The IV joint International Symposium on Macrocyclic & Supramolecular Chemistry was held in Maastricht, The Netherlands, in June 2009, bringing together over 380 leading scientists across the macrocyclic and supramolecular chemistry communities. The meeting was attended by Sarah Thomas, editor of ChemComm, Rob Eagling, editor of Chem Soc Rev, Vikki Allen, editor of Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry, and Marie Cote, assistant editor of NJC. 

As part of this prestigious meeting, a dedicated session included lectures by six distinguished scientists who all celebrate their 65th birthdays this year. The six speakers, Professors Roeland Nolte, Julius Rebek, Javier de Mendoza, Senji Shinkai, Jean-Pierre Sauvage and Peter Tasker, were then presented with a life time achievement award by Professor David Reinhoudt. Following this, Sarah Thomas made a presentation to the same 6 distinguished scientists and gave them dedicated issues which contained articles authored by colleagues and friends, published across RSC Publishing journals. 

Four poster prizes were also awarded at the meeting by the four RSC journals represented at the meeting. The poster standard was very high, and congratulations to the prize winners: Mauri Kostiainen, Seda Cantekin, Stinne Wessel Hansen and Anna Barnard. 

To read the dedicated issues presented at ISMSC, please see the also of interest section for further information.