ISPO-2013 Review. A Guest Editorial for a Special Edition of the Journal SILICON

Abstract

The 9th International Workshop on Silicon-Based Polymers was held at the A. N. Nesmeyanov Institute of Organoelement Compounds of the Russian Academy of Sciences (INEOS RAS) in Moscow on September 22-25, 2013. The workshop was chaired by Prof. Aziz M. Muzafarov, Director of INEOS RAS and a Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The International Advisory Board was composed of academic and industrial scientists from the USA, UK, Poland, Japan, Germany, Russia and France. The Local Organizing Committee was ably led by the workshop secretary, Aleksandra (Sasha) Bystrova. Previous workshops had been held in Ishikawa (Japan), Canterbury (UK), Troy (USA), Honolulu (Hawaii), Montpellier (France), Busan (Korea), and Lodz (Poland). Several of these meetings were held in conjunction with other relevant meetings. This 9th workshop was immediately followed by the XII Andrianov Conference “Organosilicon Compounds, Synthesis, Properties, Applications”. The working language of the Andrianov conference was Russian whereas that of the workshop was English. The workshop was sponsored by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, Dow Corning Corporation, Wacker Chemie AG, and Springer Science+Business Media. Although the weather was somewhat inclemental, the Russian hospitality was as warm as ever. Delegates had the opportunity to enjoy a guided tour of the Kremlin as well as a visit inside Lomonosov University, the largest of the Stalin-era skyscrapers known as the Seven Sisters. Another highlight was the conference dinner as we cruised down the Moscow River. The technical program consisted of 13 invited lectures, 14 oral talks and 42 posters. The topics of the