The Last and Next Decades of the Asian Core Program on Cutting‐Edge Organic Chemistry in Asia (2015)

Ten years have passed since the Asian Core Program on Cutting-Edge Organic Chemistry in Asia (ACP-CEOCA) was established in 2005. It has been greatly recognized among the member countries/regions, such that the activities of the ACP-CEOCA have continued growing and the annual conference is held alternatively in a member country/region as well as the lectureship tour, which is awarded to the presenters during the conference. In the beginning of the Phase I of the ACP-CEOCA (October, 2005–March, 2010), the program was focused on the showcasing and networking among the participants to form relationships, and it gradually extended to the organic chemists in Asia to allow an exchange from the senior generation to the younger generation. Since Phase II of the ACP-CEOCA (April, 2010–March, 2015), the activity has further extended to the junior generation including graduate students by establishing the Junior CEOCA program. In the past 10 years, over 600 lectureships were awarded from the 0th–9th International Conference on Cutting-Edge Organic Chemistry in Asia (ICCEOCAs) and the member countries/regions across the borders were visited for a one-week lecture tour. The opportunities for research collaborations and exchange students have become more frequent and active, as shown in the following individual country/region reports. We believe that these successful outcomes have been established through a good mutual understanding of collaborative minds and generosity by the local coordinators and the participating individuals. On behalf of the international advisory members and country/region coordinators, we would like to express our special appreciation for all of the support and collaborations and to share with you the successful results of the ACP-CEOCA. We also appreciate the significant contributions from those who have submitted articles for the 10-year anniversary of the ACP-CEOCA special issue in Chemistry-An Asian Journal, which is also celebrating ten years. This program was launched in early 2005 through the leadership of the Japan Society for Promotion of Sciences (JSPS), as one of the multinational collaborating programs on the basis of matching funds. Minoru Isobe (Nagoya University and President of IUPAC Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry Division, July, 2004) applied to an Asian Core Program (ACP), and communicated by emails with the coordinators of the member countries/regions and/or directly visited them to make agreements for this program. The CEOCA was officially inaugurated on October 11, 2005. This program has been approved and operated by collaboration with the IUPAC East Asian Networking Project, (chair, M. Isobe and the country/region coordinators were the task force members), National Science Council of Taiwan (C. C. Liao), KAIST Korea (Sunggak Kim and Kwan Soo Kim), NNSFC China (Guo-Qiang Lin and Zhu-Jun Yao), the Chinese University of Hong Kong (Henry N. C. Wong), and NRCT Thailand (Somsak Ruchirawat). International coordinator M. Isobe (2005–2008) and Toshio Nishikawa (Nagoya Univesity 2008–2010) with General Secretary (GA) Pauline Chiu (2005–2010) and the above country/region coordinators coordinated the first phase ACP-CEOCA. The start-up conference was called the 0th meeting ICCEOCA-0 and was held at Nagoya University (March, 2006). Since the end of the last century, many bilateral programs have been organized in East Asia in the organic chemistry fields. IUPAC has focused on the development of chemistry in Asia since the beginning of this century. One of the programs in chemistry of biodiversity is the example. The very first preparative meeting for the East and Southeast Asian organic chemistry was held in September 2004 in Ise-Nagoya, Japan (Figure 1). This meeting led us to start preparation for the Cutting-Edge Organic Chemistry in Asia, which has been supported by JSPS as Asian Core Program (ACP). The official first conference was held as the 0th ICCEOCA in Nagoya University in March 2006, Japan to inaugurate and establish the details of this program. The details of the history and aims of the ACP-CEOCA for establishing the Asian network for organic chemistry, selected awards list, and agreements have been published in a Community Report of this journal.1 Preliminary meeting for East and Southeast Asia, Nagoya (5–8 September, 2004). The 1st International Conference on Cutting-Edge Organic Chemistry of Asia (ICCEOCA-1) was held in Okinawa, Japan (October 16–20, 2006) (Figure 2), a beautiful green island on emerald seas. The IUPAC-sponsored workshop was held in the morning of the first day of the conference. C. C. Liao and B. J. Uang in Hsinchu, Taiwan, organized the post conference.2 The ICCEOCA-2 was organized by S. Kim, K. S. Kim, and S. Chang (September, 2007) at the Grand Hotel Haeundae, a beautiful beachside venue in Busan, Korea. Teck-Peng Loh from the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, joined the ACP. A satellite symposium was organized by S. Ruchirawat (November, 2007) in the 6th Princess Congress in Bangkok, Thailand. The ICCEOCA-3 was in Hangzhou, China, and organized by Yann-Guan Wang, Z. J. Yao, and G. Q. Lin (October, 2008) at the Liuying Hotel by the picturesque West Lake. M. Isobe moved from