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The International Zeolite Association (IZA) was organized in 1973 at the 3rd International Molecular Sieve Conference to promote and encourage the development of all aspects of zeolite science and technology.

 








Latest News

13-Sep-23 Henri Kessler (1935 - 2023)





It is with deep sadness that we learned of the passing of Henri Kessler, our colleague, on August 23, 2023. Henri was born in Saint-Amarin, at the bottom of the Thann Valley, a small Alsatian town at the foot of the Vosges Mountains, on May 5, 1935. Graduated as a chemical engineer from the National Higher School of Chemistry in Mulhouse in 1959, Henri Kessler joined CNRS (the French National Center for Scientific Research) as a research assistant. And became a Research Director in 1982. In 1983, he joined Professor Raymond Wey's Laboratory of General Mineral Chemistry where he took on the responsibility of the microporous non-siliceous framework solids group, which achieved remarkable results with the synthesis of numerous new structures. Asound example of his work is the synthesis of a gallophosphate known as "Cloverite," which was the crystalline microporous solid with the largest pore openings (13.2 × 6 Ĺ). Dr. Kessler was a Council member of the executive board of International Zeolite Association (IZA), Vice-President of the IZA Synthesis Commission, and a Member of the Editorial Board of the journal "Microporous Materials." In 1992, he, along with Jean-Louis Guth, received the Solid-State Chemistry Division Prize from the French Chemical Society.He assumed the leadership of the Laboratory in 1996, with the goal of ensuring its continued development until his retirement in 1999. He left an indelible mark on the community of researchers in the field of crystalline porous solids.
Many people knew Henri as an exceptional mountaineer. One had to "hang on" to follow him into the Vosges or the Alps. He was accustomed to participating in endurance races (24 hours) on the Vosges ridges. He was a well-rounded athlete who also enjoyed swimming and skiing. He was also a man of nature with a deep ecological consciousness for its preservation. He had his house built at the base of the mountain, on the edge of the forest, where he collected deadwood for heating. With the help of his wife, Rose-Marie, he created a terraced garden where vegetable plants coexisted with mountain flowers.
On behalf of all the people who had the privilege and honor of working with Henri,

Jean-Louis Guth and Jean-Louis Paillaud






1-Sep-23
Gregor Mali (1971 - 2023)





Gregor Mali After a battle with a serious illness, our dear colleague, friend and researcher Prof. Dr. Gregor Mali has passed away. He was part of the zeolite research community for more than 25 years and was also active in the Slovenian Zeolite Association. We will cherish the memory of our esteemed colleague.
Prof. Dr. Gregor Mali has been employed at the National Institute of Chemistry in Ljubljana in the Department of Inorganic Chemistry and Technology since 1997. Since 2007, he has been habilitated in the field of Physics at the University of Nova Gorica and since 2019 also at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics of the University of Ljubljana.
Prof. Mali's research work was devoted to the development and application of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) methods and computational methods for the study of the structure of solids. Research areas to which Prof. Mali paid the most attention were the development of new porous catalysts and adsorbents for environmental and energy applications, and the development of batteries.
In recent years, Prof. Mali has become one of the world's most prominent scientists in the field of NMR research on porous materials. He has authored or co-authored more than 130 scientific articles in prestigious journals, including Science and Nature group. The importance and excellence of his research is evidenced by the two prestigious awards he received in 2017, namely the Pregl Award for outstanding achievements in the field of chemistry and related sciences and the Zois Prize for significant scientific achievements in the field of nuclear magnetic resonance of materials.
Prof. Mali's research work was excellent, dedicated and responsible to his colleagues and students. We admired and appreciated him for his exceptional approachability, kindness, respectful attitude and brilliant thinking. We will miss him sorely.






7-Apr-23 Sigmund M. Csicsery (1929 - 2022)





We received the very sad news that Dr. Sigmund M. Csicsery, one of the big pioneers of shape selective catalysis, passed away in his home at Moraga (California) on December 18, 2022. Sigmund is mourned by his family, as well as many friends, colleagues, and acquaintances with whom he made connections throughout the world. His remains will be laid to rest at the Tahy family crypt in Balatonszemes, Hungary. Sigmund was a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and was awarded the prestigious Gábor Dénes Award in 2020–2021. He had over 50 publications and 27 patents to his name.






