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The 13th International Symposium on Polymers and Organic Chemistry (POC '09), sponsored by the International Union of Pure Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), took place at the Mont Royal Centre in Montreal, Canada from July 5 - 8, 2009 and was organized by J. Zhu (Universite de Montreal), W. Skene (Universite de Montreal), C. Barrett (McGill University), and R. Marchessault (McGill University). The symposium followed the 12th edition of the conference that was held in Okazaki, Japan in 2006 and was the first time this international series was held in Canada.

Since its inaugural inception in 1982 in Lyon, France, the POC meetings have successfully brought together leading scientists from across the globe for furthering the uses of polymers in organic chemistry and for presenting novel methods for the preparation of polymers and their uses and applications. The 13th edition of the POC series was of no exception with over 240 participants from over 20 countries attending the meeting.

To address the burgeoning field of polymers and the expanded uses and preparation of polymers, the conference was divided into eleven themes and included i) biopolymers/biologically relevant polymers & uses and synthesis of biopolymers, ii) conjugated polymers, iii) electro- and photoactive polymers, iv) metal containing polymers, v) new methods in polymer synthesis, vi) polymer supported catalysts, vii) self-assembled polymers, viii) controlled polymerization, ix) uses of polymers in synthesis, x) degradable polymers, and xi) polymer synthesis.

The successful POC '09 involved 124 oral and poster presentations in the eleven conference symposia. Prof. Klaus Muellen (MPI Polymerforschung, Germany) gave the opening plenary lecture in an auditorium filled to maximum capacity and addressed all the conference themes. A total of 18 invited lectures from polymer leaders from 13 countries were given and included Profs. D. Bassani (Universite de Bordeaux, France), D. E Bergbreiter (Texas A&M University, USA), B. Charleux (Pierre et Marie Curie-Jussieu, France), P. Cormack (University of Strathclyde, UK), A. Eisenberg (McGill, Canada), S. Fomine (Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Mexico), W. T. Ford (Oklahoma State University, USA), J. Gautrot (University of Cambridge, UK), P. Hodge (University of Manchester, UK), S. Holdcroft (Simon Fraser University, Canada), A. Holmes (University of Melbourne, Australia), K. Jerabek (Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Czech Republic), J. Li (National University of Singapore, Singapore), W. Lubell (Universite de Montreal, Canada), G. Whittell (Bristol University, UK), J. Reynolds (University of Florida, USA), H. Sleiman (McGill University, Canada), G. Gunbas (University Berkeley, USA), Y. Uozumi (University of Okazaki, Japan), Y. Wei (Drexel University, USA), F. Winnik (Universite de Montreal, Canada), Z. Zhang (Nankai University, China), Z. Zhong (Soochow University, China). These were complemented with 106 contributing lectures taking place during four parallel sessions throughout the four-day conference. Over 90 posters were presented during two scientific mixers, during which all delegates attended. More than 45% of the participants were young scientists from around the world.

Awards for outstanding young scientist oral presentation were given to Mr. Jean Raynaud, Mrs. Iryna Perepichka, and Mr. Pierre-Luc Boudreault, sponsored by the Royal Society of Chemistry. Awards for outstanding young scientist poster award were also given Mrs. Beatrice Lego and Ms. Chaoying Fu, courtesy of Bentham Science.

A special issue of POC ?09 will be published in the Macromolecular Symposia. A total of 30 contributing articles will be published in this dedicated POC ?09 issue that will published in November 2010.