Kokes Awards for the 27th North American Catalysis Society Meeting

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The project provides travel assistance for approximately 40 graduate students from U.S. universities to attend the 27th North American Catalysis Society Meeting (NAM27) in New York City, NY, May 22-27, 2022. Catalysis has long served as a critical industrial and environmental technology for facilitating the efficient and targeted conversion of raw materials to fuels and chemical products, while also remediating waste products and pollutants. The NAM meetings are the premier U.S. conference in the areas of catalysis, surface science and catalytic reaction engineering. The meetings bring together academic, industrial, and government laboratory researchers to share the latest technical advances through oral and poster presentations, as well as plenary talks, panel discussions, and topical workshops addressing key challenges in the field of catalysis. Specifically for NAM27, students will benefit from a series of workshops on key aspects of catalysis science prior to the first day of technical content, to be presented by a panel of prominent researchers on best practices in catalysis. For the first time, the meeting will have a separate session on Catalyst Manufacturing that aims to bring together efforts from both academia and industry.Financial assistance to graduate students will be through the Kokes Travel Award program. NSF funding covers the (early) registration fee ($495) and hotel costs for five days ($650, double occupancy) for about 43 students from US institutions from a total of 120 awardees based on expected funding from ARO, DOE, and the North American Catalysis Society (in addition to NSF) for a total budget of over $150,000. The awardees are selected based on a rigorous review process from an estimated 230 student applications based primarily on merit, but with consideration of need-based criteria that will enable the Kokes Awards committee to ensure appropriate representation from underrepresented groups, including minorities and women, first-time attendees to the NAM meeting, students of junior faculty, and geographical distribution. Merit-based criteria include 1) peer-reviewed evaluation of the student's submitted presentation abstract, 2) a letter of recommendation from the student's adviser, and 3) the student's CV. The awardees attend the entire conference and provide service to the conference by helping to organize and conduct the meeting. In addition to scientific learning, NAM27 will provide student attendees opportunities for networking, social interaction and informal discussions. The meeting is particularly beneficial as a career development tool for graduate students from U.S. institutions, who will form the backbone of the future U.S. chemicals, fuels, and environmental sustainability industries.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.