NEWS
Merck Award for Analytics One of the first analytical reference works, named "Die Prufung Chemischer Reagenzien auf Reinheit" ("The Testing of Chemical Reagents for Purity") was published 100 years ago by Carl Krauch, who had been a chemist with Merck at Darmstadt in Germany. The anniversary of this publication has prompted E. Merck Darmstadt to establish a new award for analytical chemistry that is named after the firm's founder. The Heinrich Emanuel Merck Award for Analytics, which will be awarded for the first time in October 1988 and every three years thereafter, recognizes recent contributions of younger chemists in the development and application of new methods of analysis, with an emphasis on wet chemical techniques and trace analytical sample preparation. An international jury of specialists, including G. M. Hieftje (United States), A. Hulanicki (Poland), H. Malissa (Austria), A. Mizuike (Japan), G. Tôlg (West Germany), and T. S. West (United Kingdom) will decide to whom the prize will be awarded. The jury is also entitled to decide to divide the prize among several nominees. Applicants are encouraged to submit papers that exemplify their research before Apr. 30, 1988, to Gunther Tôlg, Institut fur Spektrochemie und Angewandte Spektroskopie, Post Box 778, Bunsen-Kirchhoff-Strasse 11, D-4600 Dortmund 1, F.R.G.
Nominations Sought for Hirschfeld Award Nominations are now being sought for the Tomas Hirschfeld Award in Near-Infrared Analysis, sponsored by Technicon Industrial Systems Corp., a subsidiary of Bran + Luebbe, Inc. Nominees must be graduate students in a North American institution working in the field of near-infrared analysis and must be recommended by their major professor. Professors should submit letters of recommendation, curriculum vitae, reprints of publications (if any), and other relevant supporting documents by Sept. 7,1987, to William G. Fateley, P.O. Box 688, Manhattan, Kan. 66502. The award, which will be presented at the 1988 Pittsburgh Conference, consists of a $3000 check, a plaque, and expenses to attend the conference.
Coretech Adopts R&D Action Agenda At its May board of directors meeting in Washington, D.C., the Council on Research and Technology (Coretech) voted unanimously to begin working immediately on a number of major goals to boost U.S. research and development, including the following: • Congress extended the R&D Tax Credit under the 1986 Tax Reform Act until Dec. 31, 1988, but reduced its incremental rate from 25 to 20%. Because of the high-risk, long-term nature of R&D, Coretech is urging Congress to make the R&D tax credit permanent and restore it to a 25% incremental rate. • Coretech supports increasing the National Science
Foundation's fiscal year 1988 budget by 17%, the Reagan administration's requested amount, and considers it an important step toward doubling the agency's budget by 1992. • Coretech strongly endorses H.R. 1905, "The University Research Facilities Revitalization Act of 1987," introduced on Apr. 1, 1987, by Representative Robert Roe of New Jersey. This legislation would authorize a $250-million university research facilities fund annually for 10 years to repair, renovate, or replace university scientific and engineering research facilities. Coretech currently comprises 36 research-intensive corporations such as Du Pont, Hewlett-Packard, and Varian Associates; 73 major universities; 16 associations; 6 research institutes; and 6 affiliates. For further information on the council's program, write or phone Coretech at 1735 New York Ave., N.W., Suite 500, Washington, D.C. 200064759 (202-628-1700).
Holak Wins Wiley Award Walter Holak, a career research chemist with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in Brooklyn, N.Y., is the 1987 Association of Official Analytical Chemists (AOAC) Harvey W. Wiley Award winner. The award will be presented at the 101st AOAC annual meeting in San Francisco this September. An expert in regulatory analytical chemistry, Holak is receiving the award for his sustained contributions to the methodology necessary for the FDA to protect consumers, especially in the area of toxic substances in foods. Holak has made three contributions of particular significance: the development of a method to measure methyl mercury in seafood by liquid chromatography and atomic absorption spectrometry, the collaborative study of a method for determining free and bound sulfite in foods at the 10-ppm level, and the development of an accurate and sensitive method to measure iodine in foods, meeting a longstanding need in food analysis. The $2500 Wiley Award is given annually to a scientist who has made outstanding contributions to the development of analytical methods of importance to AOAC's mission. Established in 1956 in honor of Harvey W. Wiley, the father of the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act and a founder of AOAC, the award recognizes the scientist's role in protecting the consumer and environmental quality.
For Your Information During a two-day program consisting of speeches, tours, and a banquet, the California Institute of Technology dedicated its new Caltech Materials Research Group Laboratories in May. The laboratories, which include facilities for new materials preparation and materials characterization and analysis, are funded by a three-year, $2.7-million start-up grant from the National Science Foundation and Caltech. Analytical instrumentation acquired for the new facility includes X-ray diffractometry equipment, an extended X-ray absorption fine-structure spectrometer, a ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY, VOL. 59, NO. 13, JULY 1, 1987 · 817 A
