The Twelfth International Symposium on Electroanalytical Chemistry (12th ISEC) was successfully held in Changchun, China, August 12-15, 2009.

　  Since 1987, the First ISEC was held regularly every two years under the auspices of the Chinese Chemical Society and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. It is always organized by State Key Laboratory of Electroanalytical Chemistry, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences; National Analytical Research Center of Electrochemistry and Spectroscopy ,and Changchun R & D Center for Analytical Instruments.

　  The ISEC intends to emphasize the important recent development in electroanalytical chemistry including theories, methods and applications and to encourage us to proceed to new fields especially the multidiscipline. Many stimulating distributions including discussions and suggestions have been expected during the ISEC.

　  About 430 delegates from 22 different countries and regions registered to attend the 12th ISEC. Many distinguished scientists actively participated in the 12th ISEC including the Nobel Laureate, prof. R. A. Marcus; the former president of the Tokyo Institute of Technology, prof. M. Aizawa; academicians such as C. Amatore from France, A. Bond from Australia, I. Willner from Israel, H. D. Abruna from the USA and many others. More than 300 papers presented on this symposium including 18 plenary lectures, 93 invited & oral presentations, and 214 poster presentations. The frontier developments and new techniques in surface electrochemistry and electroanalytical chemistry related to life, information, environment and energy sciences were dealt with.

　  The 12th ISEC was sponsored by National Natural Science Foundation of China, Ministry of Science and Technology of China, International Cooperation Bureau of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Chemical Society, Jilin Provincial Department of Science & Technology, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, etc.

　  The symposium provided a forum open to all electroanalytical chemists in the world to discuss their recent findings and information, and exchange their mutual interests or a broad area of electroanalytical chemistry for possible cooperation and to promote international friendship.

(Yuanhong XU)