CRC international symposium
  We started a new type of CRC International Symposium to promote the special area important for catalyst in 2005. The serial symposium has been held every year at different places and dedicated to one topic with lectures given by the top scientists. The last topic was “cross-coupling and organometallics” started from Germany (Aachen in 2005), and then, USA, France, Sweden, Moscow, China, and Canada in 2012. We invited distinguished scientists in these fields including Prof. Akira Suzuki and Prof. Ei-ichi Negishi, Novel Laureates in 2010. This successful symposium about “cross-coupling” has expanded as a forthcoming symposium about "Asymmetric C-C Bond Formation & Organometallics". We also have decided to focus on the “Chemical Theory for Complex System” and started a new round for next several years. The first symposium was successfully held in Strasbourg in France with a great deal of cooperation of Prof. Chantal Daniel. The second one was also successfully held at Emerson Center (EC), Emory University, Atlanta as a joint CRC-EC International Symposium with co-organization by Director Jamal Musaev at EC.

Catalysis is one of the most complex systems and is still difficult to understand. Theoretical approach to the catalysis is strongly desired but is not matured. In 2012 we have initiated a new theory division in CRC and invited Prof. Jun-ya Hasegawa to promote theoretical approach in catalysis. It is a good occasion to invite world-wide top scientists and to share theoretical frontier on the catalysis and complex chemical system. Thanks to a kind help and advice of Prof. Shigeyoshi Sakaki and Prof. Koichi Yamashita, we have invited excellent professors in this field. We hope that all participants will enjoy the lectures and the symposium will open a new horizon in this field.

  Kiyotaka Asakura
  CRC, Hokkaido University