Pimentel report

The National Research Council Report Opportunities in Chemistry published in 1985 (called the Pimentel Report ) described a survey of the state of science and technology in chemistry and made recommendations concerning future opportunities. One of the recommendations proposed the following ... 

Two years ago, the National Research Council published a report on research frontiers and needs in chemistry entitled Opportunities in Chemistry, and known colloquially as the "Pimentel Report" after its chairman, George C. Pimentel. That report identified many of the same areas discussed in this report and focused on how chemists contribute to them. This committee endorses the recommendations contained in Opportunities in Chemistry, and urges their implementation in addition to the recommendations contained in this volume. The two reports, like the two disciplines, should be seen as complementary, not competing. A vital base of chemical science is needed to stimulate future progress in chemical engineering, just as a vital base in chemical engineering is needed to capitalize on advances in chemistry. 

Chemistry and materials science are inextricably linked. In fact, in the National Research Council s Opportunities in Chemistry, familiarly known as the Pimentel Report (i), can be found the following definitions from Webster A material is the substance or substances out of which a thing is constructed, and chemistry is the science that deals with the composi-... 

Some of the businesses that we are developing are by no means typical of what was traditionally thought of as the chemical industry. Yet they are very much based on chemical science and fall well within the scope of chemistry described in the Pimentel Report. More than 4000 of the nearly 16,000... 

A major challenge for research in future, the control of chemical reactions as stated by the Pimentel Report, can be approached by various methods light-driven processes are among the most important ones. Without interaction of the diverse scientific disciplines, recent progress in photochemistry, as well as future developments would scarcely be possible. This is particularily true for the study of electron transfer processes. Herein lies a challenge for science and economy and the special fascination of this topic — at least for the guest editor. 

In 1985 the National Academy of Sciences of the United States published a landmark study Opportunities in Chemistry which mapped out some of the important discoveries in the field over the preceding 20 years. The very first point made in the Pimentel Report (named after the chairman of the study group) was that the successful competitiveness of the chemical industry depends critically on the constant improvements of existing processes and the introduction of new ones. Thus advances in chemical catalysis and synthesis hold the key to a successful chemical industry. Indeed they estimated that a large proportion ca. 20%) of the entire US Gross National Product is generated through the use of catalytic processes. 

I will now, in some detail, document my assertion of the intoxication by growth for its own sake, basing myself on the Pimentel Report (PR), first published in 1985 by the American Chemical Society (Pimentel Coon-rod 1987). 

---