IUPAC's executive director heads this administrative office,[3] currently Greta Heydenrych.

[5] These committees run different projects which include standardizing nomenclature,[6] finding ways to bring chemistry to the world,[7] and publishing works.

[11] Some important work IUPAC has done in these fields includes standardizing nucleotide base sequence code names; publishing books for environmental scientists, chemists, and physicists; and improving education in science.

The need for an international standard for chemistry was first addressed in 1860 by a committee headed by German scientist Friedrich August Kekulé von Stradonitz.

[11] The ideas that were formulated at that conference evolved into the official IUPAC nomenclature of organic chemistry.

[11] IUPAC is a legacy of this meeting, making it one of the most important historical international collaborations of chemistry societies.

[15][16] Since World War II, IUPAC has focused on standardizing nomenclature and methods in science.

The indiscriminate attacks, possibly carried out by a member state of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), are of concern to chemical scientists and engineers around the globe and we stand ready to support your mission of implementing the CWC."

According to the CWC, "the use, stockpiling, distribution, development or storage of any chemical weapons is forbidden by any of the 192 state party signatories.

[2] The steering committee hierarchy for IUPAC is as follows:[18] Chemical Nomenclature and Structure Representation Division (Division VIII) Current officers of the Executive Committee: Scientists framed a systematic method for naming organic compounds based on their structures.

[27] IUPAC establishes rules for harmonized spelling of some chemicals to reduce variation among different local English-language variants.

[28][29] IUPAC organic nomenclature has three basic parts: the substituents, carbon chain length, and chemical affix.

IUPAC needed a coding system that represented long sequences of amino acids.

The nucleotide bases are made up of purines (adenine and guanine) and pyrimidines (cytosine and thymine or uracil).

These nucleotide base codes make the genome of an organism much smaller and easier to read.

The topics that are included in this book are low and high-temperature measurements, secondary coefficients, diffusion coefficients, light scattering, transient methods for thermal conductivity, methods for thermal conductivity, falling-body viscometers, and vibrating viscometers.

Also included in this book are the measurement techniques to obtain activity coefficients, interfacial tension, and critical parameters.

Topics covered in this book are: acid rain; heavy metal pollution; global warming; and photochemical smog.

[45] Interactions Between Soil Particles and Microorganisms: Impact on the Terrestrial Ecosystem is meant to be read by chemists and biologists that study environmental systems.

This book identifies that there are many different techniques and theories about minerals, microorganisms, and organic components individually, but they are not often associated with each other.

This book includes techniques to assess how bioassays can be used to evaluate how an organism is affected by trace metals.

Physicochemical Kinetics and Transport at Biointerfaces is a book created to aid environmental scientists in fieldwork.

The book gives an overview of chemical mechanisms, transport, kinetics, and interactions that occur in environmental systems.

Physicochemical Kinetics and Transport at Biointerfaces continues from where Metal Speciation and Bioavailability in Aquatic Systems leaves off.

Pure and Applied Chemistry was created as a central way to publish IUPAC endorsed articles.

In 1959, the IUPAC Pure and Applied Chemistry Editorial Advisory Board was created and put in charge of the journal.

The idea of one journal being a definitive place for a vast amount of chemistry was difficult for the committee to grasp at first.

[31] IUPAC and UNESCO were the lead organizations coordinating events for the International Year of Chemistry, which took place in 2011.

[59][60] The International Year of Chemistry was originally proposed by IUPAC at the general assembly in Turin, Italy.

A further reason for this event being held is to honour how chemistry has made improvements to everyone's way of life.