The North American Catalysis Society (NACS) meeting is the most prestigious meeting for the catalysis community outside of the International Congress on Catalysis. The NACS meeting is held each 2 years and is organized in turn by each of the Local US Catalysis Societies. The 23rd NACS meeting is being held in Louisville, KY. The meeting topics typically cover many aspects of catalysis utilizing both oral and poster presentations. Attendees can be immersed in various areas of catalysis, whether they are currently working in the area or wish to gain an understanding of catalysis work in a completely different arena. Some participants come from outside the US, thereby allowing initial contact with the global catalysis community. Prof. Gary Jacobs from the University of Kentucky is the chairman of the Kokes Award Committee which seeks funds to partially offset the costs for graduate students to participate in the NACS meeting. The support of graduate student attendees is an excellent way to allow them to begin the understanding of the diversity of work in the catalysis field.

Broader Impacts: The entire meeting is an educational event for those workers in the field. This award would enable partial support of approximately 100 graduate students to attend the meeting. Many will be giving poster or even oral presentations. There will be ample contact with existing and new colleagues in catalysis. The work presented is current research at academic, industrial and national laboratories. The support of graduate student attendance has been a customary and well-placed investment from the Catalysis & Biocatalysis Program of CBET/ENG in NSF.

Project Report

The following description of the award was given on the official web site for the meeting. Kokes Awards are back for the 23rd NAM. The objective of the Richard J. Kokes Travel Award program of NACS is to encourage the participation of students in biennial North American Catalysis Society (NACS) Meetings. The Kokes Award covers a significant portion of the transportation, lodging, and conference registration costs. Eligible students need to be enrolled at a North American university and need to present a paper at the meeting. The Kokes awardees will be required to contribute some time to the running of the conference (e.g., speaker support) and to be present at the meeting during the entire time. We note that the awards have traditionally been awarded only to graduate students. Undergraduate students who can meet the requirements are also eligible. Timeline Aug 10, 2012 -- Kokes award application submission begins Nov 16, 2012 -- Deadline for application submission (Extended to Dec 3) February 2013 -- Notification of Kokes awards During the application process, the Kokes applicant will be asked to provide the e-mail address of their PhD thesis advisor, who will subsequently receive an e-mail request to upload a letter of reference. Summary The Tri-State Catalysis Society awarded 107 Kokes Travel Awards. The program was very successful and to date this was the most Kokes Travel Awards ever awarded at a North American Catalysis Society Meeting. It provided students who merited an award the opportunity to attend the meeting, present a paper in the form of either an oral presentation or a poster presentation, and to serve the North American Catalysis Society by participating in the organization of the meeting. Students worked very hard during the week of the meeting to make it a success. Financial support for the Kokes awards was provided by DOE, NSF, NACS, as well as the Tri-State Catalysis Society, the latter through fund raising activities, and other donations. At the meeting, each student received over $1050 in kind to offset the costs of registration fees ($260), hotel accommodations ($295.7), transportation ($400 travel allowance), as well as T-shirts ($20), and banquet tickets ($95 provided by donations from society members). In addition, for the first time, students received certificates that were signed by the President of NACS, Professor Enrique Iglesia, and by the Kokes Awards Chair, Gary Jacobs. A list of meeting co-chairs (i.e., Uschi M. Graham, Umit S. Ozkan, and Madan Bhassin) and the honorarychair (Burtron H. Davis) was also included on the certificate, along with the name of the recipient. The awardees were chosen on a merit-based guideline which also included the requirements of having a presentation accepted at the meeting and being a student at a North American University. The Richard J. Kokes Student Travel Award Committee (Gary Jacobs, Rodney Andrews, and Peter Smirniotis) with help from the Organizing Committee were able to secure money from four sources as detailed in Table 1. As detailed by our Treasurer, Dr. Helge Toufar of Clariant, the total amount spent was $105,000. Table 1. Comparison of Kokes Award funding level. Data for previous meetings from the 21st NAM Report. Funding Source 20th NAM (Houston, 2007) 21st NAM (San Francisco, 2009) 22nd NAM (Detroit, 2011) 23rd NAM (Louisville, 2013) NACS $30,000 $30,000 $30,000 $30,000 NSF $20,000 $20,400 $25,000 $25,000 DOE $5,000 $25,000 $25,000 $20,000 Subtotal $55,000 $75,400 $80,000 $75,000 Local Organizing committee $12,430 $10,612 $22,665 $30,000 Total $67,430 $86,612 $102,665 $105,000 The geographic distribution of Kokes Awardees and average award are shown in Table 2. In summary, we were able to increase the number of awardees by 5%, the total funding level by 19% and the individual award level by 13% as compared to the last meeting. Table 2. Distribution of Kokes Awardees and average award level. Data for previous meetings from the 21st NAM Report. Students from 20th NAM (Houston, 2007) 21st NAM(San Francisco, 2009) 22nd NAM(Detroit, 2011) 23rd NAM(Louisville, 2013) US Universities 70 92 93 92 (96)* Canadian Universities 5 3 6 6 (2)* Mexican Universities 10 6 7 9 Total 85 101 106 107 Average Travel Award per student ~$760 ~$860 ~$969 ~$981 * There were last minute student visa problems for students from Canada, and additional students were selected at the meeting based on a waiting list.

Project Start
Project End
Budget Start
2013-03-01
Budget End
2014-02-28
Support Year
Fiscal Year
2013
Total Cost
$25,000
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Kentucky
Department
Type
DUNS #
City
Lexington
State
KY
Country
United States
Zip Code
40526