Stereochemistry and Global Connectivity ― The Legacy of Ernest L. Eliel

A major strength of American Chemical Society (ACS) is the large number of volunteers who help to grow and sustain the organization, from local sections to technical divisions, from regional to national meetings, from task forces to national committees, and from conducting research to writing and reviewing manuscripts for journals. Some of them spend literally thousands of hours on behalf of ACS and the global chemistry enterprise, helping students or fellow scientists, organizing meetings and symposia, and reaching out to the local communities. One of the people who excelled in these efforts was the late Prof. Ernest L. Eliel. For many years he taught at the University of Notre Dame and the University of North Carolina and was an acknowledged leader in organic stereochemistry and conformational analysis. He was also a leader at ACS, serving as ACS President in 1992 and Chair of ACS Board of Directors in 1987-89. Unfortunately Prof. Eliel died in 2008, but the ACS held a symposium in 2016 honoring his work. This book features two volumes highlighting stereochemistry and global connectivity, which represent two of the key legacies of Prof. Eliel.

Because stereochemistry is a fundamental chemistry concept, ongoing research is carried out in different subfields of chemistry (such as organic, medicinal, carbohydrates, polymers), using various analytical techniques (such as NMR, X-ray crystallography, and circular dichroism). The two volumes of this book contain many research papers that represent cutting-edge research in all the above areas. Because chemistry is now a world-wide enterprise, global connectivity is important to chemistry practitioners, and the chapters on international activities should be of great interest as well.