continuous days per year must be certified. Temporary laboratories that do not stay fixed for more than 90 days sad are ecnsidered an extension of an accredited fixed laboratory will not require separate accreditation. The accreditation process committee is working to further clarify if and when mobile laboratories require certification. All unresolved issues are expected to be discussed at NELAC's fourth interim meeting in Bethesda, MD, in January. Britt Erickson
Boosting analytical competitiveness in the U.K. The U.K. government is set to allocate £2.3 million (about $3.7 million) for analytical innovation to improve competitiveness in the chemical and process industries where analytical science is crucial to efficiency and commercial viability. The funding, announced in July by Science Minister John Battle, will allow smaller companies to innovate through partnership in areas such as chromatography and spectroscopy. The funding will be fed into the LGC (formerly the Laboratory of the Government Chemist) over a three-year period. According to Battle in a statement issued by the Department of Trade and Industry, "This program has successfully established a new culture for practical innovation through partnership. LGC has created a national center of excellence, which provides an analytical science focus for industry and academia." The funding will allow industry networks, including specialty manufacturers of organic chemicals, adhesives coatings and polymers as well as petrochemical pharmaceutical and chemical producers to share best practices and transfer skills and experience between companies and sectors he says Other industries such as those'involved in electronics clinical studies and health environmental studies and water will also'benefit An Industry Advisory Group, which included one academic representative, was set up to review the progress of the first phase of the Analytical Innovation Program, of which the LGC funding represents the second phase. LGC has garnered praise for the quality of its efforts under the program, which should, hopes Battle, lead to additional commercial funding and technology transfer from academia to the commercial base. Technology transfer is cur-
rently a strong government initiative. "I am delighted by this strong endorsement of the importance of analytical science. This new Analytical Innovation Program aims to foster links between all those who have a stake in maximizing competitiveness through innovative use of analytical technology. I am very pleased that LGC is playing such a key role in this endeavor," Richard Worswick, LGC Chief Executive and Government Chemist, told Analytical Chemistry. LGC was privatized in April 1996 and bought by a consortium formed by the Royal Society of Chemistry, venture capitalist group 3i, and staff at the laboratory. David Bradley
NACLA incorporated as nonprofit organization It's official. The National Cooperation for Laboratory Accreditation (NACLA), a voluntary group aimed at eliminating duplicate accreditations and establishing worldwide acceptance of credible data, has been established as a nonprofit organization in the District of Columbia. Unlike NELAC, which is centered around environmental laboratories (see story on pg. 574A), NACLA is targettng all testing and calibration laboratories in the United States (Anal. Chem. 1998, 70,373 A). As NACLA develops, ,i ts expected to broaden its membership to include Mexico and Canada. The program is about to launch into full swing with itsfirstnational meeting coming up in late 1998 or early 1999. Election of a permanent board of directors is expected to highlight the meeting. Further information can be obtained at http://ts.nist.gov/ts/htdocs/210/nacla/ index htm
PEOPLE
Graduate fellowship awards Thirteen analytical chemistry graduate students have been selected by trie Av-o Division of Analytical Chemistry to receive fellowships for either the academic year ($15,000) or for the summer ($5000). The program encourages basic research in analytical chemistry and recognizes future leaders in the field.
Full-year fellowships
Susan L. R. Barker of the University of Michigan (Raoul Kopelman). Barker is conducting research on fluorescence-based optical sensors; her work focuses on anion-selective nanooptodes and nitric-oxide-selective biosensors. Barker's fellowship is sponsored by Merck. Bradley Bath of the University of Utah (Henry White). Bath uses scanning electrochemical microscopy to investigate the mechanisms by which molecules traverse skin tissues. His fellowship is sponsored by Eli Lilly. Kathryn A. Ramirez-Aguilar of the University of Colorado (Kathy Rowlen). Her research focuses on using atomic force microscopy for physical and chemical characterization of nanometer-scale environmental particles. Ramirez-Aguilar's fellowship is sponsored by Perkin-Elmer. Moira Ringo of the University of Michigan (Christine Evans). Ringo's research focuses on the effects of modest pressure on separation processes and on the measurement and fundamental elucidation of binding equilibria. Her fellowship is sponsored by Procter & Gamble. Troy Tanzer of the University of Illinois (PaulBohn).Tanzer's research involves using Raman spectroscopy to probe the nearsurface electronic structure of superconductorsemiconductor interfaces. His fellowship is sponsored by DuPont.
Analytical Chemistry News & Features, September 1, 1998 575 A
