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ANALYTICAL C H E M I S T R Y Walter I. Murphy, Edftor -
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Random Thoughts on the Pittsburgh Conference HI: recent Pittshirgli Conference on =inalyEical Chemistry and -1pplied Spectroscopy registered i i w highs in attendance, in the number and quality of the papers, and in the variety of nen and interesting apparatus shown by the exhibitors. l\-e say “well done” to those in the Pittsburgh Section oi the AMERICAN CHEMICM. SOCIETY and in the Spect ioscopy Society of Pittsburgh responsible for the of the conference and particularly the cochairmen. Freiser and J. J. 3IcGovern. ]\-e doubt that the most optimibtic analyst in attend:inw at the recent conference n ould have prophesied fi\ f’ Jwirs ago that a meeting and exposition of such niagnitnde could be staged even in Pittsburgh, billed niotlt-tly on the front cover of the program a s the. “(’entc~of Analyticd Chemistiy ” In w\-iewing the progie- niadc and the bucc :icliiei ed. let us not forget the carly pioneers. W little more than a lugged individualism and belief in t lie importance of analytic*al vliemistry to guide them. ihey detormined to develop anniial confer hiirgh that n ould provide ical scientific a n a l y ~ tand ~ focus attention of management on the important role of analyt i d clicmistry in research and 111oduct ion They have succeeded probably heyond eT-en their own expectations. Today the Pittsbiirgli ( onferences are self-rooted and firmly established Beginning n i t h the veiy first conference, it has been n continuing policy to present, in addition to papers of a s t rictly scientific and technical nature, discushion- on J ‘irious broad problems of intere5t to the profewion of : ! i d > tical chemistry Ai niimber of such papt.1- featured in the 1951 1110pi am included Robert T. Hall’s excellent discoui-se on industrial analytical researclh. D. G. Sicholson’s upio-date report on trends in academic analytical chemi.try, the businesslike paper by J. W. Stillman and -4 H. Hale of Du Pont on the development of a n effic+nt analytical record system, and the intereqting clescription of the role of the analytical chemist in industrial health matters 1))- Dohrman H . Byers ‘These and other papers of a broad general interest will iippear i n later issues of r l x . u , Y n c A L CHEMISTRY. Hall presents a very pertinent picture of the analy1 ical chemist that cannot be stressed too often either t o management or to the young analytical chemist “It i< apparent * ’ the author states in devribing the
Heiculeq setup, “that these men in the course of theii work. miict make a rather wide circle of contact. M ithin the company. They necewarily gain a considerable familiarity with many of the research prograni< developments, and technical service actiritie. of all the company’s operating departments Thigroup is perhaps one of the best places in the research organization for acqiiiring, in a relatively short time ii reasonably good mer-all picture of the company’. tcchnical activities This situation leads naturally to a niimber of possible outlets for the personnel. For wample, one of our men ha< i*ecentlp progressed into thc position of chief chemist at one of our largeit plant. others have been transferred to development groups at the plants or, in home instances, directly into production Some ha\-? moved into supervisory podions in the research cli\rision\ of the various opeinating departments. .1fen have gone into sales and intc, liaiion groups such a\ sales research.” Hall in discussing the basic. elements necesswv f o r t 1 1 ~-iiccessful management of :in an:tlytical Ie w ~ r c l l gioup listed the following: .hi attitude on the pait of management which puts analytical iesearch on the same b a w or level ‘iq research of any othei type To state it in anothei n a y , tlir empliasis i n everv ca-e ilioultl he on research m d not on 11 h ~ t h e iit iq pliysiral, 0 1 g:mc oi analytical. Analytical research clifwiiitc must be .ice oitled equal st:ttuy \\ith iesearch chemists in any otliei line. They should :tiid niiist be considered as full inernbeis of the research team and the oppoi tunities for adv:tiicenirnt must be equal to t h e piewiling in other branches of ieqeaiclr.
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Hall listed a nurn1)t.i. of other Imsic iactors n hich we pais over now, as his papci I\ ill be published later l\Te do want to refer again to one statement of his“they should and must bc cmiiclered as full members of the research team.” One n-ould think that ttii. very basic element woiild t hoioughly understood and widely practiced b r the managements of what are generally considered to be progressive companies, yet n-e ,pent more than half an horn a t the conference listening to a young but nellbnon n analyst describe tragic delays that have occurred i n pioduction operations in a plant of importance to the mobilization effort because this elementary truth tiad been ignored either deliherately, or becauie of sheer ignorance Happily, thii example n e helieve non to lit. mor^ the evceptioii t h a n thc i ~ i l c 11 ill
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