opportunity of choice for participants to attend both Series of Meetings.

So the International Steering Committee for both ICNAS and IS4I was formalised. It was agreed that there would be two chairmen/convenors, one for each international Series: I took the chair for ICNAS, and Pierre Huyskens agreed to take the chair for IS4I. With these problems now apparently settled in Regensburg further Conference venues were arranged: 9.ICNAS (1984) Pittsburgh, USA (Bob Kay and Johann Coetzee), 7.IS4I (1985) Reading, England (Alan Pethybridge), and 10.ICNAS (1986) Leuven, Belgium (Pierre Huyskens).

It was not long however before the blatantly obvious was realised. The International Steering Committee for ICNAS and IS4I, both IUPAC sponsored, consisted of essentially the same people and combination into one all-embracing International Conference on Solution Chemistry, ICSC was necessary. Unanimous agreement on this amalgamation came in 1985 at the IS4I Steering Committee in Reading when I was asked to remain as Chairman of the new group, the International Steering Committee of ICSC. It was agreed that 10.ICNAS (1986) for which Pierre Huyskens had already substantially prepared the way at Leuven would proceed exactly as already as planned, and that the Meeting in 1987 at Regensburg, Germany, arranged by Josef Barthel and his team, would still be entitled as 8.IS4I (though this could now also be regarded as 18.ICSC) to be followed in1988 by the new combined 19.ICSC at Lund, Sweden (chaired locally by Sten Arhland, assisted by Ingmar Persson). Thereafter Meetings were held annually until 1991 when it was decided that they should become biennial: 19.ICSC, Lund, Sweden (1988); 20.ICSC, Jerusalem, Israel (1989); 21.ICSC, Ottawa, Canada (1990); 22.ICSC, Linz, Austria (1991); 23.ICSC, Leicester, England (1993); 24.ICSC, Lisbon, Portugal (1995); 25.ICSC, Vichy, France (1997); 26.ICSC, Fukuoka, Japan (1999); 27.ICSC, Vaals, Netherlands (2001); 28.ICSC, Debrecen, Hungary (2003) and 29. ICSC, Portorož, Slovenia (2005). Following the amalgamation agreement in 1985 for the formation of ICSC the International Steering Committee was awarded Associated Organisation status in IUPAC in 1987 in readiness for its first meeting as ICSC in 1988 at Lund.

Since their inception in 1967 enthusiasm for ICNAS, IS4I and ICSC meetings has never waned. With great pleasure I can point to considerable growth and enthusiasm through the years over more and more widely diverse fields embraced within solution chemistry. Every Conference brings into it papers and interests in completely new areas of work in the solution phase. Among the Conference participants themselves that family gathering atmosphere has blossomed and grown over about 36 years. Meeting by meeting one anticipates enjoying the company of the same old friends from all parts of the world, not only to catch up with one anothers’advances in science but also to spend time interacting socially. The social aspect of our Meetings has always been of utmost importance in their organisation. In this respect I can relate the remarks of David, an industrial chemical engineer friend of mine who I invited to join one of the optional social events of the Reading Conference in 1985. I had arranged an 8-mile walk along the Ridgeway, a long distance footpath passing close by several well-known landmarks, including the famous White Horse on the Downs. David still remarks on how astonished he felt to be walking through that beautiful part of England with 32 people, who he established hailed from 20 different countries - and the truly friendly happy family atmosphere which emanated from them. Although all these folks shared common interest in solution chemistry they were clearly enjoying together the fellowship and family feeling on a lovely outing. There lies the real spirit of ICSC !

Inevitably there must be the losses - some people retire and we all must pass away. Sadly those founding fathers who I teamed up with when I became an ardent and enthusiastic supporter of ICNAS in the early days are no longer with us. And now I retire from ICSC after 22 years as International Chairman, and 36 years of attending the Meetings. But there is nothing for me to be concerned about because ICSC will move on. I leave it with a new enthusiastic and capable Chairman to guide it through its next few years, namely Ingmar Persson. Like me he is fully aware of the legacy left by those founding fathers. I wish Ingmar well as he steers ICSC into the future. After the successes and pleasures of the past 36 years, I am certain that ICSC will continue to flourish in many ways and directions unknown as yet, and that the whole field of solution chemistry will continue to be greatly strengthened by ICSC Meetings.

Bernard Gill,
Leeds, England

Places, Dates, and Organisers of ICSC Meetings