Nagoya University and Toshio Nishikawa took over the international coordinator role (Nagoya University, April, 2009). The last conference of Phase I, ICCEOCA-4 was held in Bangkok at the Convention Center of the Chulabhorn Research Institute (November–December, 2009). S. Ruchirawat, P. Ploypradith, and M. Chittchang helped in the organization. IUPAC Workshops were continued as in the attached program in Busan (2007), Hangzhou (2008), and Bangkok (2009, in this case attached to the Asian Chemical Congress, ACC) by selecting general topics that were useful for younger scientists from various organic chemistry backgrounds. Participants from the non-member countries/regions were from the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Vietnam. Malaysia (Norsaada Rahman) joined as an ACP member since 2009. Participants at the ICCEOCA-1, Naha, Okinawa, Japan (16–20 October, 2006). The start-up conference was held in Chiba, Japan (August, 2009) to prepare the Phase II of the ACP-CEOCA and Atsushi Nishida was approved as the international coordinator (Figure 3.3 The ICCEOCA-5 was held at the Ambassador Hotel in Hsinchu, Taiwan (7–11 November, 2010) by B. J. Uang. A pre-symposium of ICCEOCA-5 was organized by Ming-Jiung Wu at the NSYSU, Kaohsiung, Taiwan (5–7 November, 2010). In addition, the 0th Junior Workshop was held in NTHU, Hsinchu, aiming at ACP sample program of the additional future activity.4 Start-up conference for the Phase II of ACP-CEOCA, Chiba, Japan (August, 2009). The secondary phase of the ACP-CEOCA (2010–2015) was coordinated by Atsushi Nishida (Chiba University) together with his secretary team at Chiba University, Montakarn Chittchang (2010–12), Nopporn Thasana (2013), and Rozana Othman (2014–2015). ICCEOCA-6 was organized at the Hilton Hotel of the Chinese University of Hong Kong by Henry N. C. Wong and his team (11–15 December, 2011). The 1st Junior ICCEOCA was held in Xiamen, China (9–11 December, 2011) and was organized by Pei-Qiang Huang. The 2nd Junior ICCEOCA was held in the University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, by N. A. Rahman and Y. M. Choo (8–11 December, 2012) preceding the ICCEOCA-7, which was held in Singapore and organized by Teck-Peng Loh and his team at the Holiday Inn (11–14 December, 2012). The Junior ICCEOCA-3 was organized by A. Nishida in Seimei-no-Mori, Chiba (22–25 November, 2013), which proceeded to ICCEOCA-8 that was held in International Convention Center, Rihga Royal, a five-star hotel in Osaka, Japan, by M. Murata (25–28 November, 2013).5 The Junior ICCEOCA-4 was organized by S. Ruchirawat in the Convention Center of CRI, Bangkok (28–30 November, 2014). The ICCEOCA-9 was then held by N. A. Rahman at the Eastin Hotel Petaling Jaya, Malaysia (1–5 December, 2014). The details of these activities are described in the following community reports by Norsaada, Somsak, and the lectureship awardees are in of of of Participants 10 Princess Chulabhorn of Thailand the at the ICCEOCA-1, and and which have supported this program as the of the 10 history (Figure a and from the ICCEOCA and Junior ICCEOCA over the past 10 years. Princess Chulabhorn and the participants of the ICCEOCA-8 in Osaka, coordinators and international advisory members of the ACP-CEOCA. from the Junior Participants of the Junior ICCEOCA in Chiba, Japan (22–25 November, The and Participants from the and Vietnam. at the Princess Chulabhorn the Nagoya lecture at the ICCEOCA-1, Okinawa, The start-up conference the Phase was held in NTHU, Hsinchu, Taiwan April, organized by B. J. Uang in collaboration with A. as in his community The future ICCEOCA held in Taiwan Korea China Thailand and Japan The phase ACP-CEOCA by Y. University) as the international has been that support from JSPS This program ACP-CEOCA is to with more collaborative research as well as exchange as in the following community reports by coordinators the 10 years of ACP 1). is the anniversary of the Asian Core Cutting-Edge Organic Chemistry in Asia The ACP-CEOCA was first established in on the of Minoru Isobe with organic chemists in Asia from China, Taiwan, Hong and Thailand. Isobe a to Malaysia to establish and Malaysia to the program. one of the of this program is in the and Malaysia was to this at the to Malaysia officially joined the during phase in with the University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, as of the program and Rahman as the a member of the organic community have the International Conference on Cutting-Edge Organic Chemistry in Asia organized to exchange and collaboration with organic chemists from the Asian A of ACP awards to Malaysia have been awarded to organic chemists from the members since 10 ACP awards were by Malaysia organic chemists and The ACP awards allow the to to a in the to and exchange (Figure The Hong Kong University of Science and The University of Hong Kong Wong The Hong Kong University University The University of Nagoya University National University University Nanyang Technological University National University of Singapore Nanyang Technological University National University of Singapore University National University Wu National University Nagoya University The University of University Teck-Peng Loh Nanyang Technological University Chiu National Taiwan University National Taiwan University East China University University Institute