Editorial
Pittcon: Professional Meetings Are to Teach
T
his was written at the winter beach on Emerald Isle, NC, in a rented cottage, after seeing my children depart from happy holiday season visits, after many pleasurable walks with spouse and dog on the beach, on the last evening of a week's vacation, when thoughts turn ahead toward a new year of analytical chemistry. What does the new year hold for analytical chemists? For each of us, such thoughts have to be different and tailored to our personal circumstances. I think about this Journal that I am privileged to guide, the research progress that my students and postdoctoral associates aim for in 1997 and the meetings and events including Pittcon that I will attend And as I read the Pittcon '97 "Update" I find that my teacher's passion is part of my outlook for the success of that meeting and I reflect on the Reason for Professional Meetings It is to Teach to understanding at the of analytical measurement science at a level useful to the listener and observer
The Pittcon meetings are among that most successful of all professional gatherings. The huge attendance attests to that statement. Its instrument display is superbly organized and effective, and to walk the aisles of the displays by national and international companies and learn of the technical advances offered therein is an impressive experience. Anyone with the stamina of a strong walker can expect to learn a lot. Moreover, the displays Teach. They may yield only vague impressions on the part of the visitor or, with sufficiently strong impressions and understanding, yield a purchase order for a new instrument. In either event they have Taught and the purpose of the meeting for science and technology has been embedded in the attendee I emphasize these elementary points about the educational aspects of instrument displays because I think that they
are sometimes lost on the audience. I am sure they are not lost on the conference organizers. Pittcon is, of course, not just an instrument show; it has a powerful program of short courses and technical lectures. Early Pittcons had a rather modest technical research lecture program. These are much improved in recent years, and the exceptional potency of Pittcon's 1997 technical program was the main prompt to this Editorial. The program embraces an enormous range of analytical methodologies. The still-evolving importance of electrophoretic and mass spectrometric techniques in studies of proteins and other biomolecules are evident by their heavy presence. There promise to be good presentations on supercritical fluid-based separation science a topic that is likely to receive more emphasis in the future as supercritical fluids are employed increasingly in chemical and polymer (green) synthesis There are even interesting reflections on hallowed topics symposium analytical instrumentation will illustrate crystal-ball craz mg (and perhaps its hazards') It is finally most signifirant that the nropram shows clear evidence of a cont'n Wnfusin fne chemistries and concepts
adapted to analytical uses; examples are found in combinatonal libraries, polymerase chain reaction, micromachining. sol-gels, DNA probes, near-field, and micropumps. Analytical chemists who want to keep up must become familiar with what these words mean and imply for future analytical measurements. Kudos to the 1997 Program Committee. There wiil be a lot of Teaching, and hopefully an equivalent amount of Learning, going on in Atlanta in March.
Analytical Chemistry News & Features, February 1, 1997 6 5 A
