COPS-XI : Conference History
Conference History
Leading up to the COPS series
The importance of porosity has long been recognized by scientists and engineers. Indeed, probably the first major symposium on "The structure and properties of porous materials" was held in 1958 at Bristol University (UK) under the auspices of the Colston Research Society. To other symposia of note were on the "Characterizaiton of porous solids" (University of Neuchatel, Switzerland, in 1978) and "Principals and applications of pore characterization" (Milan, Italy, in 1983).
The IUPAC sub-committee on the characterization of porous solids and 'COPS-I'
To establish the future continuity on the subject, the IUPAC decided to set-up a sub-committee on the characterization of porous solids. The first action of this sub-committee was to arrange for a series of symposia th be held at regular intervals. The first of these symposia, 'COPS-I', was organized by Professor D. Behrens and Dr. H Kral, and was held in Bad Soden (Germany) in 1987. The first symposium chairman was Professor Klaus Unger. 255 participants from 29 different countries attended this first symposium.
COPS-II onwards
Following the success of COPS-I, a scientific committee of Francesco Rodriguez-Reinoso, Jean Rouquerol, Ken Sing and Klaus Unger undertook the organization of following symposia.
COPS-II was organized by Francesco Rodriguez-Reinoso with the aim to encourage a wide range of scientists and technologists in the fields of theoretical, experimental and applied research to meet. This symposia was organized in Alicante (Spain) in 1990.
COPS-III was held in Marseille (France) in 1993 and was chaired by Jean Rouquerol
COPS-IV was held in Bath (UK) in 1996 and was chaired by Brian McEnaney
COPS-V was held in Heidelberg (Germany) in 1999 and was chaired by Klaus Unger
COPS-VI was again held in Alicante in 2002 and was chaired by Francesco Rodriguez-Reinoso
COPS-VII was held in Aix-en-Provence (France) in 2005 and was chaired by Philip Llewellyn
COPS-VIII was held in Edinburgh (UK) in 2008 and was chaired by Nigel Seaton
COPS-IX was held in Dresden (Germany) in 2011 and was chaired by Stefan Kaskel
COPS-X was held in Grenada (Spain) in 2014 and was chaired by Joaquin Silvestre-Albero
The current conference will be the 11th in the series with still the basic aim to to "encourage a wide range of scientists and technologists in the fields of theoretical, experimental and applied research to meet".