The 8th Cross-Strait Academic Conference on Catalysis was held in Lanzhou from the 11th August and 12th August. The Conference was sponsored by the Catalysis Society of China and organized by the State Key Laboratory of Oxo Synthesis and Selective Oxidation, Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. More than 100 specialists, scholars and postgraduates, from 25 research institutions and institutions of higher education of the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, participated in the Conference.

Prof. Li Can, director of the Catalysis Society of China, member of CAS, and vice-director of the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, CAS, was the honorary chairman. Prof. Xia Chungu, vice-director of the Catalysis Society of China and vice-director of LICP, presided over the Conference. The opening remarks were delivered by the vice-director of the Catalysis Society of China, Prof. Wang Ye from Xiamen University and Prof. Mu Zhongyuan of the Chemical Engineering Department of National Taiwan University on behalf of the Catalytic Committee of the Chinese Chemical Society and the fellows engaging in catalysis in Taiwan respectively.

32 specialists, from 25 research institutions and institutions of higher education of the two sides, including National Tsing Hua University, DICP, Tsinghua University and so on, were invited and presented their research through lectures in the Conference. The lectures covered a wide range of areas, such as nano-catalysis, enzyme catalysis, electrocatalysis, new catalytic material, new techniques in catalytic reactions, etc.

Chairman Prof. Xia Chungu hoped that, with “promoting exchange, enhancing friendship and strengthening cooperation” as the aim, the Conference would further enhance the exchange and cooperation between the two sides and eventually raise the S&T level of the two sides in catalytic science.

Prof. Mu Zhongyuan said that, as the energy and environmental problems grow more and more prominent, the catalytic subject becomes more and more important and so does the Conference. Speaking highly of the academic level of the Conference, he said that the Conference served as a platform of exchange and cooperation between two sides. He believed that the there would be more opportunities for cooperation between two sides in the future and he extended his wish that all could participate in the 9th Conference which would be held in National Taiwan University in 2011.

　  Cross-Strait Academic Conference on Catalysis was held once a year before and 7 such conferences were successfully convened in Taiwan and the mainland of China since the year 2000. During the 7th Conference, it was decided that the Conference be held every two years and every expert participating in the Conference should take one postgraduate to promote the academic exchange and friendship between postgraduates of the two sides.