JAAS News

The paper by Sirven et al. featured on the front cover of JAAS, 2007, Issue 12

Back in 2007, we published a paper in JAAS about the LIBS analysis that would be used to identify rocks during an upcoming mission to study Mars. Now, the ChemCam instrument is an operational part of the Mars Science Laboratory on the Curiosity mission, helping to achieve its four goals:

• Determine whether life ever arose on Mars
• Characterize the climate of Mars
• Characterize the geology of Mars
• Prepare for human exploration

Take a look at the paper, which will be free to access until 30 September 2012 to see why the combination of two chemometric approaches mean a higher level of analytical accuracy:

Feasibility study of rock identification at the surface of Mars by remote laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy and three chemometric methods
Jean-Baptiste Sirven, Béatrice Sallé, Patrick Mauchien, Jean-Luc Lacour, Sylvestre Maurice and Gérard Manhès
J. Anal. At. Spectrom., 2007,22, 1471-1480
DOI: 10.1039/B704868H

Want to know more about this mission to the Red Planet? We will be gaining insight from one of the drivers of the Curiosity rover live this Friday. Paolo Bellutta works at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and he will join us live from Pasadena on Friday 7 September at 16:00 BST for a question-and-answer session to be broadcast on the RSC YouTube channel.

Find out more here, and follow things on Twitter using #RSCmars

The Gordon F. Kirkbright bursary award is a prestigious annual award that enables a promising student/non-tenured young scientist of any nation to attend a recognised scientific meeting or visit a place of learning.
The fund for this bursary was established in 1985 as a memorial to Professor Gordon Kirkbright in recognition of his contributions to analytical spectroscopy and to science in general. Although the fund is administered by the Association of British Spectroscopists (ABS) Trust, the award is not restricted to spectroscopists.

Applications are invited for the 2013 Gordon Kirkbright Bursary.

For further information contact John Chalmers at, email: vibspecconsult@aol.com

The closing date for entries is 31 December 2012.

TOMAS A. HIRSCHFELD AND FACSS STUDENT AWARDS – Deadline extended to May 15, 2012.

These awards recognize the most outstanding papers submitted to the conference by a graduate student. Recipients will receive economy travel to the meeting, complimentary registration, and complimentary hotel accommodations.  In order to be considered for designation as a Tomas A. Hirschfeld or FACSS Student Award, the student must submit a presentation for the SCIX 2012 conference, just as any other technical presentation is submitted.  The submission must be a bona fide paper to be presented at SCIX.  For consideration for this award the student must complete the submission form on the FACSS website and in addition submit the following:

• a 250 word abstract of the work to be reported.
• two letters of nomination, one by the student’s mentor.
• a copy of the candidates resumé.
• a copy of the candidate’s graduate transcript.
• copies of reprints and/or preprints of research accomplished.

The Thermo-Hilger Award which is awarded by the RSC Atomic Spectroscopy Group is now open for nominations. Nominations are invited from members who use atomic spectroscopy regularly who are in the early stages of their career (must be under 35 at the end of 2012). The winner will be a scientist with a proven track record whom the committee judge to offer the greatest potential for the future.

Information about the bursary and the application form can be found here.

The closing date for applications is 30th April 2012, so send in your nominations now!

Professor David Hahn

Professor David Hahn of the University of Florida has won the Lester Strock Award for 2011.  The award is presented by the Society for Applied Spectroscopy in recognition of significant and sustained contributions to atomic spectroscopy.  The award panel cited in particular Professor Hahn’s contributions to the fundamental understanding of plasma/analyte interactions in Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy.  Congratulations Professor Hahn!

Martín Resano, JAAS Editorial Board member, provides an introduction to the new RSC mobile app, and some tips for how it can help you to stay in touch with the latest research from RSC journals

The RSC has made available a mobile App that permits access to more than 30 journals from the RSC publishing platform. The application entitles all iPhone/iPad/iPod touch users to follow the RSC Journals in which they are interested in a very simple way. As illustrated in the screen captures attached (from an iPhone), the App provides fast access to the latest articles of the selected Journals, which can be saved (as pdf or html) for off-line reading, or just shared with colleagues via Facebook, Twitter or e-mail, all with a single click. Moreover, there is also a fast search engine, such that all the on-line content of RSC Journals can be thoroughly explored.

In order to benefit from all these features, the users need to be connected to a wireless network from a subscribing institution/organisation (otherwise, only abstracts and not the full version of the papers will be visible). However, more forms of authentication will be implemented soon. An Android version is also expected to be available in early 2012.

Users who have an RSC Publishing personal account however can use this app to access all the free content available, without the need for a subscription!

The App is free and can be downloaded from the iTunes store: http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/rsc-mobile/id459371444?mt=8

Martín Resano

Reason 1: Follow RSC journals                                                                      Reason 2: Check the latest articles

Reason 3: Save your favourite articles                                                       Reason 4: Read your article in PDF or HTML

Reason 5: Share with your friends and colleagues                         Reason 6: Search for new articles in your research area

Reason 7: …plus much more!

More information about the RSc Mobile App can be found here: https://blogs.rsc.org/technical/2011/09/26/rscmobile/