For the greeting of the International Zeolites Conference to be held in Beijing next year, the 13th Annual National Zeolites Conference was held in our university for 5 days from October 28th to November 1st, supported by the International Zeolites Association of China Committee and the National Zeolites Cooperation Group.

The conference was hosted by the Science Institute of New Catalytic Materials, co – organized by the Catalyst Plant of Nankai University. More than 200 representatives from all over the country attended the conference.

 With discoveries of novel structural zeolites and porous materials, zeolites and porous materials have been developed rapidly. The structure has been developed from traditional zeolite and microporous compounds to ordered mesoporous or microporous materials. Meanwhile, the compositions of the materials vary from pure inorganic composite to inorganic - organic hybrid materials, such as metal-organic materials. Moreover, their applications have been expanded from the traditional fields, such as adsorption, separation, catalysis and ion exchange, to fields of advanced materials with high-tech. Nowadays, the study of zeolites and porous materials become a new subject.

 The development of catalytic science is in close relationship with the progress of materials science and engineering and technology. In the 21st century, the rapid development of nanomaterials and nanotechnology has brought great promotions to the innovations of new catalytic materials and catalytic technologies as well as new opportunities for the development of zeolites. The theme of this symposium is " zeolite catalysis and nanotechnology".

In the seventies of last century, a catalytic research laboratory was built by Prof. Li in our school. He studied zeolite systematically as well as its applications, and has made great achievements. He has received high academic status for the Second Prize of the National invention and numerous patents. Multiple achievements and patents are used for the production and sales in the Catalyst Plant of Nankai University. He has made great contributions to the construction and development of discipline and economy in our country. All the participants have shown their greetings to Prof. Li in his 80th birthday for the remarkable contributions he made to the zeolites research.