of Chinese of Sciences University Institute of Chinese of Sciences The University of Hong Kong Pauline Chiu The University of Hong Kong National University University Chiu National Taiwan University University University The Hong Kong University of Science and University University Nanyang Technological University Lin National University University Kim National University Chiba Nanyang Technological University Uang National University China University East China University Institute of Chinese of Sciences University China University of University University University University University East China University University University Hong Kong University University University National University Lin National University National Taiwan University University University Wong The Hong Kong University Nagoya University B. Kim National University National University of Singapore Wu National Taiwan University China University University University Nagoya University Chiba University University Institute of M. A. Center for Science Korea University University Rozana Othman University of National University of Singapore National University of Singapore University Chulabhorn Research Institute awardees from In the Chemistry at the University of the 1st for this program by the 2nd Junior ICCEOCA which is the graduate of the ICCEOCA meeting (Figure This meeting was by graduate students from member Japan Taiwan Korea China Singapore Hong Kong and Thailand and non-member and the 2nd Junior ICCEOCA organized by the University of Malaya, Kuala (8–11 2012). The Chemistry at the University of the 2nd in by the ICCEOCA meeting at the Eastin Hotel Petaling Jaya, Malaysia (Figure This meeting was by participants from Japan China Taiwan Korea Hong Kong Singapore Malaysia and Thailand In this ACP lectureship awards were to participants for lectureship to the various China Taiwan Japan Korea Thailand Hong Kong and Malaysia The ICCEOCA organized by the University of Malaya, Kuala (1–5 December, 2014). chemists have a since first in the ACP-CEOCA have been many opportunities for and with Asian organic on a Malaysia has also become an member in the ACP-CEOCA program. We that the ACP-CEOCA program continued and supported by the Asian organic community and Since the of the Asian Program Cutting-Edge Organic Chemistry in Asia in 2005 by Minoru Isobe and country/region coordinators, the program has and in Thailand. the that the program has on the community has been and On the of the anniversary of the this community is to and on in Thailand as a of this international networking program. official in 2006, the program has from members of various and research among which the Chulabhorn Research Institute has as a to the program activities with the from National Research Council of Thailand and also from the Thailand International The program has as well as international networking through and lectureship activities have and led to a of and successful bilateral On following the first conference in (16–20 October, the symposium and was organized at the Convention Center by Ruchirawat, the ACP coordinator of and the ACP coordinator of China and the of the Chemistry of the National Science of China In to the lecture by the symposium also from the Chinese Zhu-Jun Yao, Wang, and and from the participants including symposium In to this Ruchirawat also coordinated with the of the Research of the Thailand Research to an official for the Chinese Since the bilateral collaboration China and Thailand has been established with the support from and were organized in China and Thailand during the past years in (2008), and the Institute of and University, have as the coordinators of this bilateral collaborative program. In to the research collaborations Chinese and scientists have been in as well as future the from the bilateral University, and the National University, Taiwan, have also been organized over the past years. the of understanding Chulabhorn Research Institute Institute and Nagoya University as well as that and Chiba University has been officially to research collaborations as well as with the phase of the ACP during these bilateral collaborations have on the which also younger the Cutting-Edge Organic Chemistry in Asia has the to and collaborations Thailand and ACP member The anniversary of this research networking program has a of successful of among participating who further the network a one (Figure 10 and awards at the Junior ICCEOCA-4 Bangkok, Thailand December, 2009). Junior ICCEOCA-4 organized by the Chulabhorn Research Institute (28–30 November, 2014). On the of the for the of Cutting-Edge Organic Chemistry in Asia the ACP-CEOCA, as the and coordinators of China, are more to the of this program. ACP-CEOCA is to the of organic chemists from and in The program has been successful in of the development of and of the organic chemistry to our as an international conference We would like to this to through the from the Chinese of and express our to our who have been in and contributions to this program. The to April, ACP-CEOCA officially On the IUPAC Workshop on at China, Minoru Isobe of Nagoya University and Lin and Zhu-Jun of the Institute of Organic Chemistry Chinese of and the of a of to the and collaborations among Asian such as Japan, China China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong