A Retrospective
The first attempt to get Brazilian synthetic organic chemists together took place at the University of Brasília in 1982 as an initiative of prof. Peter Bakuzis and prof. Olivia Campos, when about 15 organic chemists met to discuss their research projects.
In 1986, Prof. João V. Comasseto organized an informal meeting at the Institute of Chemistry, USP that attracted around 100 participants among senior and junior researchers, as well as graduate and undergraduate students, all having organic synthesis as their subject of research. At this meeting, the basis of a periodical meeting of the organic chemists dedicated to organic synthesis in Brazil was established, it being agreed that the next meeting would be in Porto Alegre, under the coordination of prof. Valter Stefani. This meeting was successfully carried out in 1987, with around 200 participants. In Porto Alegre, it was agreed that the following meeting would take place in São Carlos in 1988, and that Prof. José Tércio B. Ferreira would act as the general secretary. The 3rd BMOS changed the scope of our meetings as nine outstanding international synthetic organic chemists were invited as guest, with English as official language. Another goal was international advertisement of the event.
It was clear in the minds of those who helped Prof. Tercio to organize the first BMOS with invited foreign speakers that one of the major goals should be to foster the active participation of graduate and undergraduate students with research interests in organic synthesis. In fact, several sandwich and post-doctoral programs involving Brazilian PhD students were established because of this initiative.
Another recommended practice was that the following meetings would take place in various locations, always involving considerable number of synthetic organic chemists.
We have certainly gone a long and successful way since some of us, about 20 years ago, cherished a dream: having a lively and competitive community established in Brazil devoted to synthetic organic chemistry, publishing regularly in international journals and pursuing innovative ideas. We are pleased to see that several Brazilian organic chemists are respected in Brazil and abroad for their contributions to the field. But there is certainly much more to be done. We have to be able not only to contribute to our field of research with innovative and challenging ideas but also to prepare the new generations to come with a scientific knowledge as broad as possible in order to be able to take a step further and contribute to scientific knowledge in its broadest sense.
Ref: Comasseto, J. V., Pilli, R. A., Simonelli, F. J. Braz. Chem. Soc., 2001, 12, 565.