<<Feburuary 9, 2008>>
Archived distributions can be retrieved at;
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Prof. Alain Krief <alain.krief@fundp.ac.be>
Dr. Harold P. Sjursen <hsjursen@duke.poly.edu>
Bernhard Fabianek <Bernhard.Fabianek@ec.europa.eu>
Dear Prof. Krief:
(1) Many thanks for your msg (ATTACHMENT I).
(2) I visited your web of constructing the encyclopedia of organic chemistry
(EnCOrE) with great interest.
It reminded me the followings;
(a) Kirk-Othmer
Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology
http://mrw.interscience.wiley.com/emrw/9780471238966/home/
(b) Encyclopedia of Inorganic Chemistry
http://mrw.interscience.wiley.com/emrw/9780470862100/home/
(3) BTW, I got my Ph.D. from Dr. Othmer in Chemical Engineering at Polytechnic
University in 1963 — which is now in negotiation for merging as
Polytechnic Institute of New York University.
Dr.
Othmer was a consultant at General Douglas MacArthurs General HeadQuarters
(GHQ) in Tokyo right after the WWII to investigate how Japanese chemical
industry did during the war. He was then very surprised to find out that
the Japanese produced aviation fuel out of Calcium Carbonate (i.e., stone and
rocks) in north Korea (i.e., by Reppe Process with acetylene => butanol =
iso-butanol), thanks to almost free of charge electricity from a huge
hydro-electricity dam built along the river between North Korea and China
(then, Manchuria) just before the WWII. As you know, Reppe Process is
very sensitive, and it had many accidents of explosions which killed many
Korean workers. This was compared with German produced diesel fuel by the
Fischer-Tropsch reaction of carbon mono-oxide from anthracite coal from
Alsace/Lorraine with hydrogen from water.
My theses pioneered on the use of analog computer (*) for the analysis of
reaction heat of chemical reaction upon the rate of absorption of SO2 or NOX
into alkali liquid — in a sense, a forerunner work on the elimination of
pollution.
(*)
This analog computer (made at Bell Lab in New Jersey) was once mounted on the
battleship Missouri for computing gun tracking to shoot Hitachi plants north
east of Tokyo, -- I could hear the strong gun-bombing sound even at several
hundreds miles north west of Tokyo. All of my family members including
infant baby sister were really scared as huddling together.
The use of computer in chemical engineering research was so new at that time,
Dr. Othmer once said to me Tak, I know logarithm but what is the
algorithm? There was no professors in his chemical engineering
department who knew about analog computer. One of them said to me What!?
Are you doing chemical reaction in a computer? How?
He also once asked me to contribute an article about system engineering to his
encyclopedia, but I forwent it — I was so busy to create the Summer
Computer Simulation Conference (SCSC) of the Society of Computer Simulation in
late 1960s and early 70s — both of which I named.
(4) You listed the followings to be included for each item in your
encyclopedia;
(i)
Chemical structures and equations
(ii) Explanatory texts
(iii) Elaborated dictionary
(iv) Pertinent keywords and
(v) References.
You may also include;
(a)
Invention/Innovation history,
(b) Application, -- e.g., production of aviation fuel out of acetylene gas
mentioned above,
(c) Commercialization, etc. -- the above Reppe Process was impossible for
commercialization due to the high cost of electricity, compared with some successful
commercialization of Fischer-Tropsch method in South Africa and the US, etc.
(5) As you may know, Polytechnic University has the world renowned Polymer
Research Institute (PRI) created by renowned Prof. Herman Mark —
incidentally, I once received a grade A from him. One of its faculties,
Prof. Rudolph Marcus, received the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1992.
Dr. Yoshi Okamoto is the current Director of the PRI, and is my long-standing
acquaintance with his wife. Should you desire, I may introduce your
project to him.
(6) Incidentally, we have a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Polytechnic
University <http://preview.tinyurl.com/yr7qbk>
to cooperate on the following project and others;
Quantitative
Policy Analysis of Global Socio-Economic-Energy-Environment Development
(GSEEED) Project
http://preview.tinyurl.com/337nrn
I envision this project to grow to the following;
"Globally
Collaborative Innovation Network (GCIN) with Global University System," Paper for Learning
Technology, IEEE
Computer Society, Vol. 8, Issue 3, July, 2006
http://preview.tinyurl.com/fuwg6
Pls also see the following list distribution;
(02/06/08)
Inquiry about NASA's Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) game project
http://preview.tinyurl.com/3yndnc
(7) This GCIN project is to promote the use of distributed, dissimilar computer
simulation models which are hooked together through global broadband Internet,
as letting the integrated total behave as if a single global scale super
computer — I think this is different from the common understanding on the
use of spare computing capacity scattered around the world, i.e., GRID
technology, e.g., SETIs case to seek extra-terrestrial living.
