International

2^nd International Congress on Catalysis for Biorefineries (CatBior 2013) was held in Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, CAS, from 22^nd to 25^th September, 2013. The International Congress on Catalysis for Biorefineries was originated in Torremolinos, Málaga, Spain in 2011, and alternates worldwidely in odd years. This congress aims to create a platform for exchanging scientific views and updating latest research findings in the field of bio-refineries, which calls for clean and efficient processes to convert biomass into low-cost and sustainable biofuels, chemicals and pharmaceuticals.   

CatBior 2013 is devoted to fundamental and practical research on non-enzymatic catalytic processes, especially focused on: innovative catalytic processes, engineering and molecular aspects of the process, novel bioproducts and biofuels, and new catalysts.    

During the congress, approximately 300 scientists and students from 20 countries, together with 15 representatives from relevant enterprises, attended the conference, while 6 Plenary lectures, 9 keynotes, 41 oral presentations, as well as 133 poster communications were presented.    

Prof. Aiqin Wang from DICP, vice-chairman of the organizing committee, chaired the opening ceremony. Prof. Tao Zhang, chairman of the Organizing Committee, delivered a plenary lecture titled “One-pot Conversion of cellulose to Ethylene Glycol: Insights from the Mechanism Study”. Prof. Z. Conrad Zhang, Prof. Feng Wang and Prof. Haibo Xie from DICP presented oral communications in this conference, respectively. In addition,10 young researchers from Japan, Belgium, Germany, India, Denmark and China were awarded as “Chinese Journal of Catalysis Best Poster Award”. (By Changzhi Li, Xiaochen Zhao)