The 4th International Conference on Cucurbituril was held in Nankai University from the 8 to 11 October 2015. Approximately 80 outstanding chemists and more than 50 students gathered at Tianjin to discuss the development of cucurbituril chemistry, and 25 invited lectures on the synthesis, recognition, assembly and functions of cucurbituril-based supramolecular systems were held, presenting the fruitful achievements in these areas. I was very pleased to see so many old friends who have long been engaged in this research as well as the newcomers in the fields of cucurbituril chemistry. I expect that every participant enjoyed not only the lectures on the latest advances in cucurbituril chemistry but also the exciting talks and profitable discussion.
Since the workshop at Maryland, USA, in 2007 and the first ICCB conference at Pohang, Korea in 2009, cucurbituril chemistry has experienced rapid development. Viewing the past years, many scientists made a solid foundation for the development of cucurbituril chemistry. At the same time, we are delighted to see that a group of young chemists have grown and started to show their prominent abilities in this area. These years witnessed a significant harvest in cucurbituril chemistry. However, we believe that, with the joint efforts of all colleagues, the exciting findings are only beginning to be discovered.
To further present these research achievements, Supramolecular Chemistry decided to publish a special issue. As the chairman of the conference, I was invited to act as the editor of this special issue, and I hope that the publication of this issue will be helpful to those chemists who are interested in cucurbituril chemistry. I would like to thank all the contributors and reviewers of the special issue, thank the editorial team of Supramolecular Chemistry and co-workers. Finally, it is my pleasure to thank all the chemists who presented so many excellent lectures, and all participants who made the 4th International Conference on Cucurbituril successful.
College of Chemistry, State Key Laboratory of Elemento-Organic Chemistry, Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemical Science and Engineering, Nankai University
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