A foundational discourse on the field of chemometrics by Kowalski, "Chemometrics: Views and Propositions," was published in 1975. In it he defines chemometrics as "any and all methods that can be used to extract useful chemical information from raw data." Kowalski takes up the question of what constitutes "new and viable research" in the field and goes on to explain how his training as an analytical chemist and experience with pattern recognition as a tool for chemical analysis has influenced his opinion about this. The included letter to a "prospective chemometrician," signed by Kowalski and Svante Wold, asserts "chemometrics should not involve theoretical calculations, but should deal primarily with the extraction of useful chemical information from measured data." The letter announces that an informal "Chemometrics Society" was begun on June 10, 1974, describes the purposes of the society and invites the interested researcher to join. Kowalskis research group was given as the Laboratory for Chemometrics, Department of Chemistry, University of Washington, and Wolds research group was given as Research Group for Chemometrics, Institute of Chemistry, Umea University, Sweden. This society, formed from Kowalksis and Wolds two research groups, eventually became the International Chemometrics Society.
Wold had coined the term "chemometrics" for a grant application in 1971. He and Kowalski first met in 1973 at a symposium in Tucson, Arizona, and after discussion, Kowalski agreed to use the term to describe his own research as well. Wold says Kowalski became "both a strong proponent and spokesman for this new field."