The International Carbohydrate Organization

The ICO issued guidelines, originally compiled by James N. BeMiller in 1989, for the organization of international carbohydrate symposia and these have been of considerable assistance to future organizers. The locations for future symposia are approved tentatively for six years, and definitively for four years, in advance. There has been difficulty only once, with the meeting scheduled for 2006. This date 

There is no lack of nations willing to hold the symposia. The next meeting will be in Oslo (Norway) in 2008. The tentative location for 2010 is Japan and for 2012 Spain (Madrid). The most likely location for 2014 is India, for 2016 USA, for 2018 Portugal, and for 2020 Brazil (Picture 3). 

Because the number of national representatives had grown considerably, the Organization became somewhat unwieldy, and in Vancouver (1982) the previous constitution was modified by omitting the co-opted members of the American, British, and French carbohydrate groups only national representatives, past presidents and other co-opted members remained. 

The ICO has been an Associated Organization of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry since 1970 and an Interest Group of the International Union of Biochemistry since 1982. The plenary lectures of the Carbohydrate Symposia between 1972 and 1998 were printed in Pure and Applied Chemistry. 

The ICO had originally no income the secretaries covered incidental expenses from other sources. In 1996, however, each Symposium was allocated 1000 from its funds to the secretariat. 

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The first actual meeting of the Steering Committee took place in Paris (1970) on the Sunday preceding the symposium it was followed by a dinner. This has become a tradition, taken over later by the International Carbohydrate Organization. Its members have generally met on the Sunday before the Symposia the dinner, to which their spouses are invited, is usually a distinguished affair. This is the members only reward for carrying out their (not too onerous) duties. 

Dedicated to Roy L. Whistler who has done more than any other person to promote and organize the International Carbohydrate Symposia. 

With rapid advances in carbohydrate chemistry, the interest in carbohydrate meetings has increased and biennial meetings appeared to be insufficient to meet the demand. A new series of meetings, restricted to Europe, started in Vienna in 1981 under the name of Eurocarb, was followed by one in Budapest in 1983. These meetings take place biennially in those years in which there is no International Carbohydrate Symposium in 2007 the location is Lubeck (Germany). They are modeled on the International Symposia and are controlled by the European Carbohydrate Organization, representing countries in Europe in which carbohydrate research is carried out. The participants are not exclusively European, for example, in Lisbon (2001) 21% of the plenary lecturers, 11% of the invited lecturers, and 24% of the session chairmen came from countries outside Europe. 

The results obtained by Garcia Gonzalez and his coworkers attracted interest abroad, and it was a source of great satisfaction for him to receive, in 1953, an invitation from Professor M. L. Wolfrom to write the first of his articles in this Series. A further international recognition as a carbohydrate chemist ensued in 1965, when he was invited to serve as a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the new international journal Carbohydrate Research. In 1975, he was asked to contribute with a lecture, subsequently published, on Synthesis of Polyhydroxyalkyl Heterocycles, to a Symposium on New Synthetic Methods for Carbohydrates organized by the American Chemical Society to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Society (New York, 1976). 

When W. Ward Pigman, a founder of Advances in Carbohydrate Chemistry and its first co-editor (with M. L. Wolfrom), died suddenly of a heart attack in the morning hours of September 30,1977, at Woods Hole, Massachusetts, the scientific world lost an indefatigable and courageous pioneer the academic community, a distinguished and well-liked teacher and those who knew him, a warm and loyal friend. Death reached him while he was attending an International Symposium organized by The Society for Complex Carbohydrates, of which he was the founder, the first president, and a relentless promoter. 

The first to do so was Maurice Stacey he had the same excuse as Courtois the opening of the new chemistry building in Birmingham. Micheel followed two years later, and then J. K. N. Jones organized one in Canada (1967). After some delays, there was another meeting in Paris (1970), again chaired by Courtois he is the only person who chaired two international carbohydrate meetings. 

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