Meeting Philosophy:

NECZA is an outgrowth of discussions held after sessions at the 1997 Zeolite and Layered Materials Gordon Conference, Chaired by Charles Kresge. NECZA seeks to maximize discussion and interactions between the scientists who are attending the meeting. As such, the technical program tends to be a bit flexible with contributions from a variety of backgrounds.

Traditionally, speakers are encouraged to prepare "provocative" talks and to rigorously keep to the time for their talk which includes 5 to 10 minutes discussion time. The audience is STRONGLY encouraged to "participate" (even, for example, by bringing 1 - 2 overheads related to the talks to open up discussion). The abstracts of presentations are attached.

The poster session and graduate student talks have been a staple of NECZA meetings. This is a wonderful opportunity for students to 'get their feet wet' in a relatively friendly setting.

We very much look forward to another fruitful and engaging NECZA meeting, made possible by your participation. The NECZA meeting serves as a nice cap to the year's activities and we look forward to catching up with you all and hearing about your nice work at this December tradition.

Please forward this note on to your colleagues, or any others you feel might have interest, and don't hesitate to contact us if you have questions.

We hope to see you at the next NECZA meeting.

History and Origin of NECZA

At the 20^th meeting of NECZA held on December 9, 2016, David Olson and Edith Flanigen reported a brief history of the organization. David concentrated on the history and Edith on the content of the first meeting.

At the 1997 Gorden Research Conference on Zeolites, organized by Charlie Kresge and held in New Hampshire, a small ad hoc meeting was called and lead by John Parise. The purpose was to discuss the formation of a regional zeolite meeting attracting attendees from zeolite researchers working in the northeast corridor area. The name North East Corridor Zeolite Association, NECZA (conference) was likely set at this meeting. Those in attendance included John Parise, Charlie Kresge, Edith Flanigen, Guenter Kuehl, and others. Edith agreed to work on moving this idea forward. During the course of the conference I (David) became aware of this idea.

Within a month or two Edith, Guenter, George Kokotailo, Beatrice Gooding and I meet at the Univ. of Pennsylvania to make plans for our first meeting. We decided the following:

1. John Parise would be the first president.
2. Because of its central location, the first conference would be held at the University of Pennsylvania in December (1997) on a date that fit the availability of facilities and general suitability.
3. Edith agreed to serve as Program Chair.
4. Beatrice Gooding agreed to serve as first treasurer.
5. The meeting would be a one day event timed so that attendees could travel to and from the U of Penn for this event.
6. The meeting would be designed to limit the number of speakers in order to allow ample time for discussion and the speakers would be encouraged to raise questions that could form the basis for discussion.
7. Graduate students and post-doc would be encouraged to attend and to present posters. Two posters would be selected for short oral presentations at the meeting.
8. Because I was currently at the U. of Penn on a daily basis I agreed to serve as local arrangement chair.
9. We would work to get NECZA set up as a non-profit organization which would be tax exempt.
10. We would all work on publicity for the meeting.

The first conference was held December 12^th in the Lynch Conference room of the Chemistry Department of the U of Penn. Edith Flanigen was the program chair. The executive committee was listed as, John Parise, Chair, Beatrice Gooding Secretary, David Olson and Brian Toby members. Sixty people attended this first NECZA conference. At the conclusion of the meeting, all attendees were in favor of holding a second conference in 1998. A program committee chair was chosen for this second meeting. We were off and running.

For several years the NECZA organizational structure consisted primarily of the program chair, poster chair (chosen by the program chair), the treasurer and local arrangement chair. Because of John Parise's other commitments the position of president was essentially vacant. Attendance was typically 50 to 60.

A few years after that first meeting, Istvan Halaz recommended that we elect a president. Istvan was elected as president.

A step change occurred in 2011. Chuck Coe took the position of program chair. Chuck and others felt we could significantly increase our attendance. With a very fine program and expanded publicity the attendance increased to ~90 and it has remained at this high level.

There have been several advances in the NECZA organization since those early meetings. These include: the formation of a Website, currently maintained and updated by Kirk Schmitt, a duly elected president with a specified term limit, currently Michael Smith is the president, a larger lecture hall, and a sizable functioning executive committee.

Programs from Earlier Meetings

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Pictures from Earlier Meetings

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