Attendance and abstract submission at the ICC 2016

TO: NACS Membership
FR: Enrique Iglesia

Subject: Attendance and abstract submission; ICC 2016 Beijing, China

Professor Can Li (Chair, 16th International Catalysis Congress, http://www.icc2016china.com) has contacted me to request that I encourage the submission of abstracts from the NACS membership to this meeting.

The ICC meetings provide the broadest international forum for the dissemination of research in heterogeneous catalysis and related fields. These meetings started in the U.S. in 1956 and the NACS will be presenting a bid to hold the 17th ICC in North America, for the first time since 1996.

It is important, both to demonstrate the excellence of the scientific enterprise in catalysis within North America and to ensure the success of the NACS bid, that our NACS community be represented in the scientific program with numbers and quality consistent with precedents and with the strength of the on-going research activities.

Please consider submitting abstracts and attending.

The submission deadline has been extended until December 20 (http://www.icc2016china.com/en/page.asp?hid=&pageid=86.html)

With regards,

Enrique Iglesia
President, North American Catalysis Society

The 26th Biennial Organic Reactions Catalysis Society Conference

The Organic Reactions Catalysis Society cordially invites you to our 26th biennial meeting.

When: Sunday, March 27, 2016 3:00 PM through Thursday, March 31, 2016 12:00 PM Eastern Time

Where: Hyatt Regency Miami 400 South East Second Ave, Miami, Florida 33131–2197, USA USA

Registration for the 26th ORCS Conference is now open. Click here to register for the 26^th ORCS Conference.

Topics at the conference will include

Chemicals production from bio-renewable resources
Coupling reactions with transition metals
Enantioselective transformations
Selective oxidation and acid catalyzed transformations
Hydrogenation: heterogeneous and homogeneous; chiral and achiral
Novel materials for organic synthesis
Synthesis of fine chemicals and pharmaceuticals

Award Winners
ORCS is pleased to announce the following award winners that will be honored at the 26th ORCS Conference. The Murray Raney and Paul N. Rylander Award winners will present plenary lectures during the 26th ORCS Conference.

2016 Murray Raney Award Sponsored by W.R. Grace and Co.
The Organic Reaction Catalysis Society is pleased to announce Dr. Jens Nørskov as the recipient of the 2016 Murray Raney Award for his significant contributions to advance the use of base metal catalysis in organic reactions.

2015 Paul N. Rylander Award Sponsored by BASF
The Organic Reaction Catalysis Society is pleased to announce Dr. Joseph R. Zoeller as the recipient of the 2015 Paul N. Rylander Award for his significant contributions to the use of catalysis in organic reactions.

2016 Paul N. Rylander Award Sponsored by BASF
The Organic Reaction Catalysis Society is pleased to announce Dr. Anil S. Guram, CSO – Art of Elements, LLC, as the recipient of the 2016 Paul N. Rylander Award for his significant contributions to the use of catalysis in organic reactions.

Keynote speakers confirmed to date include:

Gadi Rothenburg, University of Amsterdam

Break the Bark: New Catalytic Routes From Biomass to Chemicals

Martin Johnson, Eli Lilly and Company
Continuous Reactors for Homogeneous and Heterogeneous Catalysis

Teshik Yoon, University of Wisconsin

Huw Davies, Emory University

Please visit www.orcs.org or email us at orcschair@orcs.org for more information.

ACS recognizes catalyst scientists with national and division awards

Aditya Bhan (University of Minnesota-Twin Cities) received the Ipatieff Prize.

Donna G. Blackmond (Scripps Research Institute) received the Gabor A. Somorjai Award for Creative Research in Catalysis.

Stuart Soled (ExxonMobil) received the ENFL Distinguished Researcher Award in Petroleum Chemistry.

Press Releases: ACS 2016 National Award Recipients; ENFL 2016 Distinguished Researcher Award in Petroleum Chemistry

Catalysis Researchers Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Catalysis researchers John Hartwig and Enrique Iglesia of the University of California at Berkeley have been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Press Releases: American Academy Press Release: https://www.amacad.org/content/news/pressReleases.aspx?pr=10233; Berkeley News: http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2015/04/23/american-academy-of-arts-and-sciences-elects-six-berkeley-faculty/

In Memoriam: John T. Yates, Jr. (1935–2015)

Professor John T. Yates, Jr. received his B.S. degree from Juniata College and his Ph.D. in physical chemistry from M.I.T. After three years as Assistant Professor at Antioch College, he joined the National Bureau of Standards, first as a NRC Postdoctoral Research Fellow and then as a member of its scientific staff. His research in the fields of surface chemistry and physics, including both the structure and spectroscopy of surface species, the dynamics of surface processes, and the development of new methods for research in surface chemistry, kept him at the forefront of this field of science throughout his long and distinguished career.

