Chemistry Our Past, Present, and Future

Choon H. Do is director of the Korean Chemical Industry Specialists Association and actively promotes the public understanding of chemistry. He has led a short course series and given lectures on petrochemicals. Until 2011, he was professor of polymer chemistry at Sunchon National University, South Korea. Dr. Do served as president of the Korean Chemical Society in 2010 and as a member of the IUPAC Committee on Chemistry Education from 2000 to 2013. He is a member of the American Chemical Society and the Royal Society of Chemistry. His research interests include the synthesis and characterization of polymers, chemical education, chemical terminologies, and archaeological chemistry.

Attila Pavlath is a senior emeritus scientist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). He received his education in Budapest, Hungary. After his stint as an assistant professor at the Technical University of Budapest, he left Hungary in 1956 and joined McGill University, Canada, as a research fellow. In 1958, he joined Stauffer Chemical Company, California, to lead a research group on agriculture-related problems. In 1967, he joined the USDA, where he headed several research projects at the Western Regional Research Center, Albany, California, and is still involved in research. Dr. Pavlath has published more than 130 research papers, has authored 10 books and numerous chapters, and holds 25 patents. In 1997 he received the Pioneer of the Year award from the American Institute of Chemists. In 1999 he was elected president of the American Chemical Society, and in 2004 he was elected to the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.