6-Jan-23 Petr Nachtigall (1963 - 2022)





It is with great sadness that we have to communicate the passing of Prof. RNDr. Petr Nachtigall, Ph.D. on 28 December 2022. He was an internationally recognized expert in computational material science with particular emphasis on porous materials. He received his Ph.D. at the University of Pittsburgh. After returning to Prague, he worked at the J. Heyrovsky Institute of Physical Chemistry, later at the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences, and since 2009 at the Faculty of Science of Charles University. Here he made a major contribution to the establishment and development of the top scientific center "CHARLES UNIVERSITY CENTRE OF ADVANCED MATERIALS" and introduced a new PhD and MSc program "Modelling of chemical properties of nano and biostructures". Recently, he has conceived and organized the establishment of a new Bachelor of Science program "Science". Prof. Nachtigall has regularly published in the most prestigious scientific journals; he is the author of 181 publications with 8,289 citations and an h-index of 54 (as of 1 January 2023).
He is well known for his studies of adsorption complexes and reaction mechanisms in zeolites and analogous materials, which significantly contributed to the understanding of the behavior of zeolites for practical applications. Moreover, the has contributed significantly to the discovery and theoretical explanation of a new method of synthesis of zeolites ADOR, thanks to which more than 10 new types of zeolites have already been synthesized.
Prof. Nachtigall was awarded the Bedřich Hrozný Prize for Basic Research (2015), the Prize of the Minister of Education, Youth and Sports for significant results of basic research in natural sciences (2019) and the Donatio Universitatis Carolinae (2021).
In Peter Nachtigall we lose not only an outstanding scientist, teacher and mentor, but also a great person and friend. Our thoughts are with is wife Gabriela and his family.






18-Jul-22 News from the IZC-20 in Valencia







Seven new council members were elected:


Rob Ameloot (Belgium)
Roger Glaeser (Germany)
Tina Nenoff (USA)
Sibele Pergher (Brazil)
Domenico Caputo (Italy)
Manuel Molinar (Spain)
Natasa Z. Logar (Slovenia)



The new executive committee of the IZA council:


Svetlana Mintova, President
Michael Stockenhuber, Vice-President
Natasa Z. Logar, Secretary
Jeffrey Rimer, Treasurer



The Next International Zeolite Conferences (IZC)


At a Business Meeting, the IZA Board selected the venue for the 22nd IZC in 2028:




Philadelphia, USA



The next 21st IZC will be held in 2025 in Dalian, China.



Awards




The 2022 Don Breck Award



Suk Bong Hong (POSTECH, Korea)

for developing innovative synthetic methodologies including the synergistic use of organic and inorganic structure-directing agents that resulted in new zeolite framework types.

Breck Award 2022

Suk Bong Bong (middle) with the representative of UOP-Honeywell Suheil Abdo (left) and the president of the IZA Martin Hartmann (right).









The 2022 IZA award



Valentin Valtchev (CNRS, France)

for his important contributions to the fundamental understanding of zeolite synthesis and post-synthesis modification of industrially-important zeolites.

Prof. Valtchev will act as the IZA Ambassador from now until the next IZC in 2025.

IZA Award 2022

Valentin Valtchev (left) with the president of the IZA Martin Hartmann (right).









The 2022 Young Researcher Award (YRA)



Michiel Dusselier (KU Leuven, Belgium)

for his achievements in the knowledge-based development of catalyst for innovative catalytic conversion processes.





IZA Honorary Membeships



Jean-Pierre Gilson (LCS, ENSICAEN, France)
for his outstanding contribution to zeolite science and technology and for the great service in the organization IZA-related events.

Avelino Corma (ITQ-Valencia, Spain)
for his outstanding contributions to zeolite science and technology and his great service as chairman of IZC2022.





