Editors' Column
Pittsburgh Conference Atlantic City, N. J., March 8-12, 1982 Conference Attracts Nearly 20,000 In the midst of an acknowledged economic recession in the U.S., the Pittsburgh Conference and Exposition on Analytical Chemistry and Applied Spectroscopy again broke all its previous attendance records. There were 75 new exhibitors this year! (See Table I for data comparisons with previous years.) The Pittsburgh Conference and Exposition will meet again in Atlantic City next year, March 7-11. The site for the 1984 meeting is not final, but meetings will be held in New Orleans in 1985 and Atlanta in 1986. The cover design on the official program—a representation of a chemist and the word "chemistry" written in different languages—was used to call attention to increasing international participation in the conference. Centcom, Ltd., advertising management for American Chemical Society publications, held its fourth annual Pittsburgh Conference breakfast for industry executives March 9. James Byrne, advertising sales manager for ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY, opened these proceedings by introducing the panel members and some of the ACS and Centcom representatives in the audience. The discussions, moderated by Mary L. Good, vice-president and director of research for Universal Oil Products, focused on opportunities and trends in the analytical instrument field. Top executives from Bausch & Lomb, Varian, and Zymark provided answers to provocative questions devised by Centcom to elicit information and an interesting discussion. James D. Edwards, vice-president of the Instrument Group at Bausch & Lomb, remarked on the rapid obsolescence of instrumentation resulting from the increasing pace of developments in this high-technology field. He stressed the importance of the service role by instrument companies as instruments move increasingly out of the laboratory and into factories.
Allen Lauer, president of the Varian Instrument Group, rejected the suggestion that the number of new applications for analytical instruments is decreasing and said that the geopolitical climate and the advent of microprocessor and other high-technology developments are fueling growth in the analytical instrument business. Special factors driving the growth in this business are new column technologies, new combinations of instruments, and the increasing importance of biotechnology. Lauer did acknowledge that there is a slowing down in hardware innovations. He also stressed that it is important for instrument companies to provide application support for their customers. Zymark Corporation's president, Francis H. Zenie, did not agree with the provocative suggestion that small companies may no longer have a role in this business. He called attention to
the large growth in the analytical instrument market: from about $400 million in 1970 to about $2.5 billion in 1982. A question directed to the panel from the floor dealt with the possibilities of less growth in the business due to political and economic changes. The questioner cited the problem of foreign exchange rates, the reduction of emphasis on regulations, and the lack of attention now given to energy. It was generally agreed by the panel that these factors would not adversely affect the business in the long run. Industry executives are certain that the public has not lost interest in maintaining environmental quality and that the energy problem, while not acute at this time, is still with us. National Science Foundation officials were present and were attempting to find out if recent tax changes are having the desired effect in financ-
Table 1. Pittsburgh Conference Statistics: 1980, '81, and '82 Year
1982
1981
1980
Total registration Conferees Exhibit only Press representatives Technical papers Exhibitors Booth spaces
19 884 14911 4 973 ~150 895 560 1 380
17 270 13 139 4 000 131 ~895 485 1 199
16 032 12 426 3 606 ~100 813 458 1 056
Table II. Educational Level of Job Candidates
% Changes, 1 9 8 0 - 8 2
+24 +20 +38 +50 + 10 +22 +31
Table III. Job Descriptions, 1982
Degree
1982
1980
PhD MS BS/BA No degree
315 147 246 14
217 104 155 8
+45 +41 +59 +75
Academic Government Employment agencies Industrial Sales
7 17 91 202 94
Totals
722
484
+49
Total
411
682 A · ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY, VOL. 54, NO. 6, MAY 1982
% Change
Editors' Column
Want to spot aqueous samples on your RPTLC plate?
800
700 Job openings
600 Job candidates
500
400
1 1980
1981
1
1982
Figure 1. Pittsburgh Conference employment data
ing increased R&D and in helping universities upgrade their instrumentation. Overall, the atmosphere was one of unbounded optimism with projections for a rosy economic future. The conference and exposition and especially the activities on the exhibit floor seemed to underscore and justify the optimism. But Is There a Shortage of Analytical Chemists?
The oft-expressed lament regarding the shortage of analytical chemists (Anal. Chem. 1981,53 (13), 147481A) has to be seriously questioned in light of the change in employment statistics shown at this year's Pittsburgh Conference. In fact, from Figure 1 it is evident that the situation has turned around so that there are more candidates than jobs. Table II shows comparative data on the educational level of job candidates this year vs. 1980, and Table III lists the sources of the 411 job descriptions registered at the conference this year. The data show that the number of job candidates has increased nearly 50% since 1980 and 27% since 1981, while the number of job openings has decreased by 5% from 1980 and 10% from 1981. These data seem especially significant in view of the fact that the conference was so well attended. Other data collected by the ACS Office of Manpower Studies and the Office of Employment Aids also suggest that the shortage of analytical chemists may be a myth. Josephine M. Petruzzi
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