Editorial pubs.acs.org/ac
Analytical Chemistry Is Alive and Well All over Africa!
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analytical chemists who are dedicated professionals, strongly motivated by their sense of responsibility to the African peoples, and who are seeking to be better connected to and recognized by analytical chemists around the world. These analytical chemists are seeking ways to surmount the limitations of their infrastructure and differences among their countries to work together toward the improvement of analytical chemistry research and education across the continent and the world. The SEANAC leadership and the conference organizers were fabulous hosts during our stay, making this trip a truly memorable event for all of us. All of the people we met at this meeting were absolutely delightful, friendly, warm, and a lot of fun (rumor has it that there are pictures out there of Sharon and I dancing with the African graduate students...) We look forward to further collaborative interactions with SEANAC with several activities currently in the planning stages. I came away from this experience with a renewed sense of analytical chemistry as the global endeavor that it is and the importance of continuing to foster connections worldwide. In how many other regions of the world do fledging organizations like SEANAC exist that I should know about? This question tempts me to clean off the wheels on my rollaboard suitcase and further explore. The world is a very large place and opportunities for analytical chemistry abound!
hemistry today is a global enterprise, and analytical chemistry is certainly no different. Indeed, in many developing regions of the world, analytical chemistry is evolving as a “central science” because of its inherent ability to contribute to the solution of real problems that people in these regions face. This past July, I had the distinct pleasure of experiencing firsthand such an evolution of analytical chemistry in Africa. Perhaps unbeknownst to many analytical chemists, myself included until about a year ago, the organization of SEANAC, the African Network of Analytical Chemists, has been in existence, promoting the science of analytical chemistry and the development of analytical chemists throughout the region, for a full decade. SEANAC, originally an acronym for the Southern and Eastern African Network for Analytical Chemists, is a grassroots organization that “spontaneously assembled” in February 2002 at a workshop funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency where participants agreed to pool analytical chemistry expertise on issues pertaining to the African continent. The inaugural SEANAC conference was held in 2003, and since then, this organization has hosted regular conferences every 3 years. SEANAC has subsequently embraced analytical chemistry across the entire continent and has continued its mission of promoting the growth of analytical chemistry and the development of well-trained analytical professionals through cooperation and collaboration in research and education throughout Africa. In July, I traveled to Maputo, Mozambique, along with Dr. Geri Richmond of the University of Oregon and Dr. Sharon Neal of the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the University of Delaware, to participate in the fourth SEANAC Conference. Although our journey was officially to offer several preconference workshops to graduate students and faculty in our respective efforts through the Committee on the Advancement of Women in Chemistry (COACh) and NSF, our participation in the full SEANAC meeting gave us the opportunity to witness the positive role that analytical chemistry is playing in the development of solutions to Africa’s challenges and, perhaps more importantly, to meet and make connections with many wonderful analytical chemists from all over Africa. The theme of this meeting was “Analytical Chemistry for the Environment, Health and Water”, which nicely captures the scientific challenges facing the continent today. To be sure, we saw plenty of evidence of the systemic problems that have been well-publicized: poverty, diminishing water resources that will be exacerbated by climate change, poor sanitation leading to endemic water-borne diseases, water and soil contamination from both natural and anthropogenic sources. In constructive juxtaposition, we were delighted to see that in spite of daunting challenges, such as intermittent electricity, variable Internet access, uneven educational quality and opportunities, analytical chemistry in Africa is vibrant and flourishing, and the analytical chemists we met are optimistic about the opportunities they have to understand and solve the developmental problems facing their countries. We found an energetic and dynamic cadre of © 2012 American Chemical Society
Jeanne E. Pemberton, Associate Editor
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AUTHOR INFORMATION
Notes
Views expressed in this editorial are those of the author and not necessarily the views of the ACS.
Published: October 2, 2012 8095
dx.doi.org/10.1021/ac302648a | Anal. Chem. 2012, 84, 8095−8095