Professor Yates joined the University of Pittsburgh in 1982 as the first R.K. Mellon Professor of Chemistry and as Founding Director of the University of Pittsburgh Surface Science Center. He established and led the Surface Science Center and mentored 40 Ph.D students and more than 100 senior researchers at Pittsburgh. He moved to the University of Virginia in 2006 as a Professor and Shannon Research Fellow; there, he established a new research program in Surface Science and became active in the new field of astrochemistry.

Professor Yates served as Associate Editor of Chemical Reviews and of ACS Langmuir and on the Advisory Boards of Chemical & Engineering News and Chemistry World. He was active as a member of the AVS Boards of Directors and Trustees and as Chair of the AVS Surface Science Division, the APS Division of Chemical Physics, and the ACS Division of Colloid and Surface Chemistry. He chaired three Gordon Research Conferences.

He was the recipient of the AVS Medard Welch Award, the ACS Arthur W. Adamson Award for Distinguished Service in the Advancement of Surface Chemistry, the ACS Peter Debye Award in Physical Chemistry, and an Alexander von Humboldt Senior Research Award. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1996. During his distinguished career, he co-authored more than 700 articles in the leading journals of chemistry and physics.

We mourn his passing as we celebrate his achievements.

Matt Neurock is the recipient of the 2015 Robert Burwell Lectureship in Catalysis

I am pleased to announce that Professor Matthew Neurock of the University of Minnesota is the recipient of the2015 Robert Burwell Lectureship in Catalysis of the North American Catalysis Society, sponsored by Johnson Matthey and administered by The North American Catalysis Society. It is awarded biennially in odd-numbered years. The award consists of a plaque and an honorarium of $5,000. The plaque will be presented during the closing banquet ceremonies at the 2015 North American Meeting of the Catalysis Society. An additional $4,500 is available to cover travelling expenses in North America.

Professor Neurock will present lectures at the local catalysis clubs and societies during the two-year period covered by this award.

The Robert Burwell Lectureship in Catalysis is given in recognition of substantial contributions to one or more areas in the field of catalysis with emphasis on discovery and understanding of catalytic phenomena, catalytic reaction mechanisms and identification and description of catalytic sites and species.

Professor Matthew Neurock is being recognized for his seminal contributions to the development and application of theoretical and computational methods to elucidate catalytic mechanisms and the active sites involved. He has pioneered first-principle kinetic Monte Carlo methods that explicitly track molecular transformations on realistic surfaces at relevant conditions, ab initio molecular dynamics methods that describe complex metal-solution interfaces, and ab initio constant potential methods for electrochemical systems to understand and aid the design of catalytic and electrocatalytic systems.

His group has used these methods, together with ab initio quantum chemical treatments, to explore metals, alloys, oxides, sulfides and zeolites and the mechanisms by which they mediate catalysis. These treatments have uncovered previously unrecognized routes that prevail at the high surface coverages relevant to catalytic practice, the direct participation of protic media as a co-catalyst, and the role of acid-base sites formed by hydroxyl intermediates on metals. His effective collaborations with experimental groups have led to fundamental and practical insights into the mechanisms of alkane activation, Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, selective oxidation and hydrogenation of alkenes and oxygenates, hydrocarbon and oxygenate hydrogenolysis reactions, acid-catalyzed transformations, and electrocatalytic reduction-oxidation cycles.

Enrique Iglesia
President
North American Catalysis Society

Bruce Cook
Vice President
North American Catalysis Society

In Memoriam Presentations

In Memorian slides presented at the North American Meetings since the 19^th NAM are available at www.nacatsoc.org/resources/memorials/.

Hajo Freund of the Fritz Haber Institute has been selected as the recipient of the 2015 Michel Boudart Award for the Advancement of Catalysis

HajoFreund We are pleased to announce that Professor Hans Joachim Freund of the Fritz Haber Institute is the recipient of the 2015 Michel Boudart for the Advancement of Catalysis, sponsored by the Haldor Topsøe Company and administered jointly by the North American Catalysis Society and the European Federation of Catalysis Societies. The Award will be presented at the 24th North American Meeting of the Catalysis Society (Pittsburgh, June 2015) and at Europacat XII (Kazan, Russia, August 2015).

This Award recognizes and encourages individual contributions to the elucidation of the mechanism and active sites involved in catalytic phenomena and to the development of new methods or concepts that advance the understanding and the practice of heterogeneous catalysis. It is meant to recognize individuals who bring together the rigor and the international impact that exemplified the accomplishments and the career of Professor Michel Boudart.

