Editorial

Adsorption 0 I. Nowak Adam Mickiewicz University , Poznan ́ , Poland 1 J. Choma Military University of Technology , Warsaw , Poland 2 M. Kosmulski ( ) Lublin University of Technology , Lublin , Poland - This present issue of Adsorption is a gift to Professor Mieczysław (Mietek) Jaroniec from his friends for his 60th birthday. Mieczysław Jaroniec was born on January 1, 1949 in Okrzeja (Central-Eastern Poland), a few miles from Wola Okrzejska, the birthplace of Henryk Sienkiewicz (a novelist and Nobel prize winner). The scientific career of Professor Jaroniec began at the Faculty (formerly Institute) of Chemistry at Maria-Curie Skłodowska University in Lublin, Poland, where he obtained his master’s degree and teaching assistant position (1972), Ph.D. (1976), D. Sci. degree (1979), and extraordinary (1985) and ordinary (1989) professor titles and positions. In 1991 he moved to the United States to Kent State University in Kent, Ohio, where he is a professor at the Chemistry Department, Physical and Analytical Divisions to this day. Professor Jaroniec has been working as both a visiting scientist and professor at the following scientific institutions: Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Miskolc (1976), Academy of Sciences of USSR, Moscow (1978–1979), Georgetown University, Washington, D.C. (1984–1985 and 1986), McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada (1985–1986), Kent State University (1988– 1990), Leipzig University, Germany (1994), and Chiba University, Japan (1997). The scientific publications of Professor Jaroniec are devoted to various aspects of interfacial chemistry and materials science. His research in Poland was focused on modeling adsorption of gases at solid surfaces. His book, Physical Adsorption on Heterogeneous Solids, published with R. Madey in 1988, has obtained 763 citations. His work in the US mainly focused on the synthesis and characterization of ordered mesoporous silicas, organosilicas, carbons and related adsorbents. He also worked in many other fields including gas and liquid chromatography, adsorption from liquid mixtures of non-electrolytes and from aqueous solutions, and kinetics of isotope exchange. Professor Jaroniec has published his scientific papers in the top journals of the field, including 15 papers in Journal of the American Chemical Society. His 662 papers published in the journals indexed by Thomson Scientific received 14,364 citations (the second highest record among all Polish chemists) and a Hirsch index of 56 (the second (ex aequo) highest record among all Polish chemists). He has presented 452 lectures at international conferences and symposia worldwide and 113 invited lectures in different research institutions in 18 countries. He is a member of several professional societies. Professor Jaroniec has supervised 6 Ph.D. dissertations in Poland (including the Ph.D. thesis of one of the editors of this special issue), and 11 Ph.D. dissertations in the USA, and numerous Master theses in both countries. He has promoted international cooperation and has hosted many scientists from Poland, Germany, China, Brazil, and Ukraine as visitors in his laboratory, including two Editors of this special issue. Professor Jaroniec is a member of the Editorial Boards of Journal of Liquid Chromatography (since 1987), Adsorption (since 1995), Journal of Porous Materials (since 2001), Dekker Encyclopedia of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (since 2003), Adsorption Science and Technology (since 2005) and of Chemistry of Materials (since 2008), and a former member of Editorial Boards of Thin Solid Films (1981–1986), Journal of Colloid and Interface Science (1985–1988), and of Heterogeneous Chemistry Reviews (1994–1997). He was also a co-editor of several special issues of the above journals and of several books of the Elsevier series Studies of Surface Science and Catalysis. He has received numerous honors and awards, including several awards of the Rector and of Union of Students of Maria Curie Skłodowska University (1975–1990), five awards of Polish Minister of Education (1977–1988), Gold Cross Medal of Poland (1984), Award of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (1997), Carbon Hall of Fame Award, Pittsburgh (2001), honorary membership of the Brazilian Association of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry (2002), Kent State University Distinguished Scholar Award (2002), honorary professorship of Maria Curie Skłodowska University (2005), Kent State University Advisor Excellence Award (2007), Andrzej Waksmundzki Medal of Polish Chemical Society (2007), and a honorary doctorate of Nicolas Copernicus University of Torun (2009). (...truncated)