Singapore, Malaysia, and (Figure Participants at the IUPAC workshop on China The in 2006, from the conference of this the 0th International Conference on Cutting-Edge Organic Chemistry in Asia was held in Minoru Isobe the of this program together with the coordinators from Asian and Lin and from this meeting and It to the for this program that the lectureship was the of the among Asian and was by the and then took a lecture in the following the we also chemists and chemists to China for a lecture the at Okinawa, Japan, in October 2006, the of the from China to of Chinese of Zhu-Jun and on then more and more of our from the and in China have been in the ACP-CEOCA, and the participants from China to in the conference in We would like to that the and the following a for and collaborations among Asian organic also the and development of organic chemistry in a National Science of China supported the activities of the ACP-CEOCA through various from the of International the support of and the local on the October, China the ICCEOCA-3 in a in China (Figure The team was by Zhu-Jun and University) significant contributions to the of this conference. Princess Thailand the conference and a lecture at the ICCEOCA-3 on and years Pei-Qiang and his at University organized the 1st Junior International Conference on Cutting-Edge Organic Chemistry in Asia on (Figure students and scientists the first conference in The junior conference have students opportunities to exchange and and it is a satellite program of ACP-CEOCA, for the younger generation of organic The Hangzhou, China October, The 1st Junior Xiamen, China October, the last we have ten successful ACP-CEOCA and organic chemists from Asian and to The of from China and this the of this program as well as the of the organic chemistry community of our the took the from this program to first at an international the of the have from organic to a including and chemistry, as well as many the by we have from this we believe that us more and more the development of organic chemistry and which are to the and of Ten years Minoru Isobe Taiwan to the Asian Core Program on Cutting-Edge Organic Chemistry in Asia, which was supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science as the first multinational Asian Core Program (ACP). Minoru Isobe a to Taiwan to the aims and of the program. In the morning of September 2005 Minoru and a meeting in of the Chemistry National University, Hsinchu, Taiwan to details for the ACP Program (Figure the in Taiwan, by to a activity to the National Science Council the of Science and for a matching of the JSPS ACP and the was In this from were to the program at the The were to in the 0th International Conference on Cutting-Edge Organic Chemistry in Asia that was organized by Isobe on 2006, at the Conference Nagoya University, Japan, and this is the first was the meeting in the chemistry at the September, The was held at Okinawa, Japan, on October, The ACP team from members to members and were to the from Taiwan were to in the conference. The ACP team took an to the of the at Hotel on the October, (Figure The symposium which were by Wong and Minoru and participants from the It was very the participating to establish and networking the lectureship in to a the ACP in Busan, Hangzhou, and Bangkok with In Liao from the National University and Uang the with Lin and as the ACP team coordinators for at the at the Hsinchu, The phase of the ACP-CEOCA has been continued from the first phase in and the ACP team the good to support for the ACP activities by the National Science Council for years. The first Phase International Conference was organized as the of the on November, at the Ambassador Hsinchu, The ACP team to the 0th Junior ICCEOCA at the National University November, 2010) the activity were and and more participants the In the 0th Junior by students from of the participating were to the conference and a The aims and for the Junior ICCEOCA were to a for organic chemists to to and chemistry from and to make and it was a it was a A of students from China and Hong Kong at the (Figure A was a during the Junior ICCEOCA-0 Hsinchu, A was in of the chemistry at National University during the In all the member to this program during the meeting at the ICCEOCA-8 in Osaka, Japan, as the ACP program was The issue of for to was and The ACP team to a start-up conference on April, at the National University, (Figure the start-up all the member the of the activities for years, the for are The held in on the and the Junior ICCEOCA-5 held in during October in of the chemistry National Hsinchu, Taiwan the start-up conference for the phase The members and of the ACP team are growing the ACP team of more members from of the ACP the ACP team has from the annual ACP conference also the mutual of lectureship from the participating In addition, the ACP program has helped the networking among the and international collaborations have been very (Figure The ICCEOCA-5 at the Ambassador Hsinchu, Taiwan (7–11 November, 2010). the ACP program the organic chemistry community in the of Hong Kong has also in the program for as it was one of the the last all of the organic chemists in this have been to and the annual lectureship awards have been to Hong Kong chemists to make lecture in the ACP member over these years. students from Hong Kong also took