Prof Pat Guiry with Prof Serafino Gladiali and Prof Simon Woodward
“Innovation 1” which took place at the CSCB on May 20-22 was the first of five meetings supporting the “Innovative Catalysis: New Processes and Selectivities” action which involves 22 European countries and will run from 2006 to 2011.
The primary objective is the discovery of new, highly innovative, pre-competitive research that lays the foundation for providing new industrial products and processes with significant competitive advantages over the current state of the art.
Over 80 delegates attended the meeting which was organised by Professor Pat Guiry. The workshop included presentations and discussions by members of the three COST D40 Working Groups and a programme of talks and poster presentations.
Professor Simon Woodward, Chair, opened the meeting welcoming members of the group and describing the next five years of the programme as an “unparalleled opportunity for integrating new and old ideas and conceiving new ways forward for catalysis.”
The first plenary lecture was given by Professor Guy Lloyd-Jones, University of Bristol, who stated he believes that researchers are at the beginning of a journey towards predictive transition metal catalysis. Professor Patrick J. Walsh, University of Pennsylvania, USA described highly selective one-pot methods and new tandem reactions for the synthesis of heterocycles.
Chemists’ role in confronting the challenge the world faces with regard to energy was also discussed. The final plenary lecture on Catalysis, Green Chemistry and Sustainability: Challenges and Opportunities by Professor Roger A. Sheldon, Technical University of Delft, Netherlands presented catalysis as the solution. He outlined the need to replace traditional procedures with catalytic alternatives and stressed the importance for chemists to ensure they are focusing on the economically and environmentally acceptable reactions and products which will be needed by the chemical industry in the future.