Professor Hajo Freund is being specifically recognized for his groundbreaking experimental advances in understanding elementary steps of reactions on catalytic surfaces and for his studies bridging relevant catalysis and surface reactions at single crystal surfaces through the use of novel model catalysts with well-controlled structural features. His research group has synthesized a broad range of relevant materials, such as oxides of Al, Si, Ce, Ca, and V, useful as active materials or supports, with geometric and electronic structures, including surface defects, probed at the atomic level using tunneling and atomic force microscopy techniques. His work has established the state-of-the-art in new techniques and instrumentation and in the use of relevant model systems to establish mechanistic pathways and structural and electronic requirements in heterogeneous catalysis. One example involves the first implementation of electron spin resonance to single crystals, which has enabled the monitoring of the formation and reactions of radical species derived from adsorbates and metal nanoparticles on well-defined surfaces. His studies of supported metal nanoparticles (Pd, Au) have led to unprecedented insights into how supports influence the geometric and electronic properties and how dopants influence the binding properties of such nanoparticles, even when dopants reside below support surfaces, through dopant-induced polarons that strongly influence oxygen activation. Recently, his group successfully prepared hexagonal SiO₂ double layers, which allowed the first direct observation of the atomic structure of amorphous silica using tunneling and atomic force microscopy and the synthesis of a two-dimensional zeolite with bridging hydroxyl structures, such as those present in chabazite frameworks.

Enrique Iglesia
President, North American Catalysis Society

Johannes Lercher
President, European Federation of Catalysis Societies

Christophe COPÉRET is the recipient of the 2015 Paul H. Emmett Award in Fundamental Catalysis

Coperet_Christophe We are pleased to announce that Professor Christophe COPÉRET of the Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences ETH Zürich is the recipient of the 2015 Paul H. Emmett Award in Fundamental Catalysis, sponsored by the Grace Catalyst Technologies operating segment of W.R. Grace & Co. and administered by The North American Catalysis Society. The Award consists of a plaque and an honorarium of $5,000. The plaque will be presented during the closing banquet ceremonies at the 24th NAM meeting in Pittsburgh. Professor COPÉRET will also present a plenary lecture during the conference.

The Paul H. Emmett Award in Fundamental Catalysis is given in recognition of substantial individual contributions in the field of catalysis with emphasis on discovery and understanding of catalytic phenomena, proposal of catalytic reaction mechanisms and identification of and description of catalytic sites and species.

The award recognizes the contributions of Professor Christophe COPÉRET to the preparation of well-defined heterogeneous catalysts through a molecular approach based on the controlled functionalization of surfaces and the atomic description of the surface species and active sites, in particular via solid-state NMR spectroscopy. This approach has allowed a detailed understanding of the structure of active sites and of the reaction mechanism of catalytic processes, such as olefin metathesis and polymerization, thereby providing access to structure–activity relationships and to rational catalyst design.

Enrique Iglesia
President, North American Catalysis Society

Bruce R. Cook
Vice President, North American Catalysis Society

In Memoriam: Theodore A. Koch (1925 – 2014)

Theodore Koch Dr. Theodore A. Koch, 88, a retired DuPont research scientist passed away peacefully at his home in Wilmington, Delaware on September 13, 2014.

A native of upstate New York, Koch studied chemistry at St. Michael’s College in Burlington, VT and the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, PA, earning his Ph.D. in chemistry in 1952. He joined the DuPont Co. ultimately retiring from its Nylon business unit as a DuPont Fellow after 48 years of service. An authority on heterogeneous catalysts, Koch spent his entire career developing chemical processes and bringing them from the benchtop to commercialization with marked creativity and tenacity.

Notable technical accomplishments in Koch’s career included developing a new catalyst for nitrous oxide destruction (an ozone-depletion byproduct from Nylon manufacture), development of a new process for hydrogen cyanide manufacture and improvements to many polymer intermediates processes. Koch received the award for Excellence in Catalytic Science and Technology from the Catalysis Club of Philadelphia in 1994 and the Lavoisier Medal for Technical Excellence from the DuPont Co. in 1998. His external roles included adjunct Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Delaware; president of the Catalysis Club of Philadelphia; and membership in the North American Catalysis Society, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, the Organic Reactions Catalysis Society, and the American Chemical Society. He held 29 patents and co-authored 18 journal articles and one textbook on catalysis entitled, “Catalyst Manufacture.”

Koch is survived by his wife of 62 years, Anne, his five children, five grandchildren and extended family. His memory lives on through the Theodore A. Koch Fund that will recognize and reward Delaware Valley achievements in catalysis research. Charitable donations may be made to the Catalysis Club of Philadelphia, Ted Koch Fund, c/o Stephen Harris, Treasurer, Renmatix, 660 Allendale Road, King of Prussia, PA 19406.