in all of the Junior ACP A of lectureship awards were by Hong Kong to the research of the It was a to the chemists who visited Hong Kong for the first as a of the lectureship In to in the annual and a was the of the 6th International Conference on organic chemistry in Hong Kong on December, (Figure The conference was organized and led by Henry N. C. Wong and from the Chinese University of Hong A of participants from all the ACP and this meeting (Figure at the ICCEOCA-6 in Hong lectureship were to Hong Kong by Wong from the and from the from the Chinese University of Hong of the participants in the Hong these significant networking as a of the and lectureship additional and Wong of the Hong Kong University to of University, from the conference in in a exchange for an from Thailand to research at the Hong Kong This has since continued on to with The exchange was an for the and the exchange Wong also established good with Institute of during his lectureship to Hong Kong in Since a from has been for in exchange from the lectureship of Pauline Chiu of the University of Hong Kong to Taiwan, a from the National University that lecture in the chemistry that and applied for to a exchange research with Chiu in Hong Hong Kong University also established and with of to a more exchange to research and to Hong Kong in the of a from Hong Kong the in the years. In the ACP and lectureship have been in networking and members of It is that these opportunities future international and research Since the Chemical Society was established in organic chemistry has been an to and in and Since organic chemists in Korea have been together for organic chemistry The from this organic chemistry community has the of the Organic Chemistry of the in as the first of the This has the of many in the and the Organic Chemistry has more of are in research research in In the first bilateral program was held by the organic chemists of Korea and Japan, as a of the organic international and the organic chemistry has many in bilateral with many and Asia including the in with organic chemistry China, Japan, Taiwan, and that the organic chemists in Korea are with the Society of Organic Organic chemists from such as the Society of Korea are members of the The International in last in beautiful Haeundae, Busan (Figure and (Figure to Japan in the ICCEOCA-2 in Busan, Korea. The in the the an annual Organic Chemistry on which is the symposium from This symposium held at the Korea Research Institute of Chemical in a workshop is on the of in beautiful island at the of the which is a of the National the workshop more of for and on various of organic The organic in annual of the these are in the at the on of in and in the at the Convention Center in Organic chemists in Korea are and have for the as International such as the International of and Chemistry Conference in in Busan and the International Chemistry in with a bilateral such as the Organic Chemistry and Organic Chemistry the ICCEOCA is one of the that chemists are on conference for the International Conference on Cutting-Edge Organic Chemistry in Asia, organic chemists have been participating in this conference since the beginning of this conference. Korea has the 2nd ICCEOCA conference in Busan and is to the conference in to the ICCEOCA from the has been organic chemists have support from the in Korea for the conference. organic chemists have been research to the ICCEOCA meeting and also to the from the participating the the are by from the in has the organic chemists from participating in the ICCEOCA (Figure organic chemists from Korea have also been the Junior ACP conference since On students have been the Junior ACP since we the of the we are to an more successful and among organic chemists the Asian the participants in the ICCEOCA-2 in Busan, is a special and significant for the Asian Core Cutting-Edge Organic Chemistry in in October the Asian Core Program aims to together the in Organic in Asia to network as well as to share research through this program. Asian Core Program took the support from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science to the from and research on the for the program have been and by Minoru and have been to this program as well as in support from the coordinators from the various Asian the past the Asian Core Program has with a beginning the of the Minoru Isobe with his team of coordinators and the Atsushi Nishida to become one of the programs in the Organic Chemistry in We have that the of participants over the years and the of the are The annual meeting among these a for the to and from Singapore have shown in research as well as On the the junior ACP is program that was for our The for the awardees are to the from The of awards to on the to awardees to the to and with the members of the awarded This opportunities for as well as established to as well as with the of the In addition, the to the Asian Core Program are also in the years. these are the of the of the the that it has established over all these the ACP program is and over the years and Singapore, as a member of the is to of this program. I would like to also this to express appreciation to to Minoru Isobe and Atsushi Nishida who have for and to the of the ACP for the past 10 years. I the ACP in future and that it to this to organic chemistry research in the many more to