news93Dear members and friends of the Combustion Institute,

The holiday season is approaching, and for this occasion, I would like to extend my warmest greetings and best wishes to you. Wherever you may be based around the globe, I hope that you can spend some restful and enjoyable days with your family and friends. For the coming year 2013, I wish you and yours happiness, peace, good health and rewarding work and private conditions. With regard to science and, in particular, combustion, I wish all of you success. For those who work on their theses I wish that you may have good results and a successful graduation, to young postdocs and professors that you may find a suitable environment for exciting new research and a balance between work life and family that can integrate both important aspects. And of course, to all who are experienced combustion scientists, in academia, national and regional laboratories and agencies and in combustion-related industries, I also wish that you will be successful in our common goal of making combustion cleaner and of saving precious resources and energy!

This Christmas tree comes to you from China, one of the many I saw in hotels, airports and shopping centers during a four-week period in this vast and powerful country. This is the longest time that I have spent in a foreign country almost since my postdoc research, and devoting this much time to the first visit of a Section of the Combustion Institute since my election to president in August 2012 is in appreciation of the important role that combustion energy plays in a country with so many inhabitants that features booming traffic and growing industrial production. I thank my many hosts in the different institutions, especially also the students and young faculty, to make so much time for me and to explain their energy-related research and their visions for the future. I enjoyed your graceful hospitality and your many questions!

I have learned many things during my stay – regretfully not to speak and read Chinese – and I find my life in “small Germany” comparatively easy. Many of you have experienced the traffic, be it during the International Symposium in Beijing 2010 or while visiting China on other occasions. It is much different however to face this traffic a few times during a visit from making your way to and from work every day: potentially to have to leave at six in the morning to make it to work by eight, and to similarly spend a long time on you way back. An apartment on campus may come with the academic package – but maybe you need one in a different part of the city, too, so that your child can be brought to school from there on time. Transportation of people and goods in a large country with 20+ million metropolis areas needs clean and sustainable energy and I found many colleagues looking into such issues as alternative fuels and reduction of emissions, with other topics being clean power, efficient industrial production and utilization of waste.

My December visits brought me to cold northern parts of the country such as Beijng and Tianjin, to snow in Dalian, milder climate in Hefei, Hangzhou, and Shanghai, yet to the warmer south in Guangzhou – and heating is another interesting aspect. Depending on your location you may sit in your office or be in your lab in a warm coat, because no heating is available, and you will enjoy the hot tea and soups after working on a paper or with your lab equipment in the cold for a while. Again, efficient and smart energy use for buildings is an interdisciplinary topic which also involves combustion scientists.

I will not bore you with more details, but one of the most exciting parts of my visit was the opportunity – in a small delegation of 20 foreign experts – to be received by the new government in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, including presentation of one of the four speeches to Mr. Xi Jinping, the new leader of China, on aspects of international collaboration in science. With the 80 min event, featuring at the same time the first reception of a group of foreigners just three weeks after the new People’s Republic leaders had come to power, an expectation is raised that the country will continue to develop strategies for openness and international cooperation. I assure you that the importance of combustion was also mentioned in my speech!

I would also like to take this opportunity to acquaint you very briefly with some news from the Combustion Institute. The By-Laws Committee has worked hard on a new By-Laws version, which is being forwarded to the Sections and Board members for their comments. We have scheduled an electronic Board meeting for February 19, 2013 to vote on the new By-Laws. Also, an ad-hoc committee has been established under the guidance of Stephen Pope, Cornell University, USA, with the mission to develop guidelines for the nomination to Combustion Institute committees. You will find By-Laws and Committee members on our internet pages. Members are continuously added to the CI database so that we will hopefully be able soon to communicate with you all directly and to post documents on a password-restricted membership page that also enables you to make connections with other members. The planning for the 35th International Symposium is well advanced, with – mark your calendars (!) – a submission date of Dec. 5, 2013 for your papers – no extension! You may also find a new comments function next to the news items, and I encourage you to use it.

As my last item today I wish to thank all in the CI office for their invaluable assistance, and I extend very special thanks and gratitude to Maureen Cato, who is retiring Dec. 31, 2012, for her many years of service to the Combustion Institute. Maureen, enjoy your busy personal life, we will keep your fond memory!

Best season’s greetings to all,

Katharina Kohse-Höinghaus

CI President