Christian Baerlocher worked originally with Professor W. Meier in ETH Zurich before completing his PhD with Professor Barrer in Imperial College London, in 1973. He has returned to the ETH, where he has a longstanding interest in the solution of crystal structures from powder diffraction data, and has been pivotal to the development of new methods, including structural modelling, introduction of Rietveld refinement and most recently using textured samples, generating structure envelopes, incorporating electron microscopy and chemical information to complement powder diffraction and adapting the charge flipping algorithm to powder diffraction data. At the forefront of these areas, and working on many of the most important zeolitic structures, he was awarded the Breck Award for these pioneering studies, together with Dr. Lynne McCusker and Professor Osamu Terasaki, in 2007. He has also played a major role in organizing that most useful of web resources, the Database of Zeolite Structures.

Enrique Iglesia is Chancellor Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of California at Berkeley and a Faculty Scientist in the E.O. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He received his Ph.D. degree in 1982 from Stanford University in Chemical Engineering. In 1993, he joined the University of California at Berkeley after eleven years of research and management experience in heterogeneous catalysis at the Corporate Research Labs of Exxon Research and Engineering. He is the founding and current Director of the Berkeley Catalysis Centre, which includes ten faculty members in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering. Prof Iglesia’s recent recognitions include the George A. Olah Award in Hydrocarbon Chemistry of the American Chemical Society (2005), the Award for Excellence in Natural Gas Conversion (2004) and the Wilhelm Manchot Chemistry Prize of the Technical University of Munich (2004). He is the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Catalysis and serves as Vice President of the North American Catalysis Society.

Susumu Kitagawa received his Ph. D. at Kyoto University in 1979, thereafter becoming Assistant Professor (1979), Lecturer (1983), and Associate Professor (1988) at Kinki University. He was promoted to Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at Tokyo Metropolitan University in 1992, and moved to Kyoto University as Professor of Functional Chemistry in 1998. He had been a visiting scientist in F.A.Cotton Laboratory, Texas A & M University, during the period of 1986-1987, and an exchange Professor in City University of New York in 1996. He received the CSJ (Chemical Society of Japan) Young Scholars’ Lecture Series Award (1990), and the CSJ Award for Creative Work (2003). His main research fields are coordination chemistry, and his current research interests are centered on chemistry of novel molecularly organic-inorganic hybrid compounds, particularly chemical and/or physical properties of porous coordination polymers.

Dr Ben Slater (University College London) has over 10 years experience of developing and applying atomistic solid-state simulation methods in materials science, especially in the area of surface chemistry. His current work in the microporous solids field concentrates on establishing the growth steps at the surface and the defect structure of zeolites and metal organic frameworks in terms of mechanism, energetics and subsequent effects on properties. He was awarded the RSC 2008 Barrer Prize for this work.

Bao-Lian Su received his Ph.D. degree at Université P. M. Curie, Paris, France in 1992. He carried out his postdoctoral research in the Laboratory of Catalysis at the University of Namur (FUNDP), Belgium in 1993–1994. After holding a research position at Catalytica Inc., he joined the faculty at the University of Namur in 1995 and created the Laboratory of Inorganic Materials Chemistry (CMI). He is currently a Full Professor of Chemistry, Head of the Chemistry Department, Director of the Research Centre for Nanomaterials Chemistry and the Laboratory of Inorganic Materials Chemistry. Prof. Su received a series of honours and awards such as the Invention Award of Sinopec (1992) and A. Wetrems Prize of the Royal Academy of Belgium (Arts, Letters and Sciences) (2007). His current research fields include the synthesis, the property study and the molecular engineering of organized, hierarchically porous and bio-inspired materials and nanostructures for nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology and biomedical applications.

Michael Tsapatsis’ group at the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at the University of Minnesota is at the leading edge of innovative processing strategies for engineering functional devices and microstructures. These produce highly selective membranes and catalysts with tailored properties and may also be used for the fabrication of chemical sensors, electronic and optical components. The group’s research combines synthetic chemistry, processing, and characterization with careful evaluation of microstructures and functionality in challenging applications. Recent examples include orientation of pore geometry in silicalite membranes, patterning in the arrangement of zeolitic nanoparticles, and more fundamental studies on the mechanism of the crystallisation of zeolites.

Xiaodong Zou is a full professor at the Department of Physical, Inorganic and Structural Chemistry, and the director of the Berzelii Centre EXSELENT on Porous Materials at Stockholm University. She received her PhD in structural chemistry at Stockholm University in 1995 before postdoctoral research at Lund University, working with Professor David R. Veblen from John Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA. She jointed the faculty at Stockholm University in 1996 and has received several awards such as the Tage Erlander Prize in Chemistry in 2002 and Göran Gustaffson Prize in Chemistry in 2008, both given by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. One of her research interests is method development for structure determination of nanoporous materials by high resolution electron microscopy and electron diffraction. She is also working on synthesis, structure determination, topology analysis and applications of inorganic open-framework materials and metal-organic frameworks.

The conference banquet will be held at the splendidly appointed **** Low Wood Hotel. The hotel affords magnificent views across Windermere and the Langdale Pikes. Coaches will transport delegates between University of Cumbria, Ambleside Campus and the banquet venue. If you have, or are willing to install, Quicktime version 5 or later you may click here to see interactive 360° images of the Low Wood.

Three optional afternoon excursions are planned: Windermere cruise, hill walking and a visit to Dove Cottage - the home of William Wordsworth.