History     Catalysis research in Korea is a relatively young discipline. The first research in catalysis began in 1973 when Professor Hakze Chon, with a Ph.D. degree from Professor Schwab’s laboratory in Munchen, and 15 years of research at Mobil Research Laboratories in America, returned to Korea to occupy the first chair in catalysis at the newly created Korea Advanced Institute of Science. In March of 1979, 15 researchers in universities and government-funded research institutes got together to organize a “club” to exchange ideas on their research results. In 1980 a few of them attended the 7th ICC held in Tokyo, Japan. A number of prominent scholars attending the Congress were invited to visit Korea and meet with the members of the “club” for the first ever international symposium on catalysis held in Korea. The invited scholars included Professors Schwab, Boudart, Hightower, Kwan, Barthomeuf, Gates and Vannice. Although there were only about 60 participants altogether in this first symposium, this was the beginning of a very rapidly growing activities in catalysis. Most of the early pioneers had received their training overseas and returned to Korea since the mid-1970s. Major universities in Korea were training future catalysis researchers and a number of government-funded research institutes were beginning to support catalysis research. In addition to the rapidly increasing pool of young researchers inside Korea, there were a few dozens of Korean students, mostly in the U.S., pursuing Ph.D. degrees in catalysis. By 1985, the “club” grew enough to be recognized as a major Division within the Korean Institute of Chemical Engineers (KIChE), one of the largest (5,200 membership) and most active professional societies in Korea. Professor Hakze Chon became the first Division director. Catalysis, a young discipline in Korea, was engaged in mostly by those trained in the U.S., and since catalysis is based largely in the chemical engineering departments in the American universities, it has come to be associated with the chemical engineering profession in Korea also. Since it was organized as a division in 1984, the Catalysis Division has grown into the most active group within KIChE and by 1990 they accounted for about 20 % of the approximately 700 papers presented at the two national meetings. As an indication of the prominence of this Division, one division director (Professor Hakze Chon) went on to become a cabinet member as Minister of Science & Technology, and three Division directors served as the president of the Institute since the Division was organized 16 years ago. Some of the activities of the Catalysis Division are: Publication of a bi-annual journal “Catalysis” since 1985 Organizing bilateral catalysis symposia with Japan, U.S., Taiwan, Australia, Germany, Russia, 1985 - 1999 Organizing the 11th International Zeolite Conference (IZC) in Seoul, Korea, 1996 Organizing the lst Asia-Pacific Catalysis Congress (APCAT) in Kyongju, Korea, 1997 Organizing 3-day annual summer research conferences modeled after Gordon Conference since 1988, the 1999 conference drawing over 80 active participants Organizing industrial catalytic technology workshop at the two major petrochemical complexes since 1992 Organizing annual 2-day catalysis research tutorials for beginning graduate students, drawing about 120 students each year since 1997 In 1991, the Korean government, in recognition of the importance it attaches to the catalysis research in universities, has granted a center-of-excellence award to the Research Center for Catalytic Technology (RCCT). This 9-year grant permitted the Center, headquartered at the Pohang University of Science & Technology, to act as a consortium of university professors engaged in catalysis research. At any given time, there were about 25 professors and their graduate students associated with the Center, drawing research fund and interacting with each other and industries. This 9-year effort with a total expenditure of approximately 20 Million U.S. Dollars resulted in elevating catalysis research in major Korean universities to an international level; it also contributed greatly toward collaborative work between academics and the industries to develop catalytic technologies needed by Korea’s chemical industries. Another center-of-excellence, Center for Molecular Catalysis, mostly devoted to homogeneous catalysis, was established in 1995 in Seoul National University with about equal size as the RCCT above. A list of major universities in which Ph.D. programs and substantial catalysis research activities are underway is given in Appendix 1. In addition, active research in catalysis takes place in three government-funded national research laboratories: Korean Institute