News
Attendees agreed to form an 18-member interim NACLA board that would serve for one year to develop a charter for NACLA and set up the stakeholder committees. Collins will chair die interim board. The work of this group will be presented at another open forum. Alan Newman
Erickson to lead DOE's EML Mitchell D. Erickson has been appointed director of the U.S. Department of Energy's Environmental Measurements Laboratory in New York kity. EML's New EML Lead Mitchell Erickson primary mission is to support environmental remediation, decommission DOE facilities, and manage chemical and radioactive wastes. Erickson was formerly a group leader in the Environmental Research Division of Argonne National Laboratory, where he had worked since 1987. He is noted for his work on environmental site characterization, improving remediation techniques analytical chemistry of PCBs and remediation of PCB spills.
BUSINESS
Funding changes for the Rhine Basin Program Funding for the Rhine Basin Program, which has supported research projects along the famous river and its tributaries, will continue through a group of about 10 "partners". As announced earlier this year, Hewlett Packard has ceased sponsorship of die program, but the instrument manufacturer will continue to contribute as a research partner. The Rhine Basin Program was initiated in 1989 by Hewlett Packard as a "present" to the environmental sciences in honor of
the company's 50th anniversary and has funded research projects dealing with the chemistry, biology, and ecology of the river (Anal. Chem. 1997,69,21A-25A). Most of the financial support for the research has come from Hewlett Packard, which has spent a total of $6 million over the past six years. According to Piet van Hout, Rhine Basin Program head, future funding through the partners will probably not match those levels. Under the new plan, partners will contribute either personnel or money. In its new role, Hewlett Packard has committed $150,000 and an additional $100,000 in analytical instrumentation this year, said van Hout. Other partners include universities, government laboratories, and drinking water companies located in The Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, France, and England. At the same time, the main research focus has shifted from pesticides to the pseudo-estrogenic activity of numerous chemicals of industrial origin or those found in detergents. This new research direction has been spurred by obsei*vations that in some sections of the river markedly female than male fish are found VeronikaR.Meyer
end, the study predicts that the worldwide X-ray fluorescence and atomic absorption markets will grow at approximately 3-4% per year and the UV-vis market at 3-3.5%. Most market sectors will experience moderate growth on the order of 6-10% that thould outpace inflation, according to the survey. Celia Henry
A market in developing countries?
Conventional wisdom is that developing countries are lousy markets for analytical instruments, but there are some signs that U.S. manufacturers are betting that investments today will pay off in the long run. In September of last year, Hewlett Packard introduced the 4890A GC and 7694E headspace sampler specifically for markets in Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Eastern Europe. The 4890A is based on the company's 5890A instrument, and the 7694E is derived from the 7694. Each will sell for less than $10,000, according to HP. Sid Bhatt, product manager for the instrument, says that the 4890A and the 7694E are part of a long-term investment by HP in what they hope will one day be a strong market. A key feature of the instruments, he says is that it offers good perSlow analytical formance as well as reliability. instrument growth Waters is currently marketing the expected Tiger HPLC system in India and Thailand. The analytical instrument market is gloAccording to the company, the product is bally competitive but is experiencing only privately labeled but is manufactured and slow growth in most areas of the world, distributed under a license from Waters. according to The Market Book, a study of Perkin Elmer has expanded its marketthe five-year outlook for the worldwide ing force in South America and, says the analytical instrument market for 29 types company, will work harder to have a presof instruments commissioned by Centence in all those countries rather than a corn, Ltd., which handles advertising for targeted few; an expanded effort is also the ACS publications. The study evaluates underway in Asia. PE has not developed each instrument type, such as ICPMS, instruments just for these countries, says and analyzes its market size (in U.S. dolcompany spokesperson Merle Spiegel, lars) in the United States, Europe, the Pabut is producing cheaper systems to be cific Rim and the "rest of the world"; the marketed worldwide. She cited the rebook also looks at industrial segmentation cently introduced AAnalyst 100 atomic and market changes and trends absorption spectrometer, a less expensive Because the U.S. and European markets version of the 300 instrument. are relatively mature, the highest rates of Alan Newman growth are expected in the Pacific Rim and developing countries. Techniques aimed at the life sciences are anticipated to experiSPSS acquires ence the highest levels of annual growth. For example, MALDI-TOFMS is expected Jandel to grow at 23%, LC/MS at t5%, ,nd dC at SPSS, Inc., a multinational software com14-15% per year. Mature technologies, pri- pany emphasizing statistical applications marily elemental techniques, are projected software, has acquired Jandel Scientific, a to grow the least over the nextfiveyears, software provider best known for its barely keeping ahead of inflation. At the low SigmaPlot package. The Jandel acquisition
162 A Analytical Chemistry News & Features, March 1, 1997
