I am hon­ored by this oppor­tu­ni­ty to serve our com­mu­ni­ty and in awe of the chal­lenges and oppor­tu­ni­ties that it presents.

I speak with the grate­ful voice of our com­mu­ni­ty in acknowl­edg­ing the ded­i­ca­tion and con­tri­bu­tions of the out­go­ing offi­cers: John Armor and Umit Ozkan and of the con­tin­u­ing offi­cers John Byrne and Edrick Morales. I also wel­come Bruce Cook, Hong-Xin Li, and C.Y. Chen as new offi­cers and thank them for their com­mit­ment to serve.

The youth, vig­or, and qual­i­ty evi­dent at our 21st NAM in San Fran­cis­co served to con­firm the intel­lec­tu­al and finan­cial health of our dis­ci­pline and of the North Amer­i­can Catal­y­sis Soci­ety. Catal­y­sis con­tin­ues to serve as the enabling dis­ci­pline in ener­gy sup­ply and con­ver­sion, in the syn­the­sis of fuels and chem­i­cals, and in our thought­ful care for the envi­ron­ment; it remains an essen­tial con­trib­u­tor to qual­i­ty of life and to sus­tain­able growth in the world at large. As a dis­ci­pline, its vis­i­bil­i­ty and its sup­port research base con­tin­ue to grow, fueled by a com­bi­na­tion of intel­lec­tu­al advances, new con­cepts and tools, evolv­ing soci­etal needs, and a con­sis­tent track record of prac­ti­cal impact.

The Soci­ety remains in excel­lent finan­cial health. Its long-stand­ing com­mit­ment to serve the com­mu­ni­ty remains firm­ly entrenched with­in our very active local clubs and their ded­i­cat­ed lead­ers and mem­bers and amongst their coun­ter­parts in the nation­al orga­ni­za­tion. We are com­mit­ted to con­tin­ue to return to our mem­bers the ben­e­fits of their ded­i­ca­tion by grow­ing our sup­port for new gen­er­a­tions of researchers and ideas, so that they enter safe­ly and choose to stay. To bal­ance nov­el­ty with his­to­ry, we intend to expand our ini­tia­tives to pre­serve and pro­claim our her­itage and, in doing so, to rec­og­nize the con­tri­bu­tions of the intel­lec­tu­al forces that shaped the con­cepts and tools upon which we build our future as a catal­y­sis dis­ci­pline.
We encour­age your com­ments and sug­ges­tions, as well as your involve­ment in all activ­i­ties and ini­tia­tives of the Soci­ety. You can always reach me via email at iglesia@berkeley.edu.
 
Enrique Igle­sia
Pres­i­dent, North Amer­i­can Catal­y­sis Soci­ety
Berke­ley, CA
20 Octo­ber 2009