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Chemical Abstracts Service Receives Historical Recognition

June 8, 2007 - Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS), which is celebrating its 100th anniversary, will be designated a National Historic Chemical Landmark in a special ceremony in Columbus, Ohio, on June 14. CAS is a division of the American Chemical Society, the worlds largest scientific society and sponsor of the Landmark program.

CAS provides the most comprehensive repository of information in chemistry and related sciences. The CAS databases contain invaluable data for chemists, including the largest collection of substance information, the CAS Registry^SM.

The American Chemical Society established the chemical landmarks program in 1992 to recognize seminal historic events in chemistry and to increase awareness of the contributions of chemistry to society. Other landmarks named through this prestigious program have included the invention of Bakelite, the discovery of penicillin, the determination of the atomic weight of oxygen, and the work of historical figures, including Joseph Priestley, Antoine Lavoisier, and George Washington Carver, among others. Visit the Landmark program for more information.

Catherine T. Hunt, Ph.D., president of the ACS, will present a commemorative bronze plaque at the ceremony to Robert J. Massie, president of CAS. A second plaque will be presented by Bruce Bursten, Ph.D., president-elect of the ACS, and to The Ohio State University (OSU), which housed CAS from 1909 to 1965.

The first issue of Chemical Abstracts^TM (CA) appeared in January 1907 with William A. Noyes, Sr., as editor. Noyes believed the ACS should publish a comprehensive and inclusive journal abstracting the chemical literature.

Among the innovations introduced by CAS and, perhaps the most significant and far-reaching, is the Chemical Registry System. The Registry includes every chemical substance indexed in CA, with their structures and names recorded in computer-readable databases. Every substance is given a permanent, unambiguous, and unique identifying number, the CAS Registry Number. Scientists and researchers around the world rely upon the CAS Registry Number as the globally accepted standard for defining and describing a chemical substance.

In recent years, CAS has embraced the digital age with products such as STN and SciFinder which allow information specialists, patent professionals, and scientists to search the CAS databases from their personal computers. Now scientists are only seconds from information needed to conduct research.

To date, CAS has published more than 27 million abstracts and has recorded almost 32,000,000 substances in the Chemical Registry System. Further information on CAS history and contributions is detailed in the CAS anniversary press release.

CAS now employs more than 1,300 people in Columbus and provides the world's largest and most current collection of chemical and related scientific information, including the most authoritative database of chemical substances, the CAS Registry, and CASREACT, the worlds largest reactions database. CAS combines these databases with advanced search and analysis technologies to deliver the most complete, cross-linked, and effective digital information environment for scientific research and discovery, including such products as SciFinder, SciFinder Scholar, STN, STN Express, and STN AnaVist, among others.  CAS also offers Science IP, a consulting service employing chemists to provide contract searching to corporations and information professionals. 

The American Chemical Society, the worlds largest scientific society, is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress and a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related research through its multiple databases, peer-reviewed journals and scientific conferences. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.