UCLA chemistry lecturer and author Dr. Eric Scerri is organizing the 29th annual meeting of the International Society for the Philosophy of Chemistry (ISPC), to be held at UCLA this July. He recently published two new works that examine fundamental questions about the nature and theoretical foundations of the chemical sciences.
The ISPC meeting will take place at Royce Hall from July 29–31, 2026. Details and the call for abstracts are available through the conference website.
In a new article in Chemistry International, titled “What is an element, and how is it defined in the IUPAC Gold Book?”, Scerri examines how chemical elements are formally defined in the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) Gold Book, a standard reference for chemical terminology. The article reviews how the definition has developed and explains how chemists currently describe and classify elements.
In a second article in Foundations of Chemistry, titled “The Born–Oppenheimer Approximation and its role in the question of the reduction of chemistry to quantum mechanics,” Scerri examines discussions about whether chemistry can be fully explained in terms of quantum physics. The paper focuses on the approximation developed by Max Born and J. Robert Oppenheimer, which separates nuclear and electronic motion when modeling molecules. The article reviews how this method has been used in arguments about the relationship between chemistry and quantum mechanics.
Scerri is a chemist, author and leading historian and philosopher of chemistry, specializing in the periodic table of the chemical elements. He is the author of The Periodic Table, Its Story and Its Significance, (Oxford University Press, 2020) and numerous other books on this and related topics. His writing includes a number of books directed at the general public such as A Very Short Introduction to the Periodic Table, and 30-Second Elements. He is also a frequent contributor to popular science magazines such as Scientific American and New Scientist.
In November 2020, Scerri was ranked 2nd in all chemical influencers in the world over the last decade (2010-2020) by AcademicInfluence.com, which is a team of academics and data scientists who are working to provide “an objective, non-gameable influence-based” ranking for the people, schools, and disciplines that make up higher education.
Scerri has served as a consultant for TV and radio programs and appears in TV interviews. He was featured extensively in the PBS television series titled “The Mystery of Matter” and has given lectures to general audiences on all six continents.
Penny Jennings, UCLA Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, penjen@g.ucla.edu.
