The Units, Symbols, and Terminology in Physical Sciences in and for the Digital Era (D-UST) Conference was officially opened by Jeremy Frey, Professor of Physical Chemistry at the University of Southampton and the Co-Investigator of the Physical Sciences Data Infrastructure (PSDI) project. Supported by UKRI/EPSRC , PSDI aims to provide an integrated data infrastructure and build bridges within and across communities in physical sciences, enabling researchers to store and reuse research data more easily, and fostering collaborations and progress. Jeremy welcomed everyone to Burlington House and acknowledged the co-sponsors and co-organizers of the event: the PSDI, the CODATA Digital Representation of Units of Measurements (DRUM) Task Group, the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) , as well as The Royal Society of Chemistry. He also thanked The Royal Society of Chemistry for their strong support of IUPAC over the years.
The aim of the D-UST Conference was to bring together several groups who are dealing with similar problems: how to bring the standards for scientific nomenclature and terminology into the digital age. That aim was successfully accomplished. The meeting had delegates from chemistry as well as a range of other disciplines, allowing for a dialogue and an exchange of knowledge about the challenges, opportunities, and new developments in the various domains. Metrology, the science of measurement, is important for all disciplines, because it can support digitalisation and lead to better human-readable and machine-readable ways of presenting information that are fit for purpose yet still comprehensible.
There were representatives from:
PSDI – Physical Sciences Data Infrastructure
CODATA DRUM Task Group – Digital Representation of Units of Measure
IUPAC Green Book – Quantities, Units, and Symbols in Physical Chemistry
IUPAC Gold Book – Compendium of Chemical Terminology
