VIII trends in analytical chemistry, vol. 1; no. 1, 1981

Report on the Nineteenth Annual Analytical Symposium

The Nineteenth Annual Eastern Ana- lytical Symposium (EAS) was held on 19-21 November 1980 in New York City. This meeting was sponsored jointly by the New York and New Jersey American Chemical Society Analytical Sections, the Delaware Valley, New England and New York Sections of the Society for Applied Spectroscopy and the American Mi- crochemical Society. The meeting offered many topics of interest to the practicing analytical chemist. An out- standing feature of the EAS was that of the 37 sessions; 34 were comprised of invited papers. These symposia bring together people who are active in many areas of analytical chemistry and allow the audience to hear up-to- date information about specific areas of research and/or techniques. The meeting was attended by over 3300 scientists. The number of participants is itself an indication that it was an attractively planned three-day sym- posium.

Coupled Plasma

The exhibitor area for the meeting was very busy. The 112 companies who exhibited must have been gratified by the number of visitors and inquiries over the 2Y2 days of showings.

Highlights of this meeting were the sessions dealing with Chromato- graphy (TLC, GC, HPLC and Detec- tors), Polymer Analysis and Charac- terization, and various aspects of Spectroscopy. The analytical chem- istry of polymers is rightfully becom- ing a very active area of study for the analytical chemist. Spectroscopy, sur- face analysis and chromatographic studies (especially pyrolysis GC/MS) are the most commonly used tech- niques in this ever expanding field. Other symposia were concerned with Microscopy, Clinical Analysis, Food and Cosmetics Analyses, Environ- mental Analyses, Paint Analyses, Computers in Chemistry, Forensic Chemistry and Data Handling for Automated Analysis. In addition, there were two award symposia; the Benedetti-Pichler Memorial Award was presented to Herbert Karl Alber of the Arthur H. Thomas Company and the Society for Applied Spectroscopy New York Section Award to Edwin K. Jaycox of Bell Laboratories.

Eastern The Chemometrics Society One of the present trends in analytical chemistry is the application of more

Spectroscopy) and sophisticated tools of mathematics and

five American Chemical Society Short statistics to the interpretation of ana-

Courses (Laboratory Automation, lytical data or the optimization of ana-

Electronics for Laboratory Instru- lytical procedures. Chemometrics is

mentation, Electron Spectroscopy and the collective name for these tech-

Surface Analysis, Column Selection niques (such as information theory,

in Gas Chromatography and the ever pattern recognition, optimization the-

popular Practice of Modern Liquid ory, correlation techniques and many

Chromatography by Drs J. J. others).

Kirkland and L. R. Snyder) were The Chemometrics Society com-

given during the three-day meeting. prises people working with or inter-

A variety of Technical Films were ested in these techniques. There are

shown throughout the meeting and an about 500 members from more than

Employment Bureau was available for 20 countries in the two subsections,

students, unemployed chemists and namely the analytical one and the

employers. CAOC section (correlation analysis

This author feels that the Eastern in organic chemistry).

Analytical Symposium deals with Membership and Newsletter are free of many areas of analytical chemistry of charge. Analytical chemists with interest to those who cannot afford to be away from their work for an entire

expertise or a real interest in the field

week and who are interested in state- may apply for membership by writing

of-the-art information about popular to D. L. Massart, secretary of the ana- lytical subsection, Farmaceutisch

new techniques. Dr Melvin Good- man, of Johnson and Johnson

Instituut, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Laarbeeklaan 103, B- 1090 Brussels,

Laboratories, Chairman of EAS, pointed out that there is a large

Belgium or to one of the following national contactmen: M. Forina,

number of one-day registrants. This Genova (Italy), G. Guiochon, Palais- indicates that many scientists come eau (France), M. Trojanowicz, to the meeting for a specific sym- Warzawa (Poland), D. Bawden, posium and/or to talk to particular ex- Sandwich (U.K.), J. Sustek, Bratis- hibitors about new instrumentation. The sponsoring of an analytical chem-

lawa (Czechoslovakia), J. Zupan Ljubljana (Yugoslavia), J. Clerc, Bern

istry meeting of short duration is cert- ainly a viable undertaking and lends

(Switzerland), Studiegroep Laborato- riumoptimalisering c/o G. Kateman,

support to the belief that large, once-a- Nijmegen (The Netherlands), S. year, meetings are not fulfilling the Wold, UmeH (Sweden), K. Varmuza, needs of chemists in general and ana- Vienna (Austria), H. Martens, As lytical chemists in particular. The success of this year’s symposium bears

(Norway), B. Kowalski, president of the Society, Seattle (U.S.A.), E.

testimony to this fact. The author feels Grushka, Jerusalem (Israel), R. that we can expect bigger (in terms of attendance) and more novel symposia

Bruns, Campinas (Brazil). D. L. MASSART

in the future. D. L. Massart is Professor of Analytical ROBERT L. GROB Chemistry in the Free Universi(y of Brussels,

Belgium. His scientijc interests are mainly in Dr Grob is a member of the Faculty of the statistical and mathematical methods, but include Chemistry Department at Villanova University separation science, ion-selective electrodes and Villanova, PA 19085, U.S.A. trace metal analysis.

The educational aspects of ana- Iytical chemistry were not neglected. Two half-day workshops (Liquid Chromatography and Inductively

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