Catalysis: Past, Present and Future

Publisher Summary The Tenth International Congress on Catalysis (ICC) assembled in 1992 to consider important questions from the past four decades of catalysis. During those 40 years, electronics emerged from fundamental science to a consumer industry, whose diverse products touch many aspects of daily life. Biochemistry and related biosciences grew from intractable complexity to a systematic unveiling of life's chemical mechanism, and technologies revolutionized the pharmaceutical industry. In these 40 years, catalysis grew to become the critical technological underpinning of the chemical, fuel, and pharmaceutical industries. Catalysis also became the principal challenge for future progress in these technologies. Future catalysis will be aimed at reducing the cost of raw materials and exciting new products that use the catalysts of higher catalytic specificity. In the four decades since the first ICC, catalysis technology has blossomed, in large measure as a result of the enthusiasm of participating scientists. The industrial challenge and competition to rapidly develop new catalytic processes have substantially contributed to progress in catalysis. Over these years, the ICC provided an important forum to report on new discoveries in catalysis science and technology.