Chemistry International
Vol. 22, No. 1
January 2000
Reports
from IUPAC-Sponsored Symposia
Analytical
Science into the Next Millennium (SAC 99), 25-30
July 1999
Dublin, Ireland
This conference, cosponsored with IUPAC by the Analytical Division
of The Royal Society of Chemistry, attracted 300 participants from all
over the world. Each morning there was a plenary session, followed by
three parallel sessions in the afternoon. Every session had a distinct
subject theme. There were were 9 plenary lectures and 13 invited lectures
among the 44 talks given at the conference. In addition, 100 posters
were displayed, and a special poster discussion session was held on
Thursday afternoon.
Plenary lectures covered topics of the sessions that followed. At the
opening ceremony, D. T. Burns (Queenís University, Belfast, Northern
Ireland) spoke on the "Irish contribution to analytical chemistry".
T. Layloff (U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Washington, DC, USA)
opened the session on Analysis for the Public Good with his talk "Analytical
regulatory challenges: a world changed from cottage industries to mega-multinationals".
The next session on Process Analysis and Control featured A. Garrison
(University of Tennessee, Knoxville, USA) lecturing on "Optimal utilization
of analyzers in control". A session on Molecular Recognition and Sensors
began with O. Wolfbeis (University of Regensburg, Germany) discussing
"Molecular recognition at interfaces: the basis for advanced chemical
sensing and biosensing. The last plenary session on New Developments
in Analytical Instrumentation started with a talk by A. Manz (Imperial
College, London, England, UK) on "Chip technology for DNA analysis".
There was also an afternoon plenary lecture by U. Th. Brinkman (Free
University of Amsterdam, Netherlands) on "Multidimensionality in trace-level
analysis: hyphenation and coupled column techniques".
An enjoyable social program kept participants busy in the evenings,
and visits to historical places were organized for Wednesday afternoon.
Accompanying persons had full-day programs of their own. On Tuesday
night, a civic reception was held in the presence of the Lord Mayor
of Dublin. The conference banquet on Thursday evening was organized
at the National Centre for Arts (formerly known as the Royal Hospital
Kilmainham, founded in 1680). After-dinner speakers included the President
of the Analytical Division of the Royal Society of Chemistry, the President
of Dublin City University, and an Irish government minister. At the
banquet, the SAC Gold Medal was awarded to Professor Malcolm Smyth,
who headed the crganizing committee of this memorable meeting.
Manuscripts from all plenary and invited speakers will be published
in a special issue of The Royal Society of Chemistryís analytical
journal The Analyst.
Professor Gyula Svehla
(formerly of University College, Cork, Ireland)
Secretary,
IUPAC Analytical Division V
(1987-1993)