The Gordon Research Conference on Heterocyclic Compounds has a long standing tradition of bringing together chemists from academics and industry to discuss recent advances in the synthesis, methods, isolation and biology of molecules possessing diverse arrays of heterocycles. Importantly, the latter can be found in the majority of marketed pharmaceutical agents, agricultural products, and materials.

The 2013 conference will feature numerous speakers from both the academic and industrial sectors who will present lectures on topics ranging from synthetic method development and heterocyclic natural products total synthesis to the chemistry and biology of novel antibody recruiting molecules, green chemistry and both process and medicinal chemistry research. In contrast to many previous conferences, nearly half of the scheduled speakers from academics are young pre-tenure scientists whose research programs have already been internationally recognized. As always, the conference will be organized to allow many opportunities for informal discussion outside the scheduled lectures and will include two poster sessions. In addition, four speakers will be selected from the pool of submitted posters to present "Short Talks" on their research.

Celebration of Professor E.C. Taylor and his Contributions to Heterocyclic Chemistry: Many who have regularly attended the Heterocyclic Compounds GRC or, for that matter, been engaged in heterocyclic chemistry research, will be well aware of Professor Taylor’s contributions to the field. In honor of his 90th birth year and many contributions to our field the Thursday lectures and afternoon wine tasting will be dedicated to Professor Taylor and his many co-workers. In addition, the meeting will close Thursday evening with a retrospective lecture by Professor Taylor.