Editors' Column
Too Many Meetings? "There have been occasional com ments made t h a t the number of ana lytical symposia held this year has been much greater t h a n usual and per haps should be curtailed in the future because of duplication." L. T. Hallett made this statement in T h e Analyst's Column in the J u n e 1948 issue of AN ALYTICAL C H E M I S T R Y [Anal. Chem., 20 (6), 17A (1948)]. T h e column con tinued, "Although without attending these meetings we might agree, by at tendance we have been impressed with the large numbers always present, the interest, and the enthusiasm. We must conclude therefore t h a t these meet ings are filling a need not heretofore realized." Following a discussion of why these local, mainly ACS sectionsponsored symposia are attended by young chemists who do not usually frequent national meetings, the argu ment ended with t h e statement, "Until evidence to the contrary is re ceived, we must conclude t h a t these meetings should be encouraged." A
reader responding in a later Analyst's Column [Anal. Chem., 20 (8), 19A (1948)] suggested t h a t "even local symposia have an interest which tran scends local and regional interest", and t h a t since "a number of these symposia have subjects of broad inter est to analytical chemists and because members of the analytical chemistry profession may wish to attend several of these symposia, it would be an ad vantage not to have conflicting dates." By 1950, Walter J. Murphy, then editor of A N A L Y T I C A L
CHRMISTRY,
called attention to " T h e Expanding Program of Special Symposia" in an editorial [Anal. Chem., 2 2 , 1 (1950)]. He stated, "Analytical chemists will not lack opportunities during the first half of 1950 to exchange scientific and technical information." After a discus sion of some of the more interesting upcoming symposia, the editorial con cluded with the following statement, " W h a t a contrast these activities pro vide when comparison is made with
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the situation prevailing but a few years ago, when analytical chemistry was looked down upon by most of the chemical profession and avoided as one would a plague. T h e continued successes of special symposia demon strate conclusively t h a t analytical chemistry is no longer destined for a Cinderella role. Analysts are to be congratulated for the initiative and leadership required to operate so many and varied symposia." But, pos sibly, the reflection of analytical chemistry's new image in the growing number of special symposia was being clouded by the number of symposia. It was noted as early as 1948 [Anal. Chem., 20 (1), 13A (1948)] t h a t the "Pittsburgh symposium in February is expanding to the point where it can no longer be considered local. Thirty pa pers have been received so far cov ering all branches of analytical chem istry." In 1950 the Pittsburgh Confer ence on Analytical Chemistry and Ap plied Spectroscopy incorporated the
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Editors' Column
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one-day Pittsburgh symposia into a joint three-day meeting of the Analytical Chemistry Division of the Pittsburgh Section of the American Chemical Society and the Spectroscopy Society of Pittsburgh. This merger reflected the "phenomenal growth of analytical chemistry,. . . and the growing importance of analytical symposia held annually in various parts of the country", according to Walter J. Murphy. T h e program of the Conference was planned so t h a t the conferee could attend papers of interest with a minimum of conflicts resulting from concurrent sessions. This early and continuing a t t e m p t to coordinate proliferating symposia and meetings was tried again in 1974 when the American Microchemical Society, the Association of Analytical Chemists Inc., the ACS Division of Analytical Chemistry, the Eastern Analytical Symposium, the Society of Applied Spectroscopy (SAS), the Chicago Section of SAS, and the Analysis Instrument Division of the Instrument Society of America combined to form the Federation of Analytical Chemistry and Spectroscopy Societies (FACSS). Sponsoring organizations were to.abandon or limit their national meetings and to only hold local meetings so t h a t emphasis could be placed on the FACSS meeting. Symposia on varied topics have been gathered together at both the Pittsburgh Conference and the FACSS meeting so t h a t scientists can cover a variety of subjects without attending a large number of meetings. Those young chemists urged to attend local symposia in 1948 now get the same benefits from attending just one meeting. T h e problem of conflicting dates for geographically separated symposia of common interest is also eliminated. Of the approximately 30 meetings listed in A N A L Y T I C A L C H E M I S T R Y ' S
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354 A · ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY, VOL. 49, NO. 3, MARCH
1977
Calendar of Meetings during all of 1951, a t least one third seemed to fit the definition of symposium, "a meeting at which several speakers deliver short addresses on a topic or related topics." Of the 67 meetings listed in just this issue alone (page 317 A), about half are on special topics. T h e question seems to be whether these special topics meetings, often still called symposia, serve the same purpose t h a t the symposia of 1948 did. Or should they? T h e large meetings (Pittsburgh and FACSS) are now with us as are an ever growing number of special topics symposia. T h e perplexing problem of where to go and when is still with the analytical chemist but now to a much greater degree. A. A. Husovsky