<http://preview.tinyurl.com/2mdd2n>
What I envisioned similar to yours is to put together each segment of a high
polymer chemical structure or pharmaceutical drug, which are designed by people
(or high school students) around the world, and which will be put together
through the broadband Internet — even including 3D animation for rotation
of its structure. Namely, this putting together dispersed models would be
equivalent of virtual chemical reaction — without using real chemicals
and beakers or flask.
For
the gathering of such researchers, you may consider to emulate WiKipedia or
CURRIKI, which is a variation of the former for K-12 school children —
see the following;
(04/03/07) WiKipedia type open-source courseware
http://preview.tinyurl.com/33lgy8
As a chemical engineer, I once engaged in basic design of the so-called
ethylene plant (*), which thermally cracks naphtha to ethylene, propylene,
butane, etc. for the raw materials of high polymer chemicals — each of
those plant costing almost one billion dollars. Almost 75% of those plants
around the world were designed by the company I worked in Boston (**). At
that time, I as a senior coordinator engaged in the plant process control
simulation, and also dreamed to computerize all of mechanical design of them,
i.e., distillation columns, cooling towers, compressors, piping, electrical
wiring, etc, etc. These should be done today by the so-called Computer-Aided Design (CAD). My thought was why not
assigning engineers scattered around the world for each of their specialties
and assembling together by connecting each of those dissimilar, distributed
simulation models through, then, data telecom network, which is nowadays called
broadband Internet.
(*)
after I worked for Shell and Mobil.
(**) This engineering company also had a division which constructed the world
first nuclear energy plant in Springfield, Massachusetts.
Such global collaboration will certainly create an atmosphere and environment
for youngsters around the world interact each other for hand-on-training and
new knowledge creation, and hence intercultural mutual understanding, too, for
global peace, as you say.
<http://preview.tinyurl.com/2q62ta>
Such environment and tool may also
be in line with the so-called Virtual Empowerment mentioned in the project
proposal in;
(02/01/08)
Finnish Noblesse Oblige Project for Paradigm Shift and Change the World
http://preview.tinyurl.com/2kx63c
I will post below a few slides which excerpted from Prof Dedes article, about
the distributed learning, which, I believe, is the future trend along with the
current globalization movement;
<http://preview.tinyurl.com/yroefq>
<http://preview.tinyurl.com/yvvy56>
<http://preview.tinyurl.com/2ah2sg>
(8) Your globally collaborative project may also be in line with Bernhards
following;
Global
Virtual Research Communities
<http://preview.tinyurl.com/2qs8ff>
This was
in the following list distribution;
(09/24/07) Possible funds of European Union to GUS in periphery countries
around Black Sea
http://preview.tinyurl.com/26drd4
As you see in the attachment I of this list, Bernhard says that the European Union's 7th Framework
Programme for R&D [has] (some 53 billion Euro until 2013). You may
inquire him of its availability for your project, if necessary.
(9) Lastly, pls convey my best personal regards to Prof. Sterano Cerri, and
other ELeGI members <http://www.ercim.org/publication/Ercim_News/enw59/ritrovato.html>.
Lets keep in touch, since this is very, very interesting project. Pls
feel free to tell me how we can be of any help to your project.
Looking forward to receiving your response,
Best, Tak
ATTACHMENT
I
From:
Alain Krief
<alain.krief@fundp.ac.be>
Date: Sat, 19
Jan 2008 09:37:14 +0100
To: <utsumi@columbia.edu>
Subject: Collaborative
work involving peace
Dear
Prof. Utsumi,
I was one of the members of E-LEGI project and a friend of Stefano Cerri and help
to develop Grid based tools to allow communication and collaboration between
Chemists. I am a member of your mailing list and appreciate your efforts and
thoughts.
I would like to benefit from your experience and your advice and your help to
create a freely available, net-based, encyclopaedia of organic chemistry, which
we call EnCOrE (Encyclopdie de Chimie Organique Electronique). It will remain
up-to-date to assist education, and provide information in organic chemistry at
all levels from university students to practitioners in research in formal as
well as informal ways.
