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.

Nanotechnology can be defined as the science of manipulating matter at the nanometer scale in order to discover new properties and possibly produce new products. For the past 30 years, a considerable amount of scientific interest and R&D funding devoted to nanotechnology has led to rapid developments in all areas of science and engineering, including chemistry, materials, energy, medicine, biotechnology, agriculture, food, electronic devices, and consumer products. In the U.S. alone, the federal government has spent more than $22 billion in nanotechnology research since 2001. The global funding of nanotechnologies was estimated to be about $7 billion in 2011 and has increased about 20% per year since then, according to various studies. Already some products have appeared in the marketplace and more will certainly come in the future. A possible concern is the health, safety, and environmental impact of some of these products. The U.S. is certainly investing heavily in nanotechnology. It started the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) about 16 years ago, pulling together the efforts of 20 federal departments and independent agencies. This book contains a wealth of information on research, product development, commercialization, and regulatory issues related to nanotechnology.

Green chemistry is the design of chemical products and processes that reduce or eliminate the use or generation of hazardous substances. Green polymer chemistry is an extension of green chemistry to polymer science and engineering. Developments in this area have been stimulated by health and environmental concerns, interest in sustainability, desire to decrease the dependence on petroleum, and opportunities to design and produce "green" products and processes. Major advances include new uses of biobased feedstock, green reactions, green processing methodologies, and green polymeric products. A current feature of green polymer chemistry is that it is both global and multidisciplinary. Thus, publications in this field are spread out over different journals in different countries. Moreover, a successful research effort may involve collaborations of people in various disciplines, such as organic chemistry, polymer chemistry, material science, chemical engineering, biochemistry, molecular biology, microbiology, enzymology, toxicology, environmental science, and analytical chemistry. This book combines the major interdisciplinary research in this field and is targeted for scientists, engineers, and students, who are involved or interested in green polymer chemistry. These may include chemists, biochemists, material scientists, chemical engineers, microbiologists, molecular biologists, enzymologists, toxicologists, environmental scientists, and analytical chemists. It can be a textbook for a course on green chemistry and also a reference book for people who need information on specific topics involving biocatalysis and biobased materials.

It is well known that the world is becoming increasingly globalized. Globalization implies the continual movement of people, money, products, technology, and information across national boundaries over time. This movement can have a huge impact on communication, jobs, business, politics, and technology. Not surprisingly, globalization has generated both challenges and opportunities for the chemistry enterprise. This book focuses on the transnational opportunties for the global chemistry enterprise. The book is divided into two sections: 1) Transnational Study, Research and Careers, and 2) International Entrepreneurship. Because the emphasis of this book is on internationalization and globalization, anyone interested in the global aspects of the chemistry enterprise will find the book useful. The topics include future chemistry curriculum, global preparedness of students, international education exchange and research opportunities, study-abroad programs, and international research collaborations.