10-Mar-22 News from FEZA


The Federation of European Zeolite Associations (FEZA) created in January 1996, consisting of 17 National Zeolite Associations (Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, The Netherlands, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, UK) has taken the following decision in strong support of Ukraine and all people suffering from the horrible war.

Zeolite Associations within the FEZA wholehertedly approved the measure to suspend Russia from FEZA, and to promote other activities of the scientific community in support of Ukraine.

Our resolution is taken to support the peace, and in opposition to war and the suffering of the people in Ukraine.
We hope for an immediate stop to this war and a peaceful future for Europe. Let us stand together for a peaceful worldwide community and for the sake of our future generations.
We do believe that Russian people are also victims of their government and our action is not against them.
The Russian scientists are not responsible for this war, but we, as a European research community, express our opinion now. The aggression against Ukraine decided by the government of Russia reflects on all of us!
The objectives of FEZA are to improve communication and collaboration between researchers in Europe for the benefit of the public and therefore we decided to:
   1. Suspend the membership of Russia from FEZA.
   2. Become a promoter for other European initiatives reflecting the opinion of other European scientific communities by:

       - official statement on the FEZA website
       - state our strong support in papers currently in press
       - express our support during meetings, conferences.
   3. A FEZA solidarity scholarship will be provided to a Ukrainian early career researcher to attend a conference in the field of porous materials.





9-Feb-22 Karl Seff (1938 - 1921)







We were saddened to hear that Prof. Karl Seff, known for his colorful Hawaiian shirts and ready smile at zeolite conferences, passed away at the age of 84 on September 11 last year.
Karl started his career in zeolite crystallography with David P. Shoemaker at MIT, where he received his PhD in 1964. After a post-doc with Kenneth N. Trueblood at UCLA, he joined the Chemistry Department at the University of Hawaii in 1967, and remained there until his retirement 40 years later. He is probably best known for his pioneering research using tiny zeolite A crystals, modified in various ways, to collect single-crystal X-ray diffraction data for structure analysis. This allowed him to elucidate intriguing zeolite chemistry at the atomic level. As instrumentation and computing power improved, he expanded this research, along with colleagues in South Korea, to include zeolites X and Y. Although he retired officially in 2007, he continued his research activity until just six weeks before his death. He will be remembered fondly by all those students who were fortunate enough to have him as an advisor. He took great interest in following his students' careers and personal lives long after graduation. A student of Karl's was a student and friend for life. His infectious enthusiasm for science and life in general made every encounter an experience worth remembering.
He will be missed not only by his zeolite colleagues and his students, but also by his fellow cactus enthusiasts and his vegan friends.

Aloha Karl





18-Jan-22 The Young Researcher Award (YRA) committee invites applications for the 2022 YRA


The Young Researcher Award will be given to an individual for outstanding contribution to the Science and Technology of zeolites and related nanoporous materials, since January 1st of the year of the last IZC to the December 31st of the year before the IZC where the award will be given. For more information visit the YRA page.

The applications should be sent by March 3, 2022 to the IZA secretary:
Prof. Heloise Pastore
E-mail: lolly@unicamp.br





12-Jan-22 Nominations for the 2022 Donald W. Breck Award invited


The Breck Award nomination committee invites nominations for the 2022 Donald W. Breck Award. This award is for the most significant contribution to Molecular Sieve Science and Technology made between January 1, 2017 and December 31, 2021 and the winner will be announced on July 7, 2022 at the 20th IZC in Valencia, Spain.

The award may be given to an individual or to a group.

The nomination should be accompanied by a list of maximum 5 references and a 2 page summary outlining in detail the novel findings and their scientific merit. It should includes supporting letters from three established zeolite scientists. For more Information visit the Breck Award page.

Nominations should be sent by April 3, 2022 to the Chair of the Breck Award Committee:
Dr. Valentin Valtchev
CNRS, France
E-mail: valentin.valtchev@ensicaen.fr

















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Links to the IZA Commission Websites





Structure Commission
Catalysis Commission
Synthesis Commission
Commission on Metal Organic Frameworks
Commission on Natural Zeolites

last updated: 25-February-2024