(from preface)
There have been many challenges in our decade to institutions, customs, ideas, to nearly everything that has grown and accumulated over so many human generations. This includes the practices of the scientific community, of teaching, and of research. In the arguments concerning the purposes and benefits of scientific endeavors, those in catalysis have not been overlooked. Indeed, they shouldn't be, for catalysis is inevitably a phenomenon of the utmost importance to society. It may provide, in fact, an ideal arena for all sorts of exercises concerning "relevance."