Letters Meetings Sir: After being associated with a number of organizations devoted to analytical chemistry and spectroscopy over the past 10-15 years, I am deeply concerned with the current conservative attitudes in the operation of these organizations and the meetings they support. The scientific climate for conducting research today is very different from that of just a few years ago. Industry has been cutting back on its total effort and has practically abandoned its fundamental efforts because of economic reasons. Even the bastion of fundamental research, the academic community, has come upon hard times. With declining student enrollments in the near future, the problems now may become even more severe. Meanwhile, the Federal Government-supported programs have had more than their share of missionoriented research. Where is all this leading us in the operation of professional organizations and their meetings? With the large number of different organizations and meetings now promoting interest in analytical chemistry and spectroscopy, it is important to regroup, to cooperate, and to plan for new ways of coping with the current scientific climate. Obviously, the conservative view is to continue as before, only better. Is that view really facing the situation? Based on my involvement with these organizations and the meetings they support at the local, regional, and national levels, it is apparent that they are not reacting adequately. Most of these organizations have reached a plateau in membership. In the future they are likely to show a decline. Except in those cases where a special effort is made, meeting attendance at local levels has shown a decline. Attendance will continue to decrease in my view, unless some new ideas and concepts are woven into schedules. Regional meeting attendance, I believe, has also reached a plateau of support. It is unlikely to grow very much, if any, in the near term. Even national meetings present attendance problems for analytical chemists and spectroscopists. Many companies allow their senior chemists to attend Contributions from readers are invited for the LETTERS section. Topics should preferably be of broad interest to readers and/or may be comments on material published in the A-pages. See Prof. Laitinen's editorial, page 1281, August 1977.
only one meeting a year. Thus national meeting support will be reduced in the future. On top of this problem, to have two of the national meetings of the American Chemical Society in two extreme and remote places of the United States, namely, Miami Beach and Honolulu, in succeeding years only complicates the situation. Firstly, I suggest that the leaders of these organizations recognize that a problem exists. Secondly, they should form an interorganization committee to discuss the problem. Through these discussions some new and possibly creative solutions can be achieved. The steps taken to solve the problem should put the best interests of science, especially analytical chemistry and spectroscopy, first and should not merely be politically expedient.
Correction Sir: One of our papers, "Literature growth and decay: an activation analysis résumé", appeared in the July issue of ANALYTICAL C H E M I S T R Y [49,
682A (1977)]. Much to the pleasure of the authors, the subject was even referred to on the cover by a most ingenious drawing. Regrettably, an error crept into the biographical note beneath my picture. Instead of "Ernô Bujdoso is head of the Research, Engineering and Prime Contracting Centre of the Hungarian Aluminium Corp., Budapest, Hungary", the proper text should be: "Ernô Bujdoso is head of the Radioisotope Laboratory of the Research, Engineering and Prime Contracting Centre of the Hungarian Aluminium Corp., Budapest, Hungary."
E. G. Brame, Jr. E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. Wilmington, Del. 19898
E. Bujdoso Hungary
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ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY, VOL. 4 9 , NO. 12, OCTOBER
1977 · 9 8 1 A
