Proceedings of the Surface Reactivity and Catalysis Group Annual Meeting: University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, Scotland - 13-15 July 2005 - Preface

On the13th July 2005, almost 32 years after the original Trust Deed was signed signifying the birth of the new “Chemical Society Surface Reactivity and Catalysis Subject Group Trust” a group of seventy five members of the community including academics, industrialists and research students, gathered in Kings College, University of Aberdeen, for their annual meeting to discuss “Novel Catalysts, New Catalytic Chemistry.” Several of the attendees, including Professors G.C. Bond, R.F. Howe, C.H. Rochester and P.B. Wells, had been present at the meeting 32 years earlier. The RSC SURCAT group, as it is now known, serves to provide a forum for discussion and the promotion of catalytic and surface chemistry and the programme for the 3 days meeting fulfilled this brief. It was a conscious decision by the organisers to add a more international flavour to the event compared with previous meeting, and we are extremely grateful to the plenary speakers, Professors B. Weckhuysen (Utrecht, The Netherlands), E. Fridell (Chalmers University of Technology, Göteborg, Sweden), J.A. Lercher (Technische Universität München, Germany) and K. Segawa (Sophia University, Japan) for their valuable contributions. The papers contained within this volume represent some of the contributions to both the oral and poster sessions of this meeting and give a feel for the wide array of science presented.