Book excerpt: Reaction Kinetics and the Development and Operation of Catalytic Processes is a trendsetter. The Keynote Lectures have been authored by top scientists and cover a broad range of topics like fundamental aspects of surface chemistry, in particular dynamics and spillover, the modeling of reaction mechanisms, with special focus on the importance of transient experimentation and the application of kinetics in reactor design. Fundamental and applied kinetic studies are well represented. More than half of these deal with transient kinetics, a new trend made possible by recent sophisticated experimental equipment and the awareness that transient experimentation provides more information and insight into the microphenomena occurring on the catalyst surface than steady state techniques. The trend is not limited to purely kinetic studies since the great majority of the papers dealing with reactors also focus on transients and even deliberate transient operation. It is to be expected that this trend will continue and amplify as the community becomes more aware of the predictive potential of fundamental kinetics when combined with detailed realistic modeling of the reactor operation.