CAS

What began in 1907 as a volunteer effort to organize and share published chemistry research has evolved into a global leader in scientific information solutions. The American Chemical Society launched Chemical Abstracts (CA) with William A. Noyes as its first editor, initially publishing fewer than 12,000 abstracts in its first year. The editorial operations, first housed at the U.S. Bureau of Standards and later the University of Illinois, Urbana, found a long-term home on the campus of The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, in 1909.

A pivotal moment arrived in 1956 when CA officially became Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS), a self-supporting division of the American Chemical Society. This transition marked the beginning of an era of significant innovation. Recognizing the burgeoning volume of scientific data, CAS became a trailblazer in leveraging computer technology for editorial processing in the 1960s. This foresight led to the groundbreaking creation of the CAS Chemical Registry System in 1965. This system, assigning a unique CAS Registry Number® to each chemical substance, revolutionized how chemical information was identified, accessed, and communicated, eliminating ambiguity and significantly aiding research, safety, and regulatory efforts worldwide. Over the decades, CAS has continuously adapted and expanded, embracing the digital age by developing a suite of electronic information services, including SciFinder® and STN®, which now form the core of its offerings. CAS celebrated its centennial in 2007, a testament to its enduring mission to provide access to chemical and related information that speeds and enables scientific discovery to improve people's lives. Today, CAS employs over 1,400 experts, curating, connecting, and analyzing scientific knowledge from over 150 years of published science to reveal unseen connections and accelerate breakthroughs for innovators globally.