of Science & Technology (KIST), Korean Research Institute of Chemical Technology (KRICT), and Korean Institute of Energy Research (KIER). Major chemical and petroleum companies have established substantial research laboratories for catalytic research since mid-1980s. In 1994 major chemical, petrochemical and petroleum companies joined force to organize the Catalytic Technology Research Association, a consortium of industries, to support joint efforts by industrial and academic researchers for catalytic technology development. As a result of these concerted efforts in catalysis R & D, a number of indigenous catalytic technologies have been developed and put into commercial practice. Appendix 2 lists representative results. From its early days, we have placed great emphasis on international exchanges. A number of bilateral symposia or workshops have been organized; these meetings, 7 Korea - Japan symposia (1987 - 1999), 9 Korea - ROC (1983 - 1999), 3 Korea - U.S. (1987 - 1993) , 2 Korea - Germany (1993 - 1996), 2 Korea - Australia (1993 - 96), attest to the very active international exchanges that were organized by the Catalysis Division. In 1996, the 11th International Zeolite Conference was organized by the Catalysis Division of the KIChE. This event, which drew about 800 participants from home and abroad, was the largest IZC ever, and it was also the largest international event organized by the catalysis community of Korea. We have actively taken part in other international meetings including ICC, North American Catalysis Meeting, and the Tokyo Conference on Advanced Catalytic Science & Technology (TOCAT). Korea sent the largest foreign delegation to TOCAT3 held in 1998, accounting for 26 among 110 overseas participants. In 1997, the Korean catalysis community, now grown to membership exceeding 400 active participants undertook, with the help of the Japanese, U.S., Chinese, and Australian catalysis communities, to consolidate a number of bilateral and trilateral meetings into a single regional one. The first Asia-Pacific Catalysis Congress (APCAT) was successfully launched in Kyongju, Korea in November 1997 with over 200 participants from 12 countries including Australia, Canada, China, India, Japan, and the U.S. in the Pacific rim and beyond, and the second APCAT was held in Sydney, Australia in January 2000. At present, the Catalysis Division has about 120 members with Ph.D. degrees; there are another 280 members with M.S. degrees, about a half of them pursuing Ph.D. degrees in universities in Korea, with the rest engaged in R&D activities within the industrial research laboratories. Members regularly publish in such international journals as Journal of Catalysis, Molecular Catalysis, Catalysis Today, Applied Catalysis, and a number of them serve on the editorial board on many of the journals. As a rough measure of their vigorous publication activities, readily available statistics show that the faculty members associated with the center-of-excellence, RCCT, (on average about 24 professors at any given time), have published 495 papers in these international journals during the 8 year period, 1992 - 1999. The industrial utilization of catalysts has been increasing dramatically in the past few decades. Catalyst industry that began in 1991 enjoyed a healthy 28.6% growth per year, and produces catalysts valued in excess of 100 million U.S. dollars, while Korean industries import about 250 million U.S. dollars worth of catalysts, not counting the catalysts embedded in licensed technologies. The petrochemical industry, which began with a planned ethylene production capacity of 100,000 metric tons per year in 1968, grew by leaps and bounds. The ethylene capacity stands at 5 million metric tons, a 50-fold increase in the quarter century that ended in 1993, making Korea the third largest ethylene producer in the world. Much effort is being expended in order to developed catalytic technologies for manufacturing downstream chemical intermediates from the outputs of naphtha crackers. The chemical industries of Korea account for about 20% of our GDP in economy which is the 11th largest in the world. The rise of chemical industries in 1960s heralded the economic development of Korea, and the catalysis community has a vital role to play in the growing sector of the economy. The catalytic technologies have yet to reach mature phase in Korea, thus the catalysis community has an increasingly vital role to play in the growing sector of our economy. The collaborative efforts between the academic/research community and the industrial practitioners will bring about the fruition of the 2 decades of activities in the form of a large number of indigenous catalytic technologies, both for domestic use and export.