Rocky Mountain Catalysis Society (RMCS) 40th Annual Symposium

The Rocky Moun­tain Catal­y­sis Soci­ety (RMCS) held its 40th Annu­al Sym­po­sium at Mon­tana State Uni­ver­si­ty in Boze­man, MT on May 29, 2026. The sym­po­sium brought togeth­er 37 researchers from acad­e­mia, nation­al lab­o­ra­to­ries, and indus­try to dis­cuss recent advances in catal­y­sis, reac­tion engi­neer­ing, and sus­tain­able chem­i­cal process­es. Atten­dees enjoyed a keynote lec­ture from Prof. Yong Wang of Wash­ing­ton State Uni­ver­si­ty and Pacif­ic North­west Nation­al Lab­o­ra­to­ry who pre­sent­ed the Bur­well Lec­ture­ship. Prof. Carsten Siev­ers of Geor­gia Insti­tute of Tech­nol­o­gy pre­sent­ed the Anton Paar Keynote Lec­ture, and Mr. David West of SABIC (retired), pre­sent­ed the Cia­pet­ta Lec­ture­ship Lecture.

The tech­ni­cal pro­gram also fea­tured invit­ed and con­tributed pre­sen­ta­tions from researchers rep­re­sent­ing New Mex­i­co State Uni­ver­si­ty, Mon­tana State Uni­ver­si­ty, Uni­ver­si­ty of Col­orado Boul­der, Ari­zona State Uni­ver­si­ty, the Uni­ver­si­ty of Ida­ho, SSRL, the Nation­al Lab­o­ra­to­ry of the Rock­ies, Malvern Pan­a­lyt­i­cal, and VACOM. Top­ics ranged from plas­tic upcy­cling, bio­mass upgrad­ing, and pho­to­cat­alyt­ic MOFs to operan­do spec­troscopy, zeo­lite defect engi­neer­ing, car­bon cap­ture, and cat­a­lyst char­ac­ter­i­za­tion under reac­tion conditions.

In addi­tion, the sym­po­sium show­cased a vibrant poster ses­sion high­light­ing emerg­ing research from stu­dents and ear­ly-career researchers across the Rocky Moun­tain region. Poster pre­sen­ta­tions cov­ered areas includ­ing Fischer–Tropsch syn­the­sis, reac­tive car­bon cap­ture, MOF pho­to­catal­y­sis, plas­tic upcy­cling, cat­a­lyst design, bio­mass con­ver­sion, and sin­gle-atom catal­y­sis. Stu­dent oral and poster pre­sen­ta­tions were rec­og­nized through RMCS Pre­sen­ta­tion Awards announced at the con­clu­sion of the meet­ing. Oral pre­sen­ta­tion awards were pre­sent­ed to Emma Hol­lis (Uni­ver­si­ty of Col­orado Boul­der, 1st place), Ashutosh Mishra (Uni­ver­si­ty of Col­orado Boul­der, 2nd place), and Ian Joyce (Mon­tana State Uni­ver­si­ty, 3rd place). Poster pre­sen­ta­tion awards were pre­sent­ed to Thom­son McCarthy (Mon­tana State Uni­ver­si­ty, 1st place), Mara Fis­ch­er (Uni­ver­si­ty of Col­orado Boul­der, 2nd place), and Marc Manyé Ibáñez (Uni­ver­si­ty of Col­orado Boul­der, 3rd place).

RMCS would like to thank sym­po­sium chair Prof. James Craw­ford and the sym­po­sium spon­sors, includ­ing Malvern Pan­a­lyt­i­cal, Anton Paar, Applied Catal­y­sis A, B, and O, VACOM, and Mon­tana State Uni­ver­si­ty Ener­gy Research Insti­tute for their con­tri­bu­tions to a suc­cess­ful and engag­ing meeting.