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Professor Ronald Besser of the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science co-chaired the 10th International Conference on Microreaction Technology (IMRET-10), held April 6-10, 2008 at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, Louisiana.  The symposium featured more than 130 presentations on such topics pharmaceutical synthesis, enzymatic processes, energy generation and fuel processing, and mass and heat transport issues. The symposium was truly international in flavor as speakers came from more than a dozen different countries to present results. Special events included a panel discussion on commercialization of microreaction technology and a microprocess engineering poster session. Total attendance at the IMRET sessions was estimated at 250.

The series of International Conferences on Microreaction Technology (IMRET) started in 1997 with IMRET 1 in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Since then ten IMRET conferences have been organized alternately in North America by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) and in Europe by the German organization DECHEMA. IMRET 10 was organized under the umbrella of the Process Development Division at AIChE and dedicated to applied and commercial investigations of microprocess technology.

In 2008, the AIChE Spring National Meeting coincided with the 235th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS). AIChE and ACS developed special joint programming for this occasion and attendees at both meetings were able to attend sessions of both.