Growing demand for energy and the need to reduce our society's carbon footprint calls for transformative measures to increase efficiency in energy consumption and sustainable methods of energy production and storage. Novel materials will be key to these transformative technologies by acting as catalysts and facilitating desired chemical transformations. Symposium U of the 2012 MRS Spring Meeting, “Materials for Catalysis in Energy,” was held April 10–13. The objective of the organizers was to bring together researchers from materials science, chemical synthesis, heterogeneous catalysis, electrocatalysis, and photocatalysis to highlight recent progress and discuss challenges and opportunities in the materials aspect of catalysis research and development for energy applications. Close to 200 abstracts were received and about 150 papers were presented, demonstrating the significant interest from the broader catalysis community. This volume contains a cross section of papers presented and highlights the interdisciplinary nature of this research area.