This encyclopedia is expected to be built under a strong scientific board for
quality and reliability but collaboratively with chemists all over the world
from any country, any non-profit or profit organizations without
discrimination. This collaboration is expected to be active not only to fill
its content but more importantly to built its conceptual framework as it will
disclosed below.
We hope that the collaborative tools (Grid based) we are using and we hope to
improve, will allow a better understanding and favor the Peace processes.
In a first run I would like to gather there the international community of
organic chemists basically those which are involved in the discovery of methods
to produce and create substances for knowledge acquisition to properties
(Physical, chemical, biochemical) including drug discovery.
I dream that it will, be in a second step, devoted to non professional:
school students, school teachers, students and media. The objectives being to
teach or to answer their question in an independent and scientific way favoring
discussions and collaborations.
The objective is a take advantage of this process to disclose a model on
Encyclopedia building, mixing pragmatic and semantic approaches around a strong
ontological nucleus.
In organic chemistry experiments as well as concepts and rules are the basis of
knowledge.
Although chemical databases have been build as early as 1830 (Chemisches
Zentralblatt), Handbuchs der Organischen Chemieand Chemical Abstract is 100
years old (Electronic 1983). Noting is known abot knowledge and many chemist
use database to perform analogies and imagine that this is knowledge.
Best regards
Prof.
Alain Krief
Laboratoire
de Chimie Organique Synthse
Dpartement de Chimie
Facult N.-D de la Paix
61 rue de Bruxelles, B-5000, Namur, Belgium
Email: alain.krief@fundp.ac.be <mailto:alain.krief@fundp.ac.be>
Location: Chemistry Building
2 rue Joseph Graf, B-5000, Namur
3rd floor, door 331a
Phone: +32 81 724539
Fax: +32 81 724536
Visit
our Website at :
http://www.fundp.ac.be/facultes/sciences/departements/chimie/recherche/centres/cos/
Visit
our Website for the EnCOrE Project:
http://www.fundp.ac.be/facultes/sciences/departements/chimie/recherche/centres/cos/encore/presentation.html
List
of Distribution
Prof. Alain
Krief
Laboratoire de Chimie Organique Synthse
Dpartement de Chimie
Facult N.-D de la Paix
University Notre-Dame de la Paix
61 rue de Bruxelles, B-5000, Namur, Belgium
Email: alain.krief@fundp.ac.be
Location: Chemistry Building
2 rue Joseph Graf, B-5000, Namur
3rd floor, door 331a
Phone: +32 81 724539
Fax: +32 81 724536
alain.krief@fundp.ac.be
Visit our Website at :
http://www.fundp.ac.be/facultes/sciences/departements/chimie/recherche/centres/cos/
Visit our Website for the EnCOrE Project:
http://www.fundp.ac.be/facultes/sciences/departements/chimie/recherche/centres/cos/encore/presentation.html
Dr. Harold P. Sjursen
Professor of Philosophy
Associate Provost for International Education and Research
Director, Liberal Studies
Polytechnic University
5 Metrotech Center
Brooklyn, New York 11201
USA
Tel: 718-260-3597
Fax: 718-788-4268
Cel: +1 (917) 743-2390
hsjursen@duke.poly.edu
hsjursen@poly.edu
hsjursen@gmail.com
http://www.poly.edu/
Bernhard Fabianek
EU – research technical assistance and program development
European Commission
Information Society and Media Directorate-General
GANT & eInfrastructures
BU25 4-82
BE-1049 Bruxelles
Belgium
Tel: +32 2 29.69.615
Fax: +32 2 29.93.127
Bernhard.Fabianek@ec.europa.eu
Bernhard.Fabianek@cec.eu.int
http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/ict/e-infrastructure/
*******************************************************************************
* Takeshi Utsumi, Ph.D., P.E., Chairman, GLOSAS/USA
*
* (GLObal Systems Analysis and Simulation Association in the U.S.A.)
*
* Laureate of Lord Perry Award for Excellence in Distance Education
*
* Founder and V.P. for Technology and Coordination of
*
* Global University System (GUS)
*
* 43-23 Colden Street, Flushing, NY 11355-5913, U.S.A.
*
* Tel: 718-939-0928; Email: utsumi@columbia.edu
*
* http://www.itu.int/wsis/goldenbook/search/display.asp?Quest=8032562&lang=en
*
* http://www.friends-partners.org/GLOSAS/
*
* Tax Exempt ID: 11-2999676
*
*******************************************************************************