A N A L Y T I C A L CH E M I S T R Y WALTER J. MURPHY, Editorial Director
Pittsburgh Conference and the Analyst
Q
Even a casual comparison of the 1960 and 1966 conference programs strikingly emphasizes the dependence most analysts today place on instrumentation and are quite happy t o acknowledge it. It is a growing dependence that has helped materially to improve the professional and economic status of the analyst. I n a somewhat different fashion much the same observation can very well be deduced from the impressive increase in the number of manufacturers of scientific apparatus who will be demonstrating their newest equipment in the exposition area a t the William Penn Hotel. Still another innovation of the conferences (initiated in 1950) and o:ie which has added to the attendance and prestige of these gatherings, has been the staging of ASTM committee meetings. At the first conference and exposition in 1950, an important meeting of E-2 (Emission Spectroscopy) was held. This group again will assemble in Pittsburgh on Wednesday afternoon of the meeting and will cosponsor a panel discussion and open forum or1 x-ray spectroscopy. On 3londay in an all-day session, Committee E-13 (Absorption Spectroscopy), will hold four important subcommittee meetings and a general meeting late in the day with all sessions open to conferees. Some very long-range decisions may result from these deliberations. It is difficult to point out all of the features scheduled for the seventh conference because the needs and interests of analysts vary widely. However, we feel we would be remiss if me did not point out among the special features the full-day Symposium on Chemical Corps Methods scheduled for Monday, February 27, and the conference dinner on Wednesday evening. The speaker is the internationally known associate director of the Sational Bureau of Standards, Wallace R. Brode, who will discuss “Ethical Problems in Scientific Publications.” And speaking of publication problems, n-e are duly impressed and somewhat concerned when we note 187 papers are scheduled for presentation. As editors, most of our trials and tribulations will be just beginning late in the afternoon of Xarch 2 when we feel certain that new records for the conference in both attendance and number of papers will be history and when more than 2000 tired but wiser analysts will be on their way home. =Is editors, it will be up to US to find ways and means of publishing many of these papers. We have met this challenge before, we expect to meet it now and in the future.
we have folloved the progress of the Pittsburgh Conferences on Analytical Chemistry and Applied Spectroscopy with keen interest, for they are one of the most convincing manifestations of the ever-increasing importance of a large segment of the chemical profession which we have been privileged to serve for many years. In reading through the 5-day program published in this issue. our curiosity was aroused to the point where we referred back to the January 1950 issue of this journal in order to see the splendid growth experienced by analytical chemistry in seven short years. We wanted to compare in some detail the first conference with the one which will require the entire week of February 27-March 2, and will just about occupy every facility in Pittsburgh’s huge William Penn Hotel. Before making such a direct comparison we feel, however, that some reference to the conferences sponsored in Pittsburgh prior to 1950 is worth recalling. This is particularly important for the younger analytical chemist mho, perhaps for the first time, will experience the unique thrill of attending a modern Pittsburgh conference cosponsored by the analysts and spectroscopists in the greater Pittsburgh industrial area. In the early 40’s the Pittsburgh analysts and spectroscopists started sponsoring conferences catering to their respective needs. These meetings were on a local and very modest scale. After several years of folloving the practice of holding separate conferences, the idea of joining forces was born in the late 40’s. By 1950, the first of the Pittsburgh conferelices as we knorr them today was staged in the Killiam Penn Hotel. In three days, some 800 registered, much to the amazement of those in attendance and probably even more so to the cosponsors. What seemed like a daring and very umertain venture proved to be an instantaneous success scientifically and financially. Personally me believe much of the success of all of the six conferences held so far can be traced to the happy thought of combining a scientific meeting with an exposition where the tools of the analyst would be explained in papers and demonstrated in euhibits. Neither the scientific nor the show aspects have suffered by the presence of the other-indeed they constitute a “packaged deal’’ which has proved highly attractive to more and more who are engaged in the broad field of analysis, quality control, analytical research, instrumentation, etc. VITE NATCRGLT
145
