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The symposium on "Advances in Experimental and Computational Studies of Chemical Hydrides for Hydrogen Storage" was held at the 238^th ACS National Meeting, Division of Fuel Chemistry, Washington D.C. August 16^th- August 20^th, 2009.  The grand challenge of hydrogen storage has been critically analyzed in the scientific press with articles published in Science, Toward a Hydrogen Economy, Scientific American Questions about a Hydrogen Economy, and Physics Today, The Hydrogen Economy in addition to two reports released, The Hydrogen Initiative from the American Physical Society, and The Hydrogen Economy: Opportunities, Costs, Barriers, and R&D Needs from the National Academy of Engineering.  The outcome is a strong recommendation for a significant investment in fundamental research to provide the necessary scientific breakthroughs that are critical for any hope for a successful transition to a hydrogen economy. This symposium is timely given uncertainty in crude oil prices and the piqued public and scientific interest in energy security.  The increasing demands for clean energy sources that do not add more carbon dioxide and other pollutants to the environment have resulted in increased attention worldwide to the possibilities of a “hydrogen economy” as a long-term solution for a secure energy future based on potentially renewable resources. A scientific challenge of this nature will take a multi-disciplinary effort to be successful.  To this end we planned a symposium that included presentations by scientist trained in the field of chemistry, both experimental and computational, in addition to some of the top speakers in Physics and the Materials Sciences. The symposia focused on fundamental research efforts from key investigators in both experimental and computation research groups in Academia, Industry and National Laboratories. There were more than 50 papers presented from research groups around the world and many other scientists in attendance. The presentations covered topical areas ranging from hydrogen that is stored in chemical bonds, i.e., covalent and ionic bonding to hydrogen that is physi-sorbed on high surface area materials (e.g., carbons, molecular organic frameworks). It was noteworthy and timely that we had two of this year’s winners of the Presidents Early Career Scientist Award, Dr. Jason Graetz from Brookhaven National Laboratory and Dr. Craig Brown from NIST, for their research contributions to the field presented at the symposium. A large number of the presentations in the symposium covered the chemical and physical properties of compounds composed of light elements. With this interest we had a special invited speaker, Professor Sheldon Shore, Emeritus, the Ohio State University participate in the symposium. He gave a historical perspective of the field started that started in the mid 1950’s on high energy fuels based on boron chemistry. We had five invited international speakers, Professor Tejs Vegge, Technical University of Denmark, discussed computational and modeling approaches in complex inorganic materials. He discussed a workshop that they held recently that showed how to engage a number of graduate student participants in a computational ‘high-throughput screening exercise to predict new materials that have optimum thermodynamics. This was complimented by the presentation from Dr Martin Owen Jones, Oxford, Chemistry, who discussed new experimental tools for high throughput screening approaches to discover new hydrogen rich materials with optimum kinetics. Dr. Bill David, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, UK, shared recent progress in metal amido boranes; Professor Rosario Cantelli, University of Rome, gave an overview of anelastic spectroscopy, a unique approach typically used by the physics community, and how it can help provide insight into a variety of hydrogen storage materials ranging from complex to chemical hydrides. Professor Maciej Gutowski, Herriot Watt University, Edinburgh, presented some interesting theoretical results predicting novel clathrate structures for hydrogen storage. Dr. Timmy Ramirez Cuesta, ISIS gave a wonderful presentation on combining ab initio theory and neutron spectroscopy to study the key features of hydrogen bonding interactions in condensed phase materials.  The symposium presentations are documented by Fuel Chemistry Division Preprints.