The Catal­y­sis Club of Philadel­phia is pleased to announce that Dr. David Olson is the recip­i­ent of the 2008 Catal­y­sis Club of Philadel­phia Award. The award is giv­en for out­stand­ing con­tri­bu­tion to the advance­ment of catal­y­sis. Such advance­ment can be sci­en­tif­ic, tech­no­log­i­cal or in orga­ni­za­tion lead­er­ship.

The 2008 Award rec­og­nizes Dr. Olson for his inno­v­a­tive and pio­neer­ing work in the field of zeo­lite crys­tal chem­istry, adsorp­tion and catal­y­sis and for his orga­ni­za­tion­al lead­er­ship. Dr. Olson has been involved in zeo­lite research for over 40 years, includ­ing 33 years at Mobil and since then has served as Adjunct Pro­fes­sor at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Penn­syl­va­nia and more recent­ly at Rut­gers Uni­ver­si­ty. Illus­tra­tive of his many sig­nif­i­cant sci­en­tif­ic and tech­no­log­i­cal achieve­ments are his struc­tur­al works on rare earth X and Y zeo­lites, ZSM-5 and their appli­ca­tion to petro­chem­i­cal process­es, includ­ing the use of ZSM-5 as a xylene iso­mer­iza­tion cat­a­lyst. He is cofounder of the Struc­ture Com­mis­sion of the Inter­na­tion­al Zeo­lite Asso­ci­a­tion and served as its chair for over six years. In addi­tion, he orga­nized and for many years chaired the North East Cor­ri­dor Zeo­lite Asso­ci­a­tion (NECZA). He is co-author of the Atlas of Zeo­lite Struc­ture Types, which is a well-known hand­book for researchers in the field of zeo­lites.