XXXVIII Congress of Theoretical Chemists of Latin Expression

History

The quitel Idea came to Mr. Pullman´s office during a friendly conversation with Giuseppe Del Re on the third floor of the physical and chemical biology institute in Paris. The conversation was about the different assessments of Theoretical chemistry´s role in Italy, France and in countries such as England or the United States. It seems that we are more interested in the number´s significance than in the number itself. The need to formulate the concepts we are interested in with clarity goes immediately beyond the question of language. Thus, we can either adopt a Franca lingua, poor, but understandable to everyone; or we can keep each one´s language in order to express ideas with the clarity desired at the risk of not being understood. In the end, they came to the conclusion that they were dealing with a true, false problem. In science, the words we use, whether written or spoken, are so close across languages that we hardly need to filter them through an interface as long as we speak slowly and clearly.

From this conversation came the idea of a meeting between French and Italian theorists. The meeting was organized by Del Re’s colleagues. Scheduled for 1968, delayed due to political events, this event was the first quitel congress. Pleased with the initiative, the group participants agreed to meet in France. The meeting was expanded by chance when the theorists from Mr. Dauvel´s laboratory in Paris decided to meet their Spanish counterparts, after the first Spanish meeting of quantum chemists in Madrid, 1969. This was the second quitel which was quickly followed by the third in Spain. During 30 years, the congress mostly took place in Italy, France and Spain, but also in other Latin countries such as Belgium, Switzerland, Portugal (The Portuguese emerged as a fourth Latin language), Latin America and in most recent years in North Africa.

The quitel congress opened to Latin America in 1974 when it was held in Mexico. It marked the consecration of the 1968 initiative and contributed to the congress durability.

In recent year, the congress location has been switching between Europe, Africa and Latin America.