JAAS News

(Beatriz Fernández) The First Spanish Workshop on LA-ICP-MS was held at the Faculty of Chemistry of the University of Oviedo (Spain) from November 18th to November 19th. This conference was organized by two research groups; the Analytical Spectrometry Group (Dept. of Physical and Analytical Chemistry) and the Laser and Plasma Spectroscopy Group (Dept. of Physics). About 60 scientists participated in the conference from a wide variety of disciplines; chemistry, geology, physics, biology and environment as well as different experts from technological centers and routine analysis (scientific police).

Although the workshop was organized with a national nature, the organizing committee included in the scientific program several invited conferences from international (European) specialist of well recognized trajectory in the field of LA-ICP-MS. In this sense, 7 invited lectures were given by Bodo Hattendorf (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH Zürich, Switzerland), Carmen García (JRC – Institute for Transuranium Elements, Germany), Juan R. Castillo (University of Zaragoza), Heather Stoll (University of Oviedo), Martín Resano (University of Zaragoza), Frank Vanhaecke (University of Ghent, Belgium) and Christophe Pecheyran (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, France). The workshop was organized in 3 different sessions and the last day a tutorial and a practical training with a laser system coupled to an ICP-MS was performed. Two communications were awarded with a prize for the best oral presentations sponsored both by JAAS, Cetac and photon-machines Inc.

Dr. Bodo Hattendorf (left) leads instruction in front of a full audience (right)

The 2010 Asia-Pacific Winter Conference on Plasma Spectrochemistry was closed to great applause, as participants praised the high level of science, collegial atmosphere, and gracious hospitality of the hosts.  The conference

2010 APWC Team

included over 200 participants from 14 countries, all hosted in the wonderful 5-star Wangjiang Hotel in Cheng Du, China.  The scientific program included 5 Plenary lectures, 26 Keynote Lectures, 14 Invited Lectures, 17 Contributed Lectures, and 62 Poster presentations over 4 days.  This conference was also the venue for the presentation of the first (dual) Asia-Pacific Winterconference awards to Prof. Benli Huang and Prof. Zheming Ni in recognition of their important contributions to atomic spectroscopy.

First and foremost, the success of this conference owes everything to the organizing committee (shown at right): Honorary Chairman Prof. Benli Huang (Xiamen University); Conference Chairman Prof. Xiandeng (Dan) Hou (Sichuan University); Co-Chairman Prof. Quiquan Wang (Xiamen University); Conference Secretaries Prof. Li Lv (Sichuan University) and Prof. Liang Qi (Chinese Academy of Sciences), as well as local coordinator Changwei Hu (Sichuan Univeristy) and Editor Dr. Lu Yang (NRCC).  As important were the contributions of local graduate students from (mainly) Sichuan University who comprised the conference staff and acted as office staff, interpreters, tour guides, and the AV-team.  The conference went off flawlessly, and much of the credit goes to these dedicated students.

Conference sponsors also gave generously to ensure the conference success.  The National Natural Science Foundation of China acted as the conference primary sponsor, and was joined by a number of significant contributors.  In particular, Thermo Fisher sponsored the welcome banquet, Shimadzu held a reception dinner on the second night of the conference, Agilent sponsored day-long excursions to local places of interest, and Perkin Elmer hosted dinner on the last eve of the conference.  Without such support, such meetings are difficult to accomplish.  Congratulations to the participants and organizers on such a wonderful APWC!

Dan and Benli

Panda

Dancing

Group Photo

Bronze Head (Sanxingdui Museum)

Head Massage (Me)

The 2010 APWC is begining this morning in Cheng Du, China (or this evening for those in the states; and way too early/late for those in Europe).  Cheng Du is a wonderful city, and among other distinctions is the center of the Panda Bear world! The National Panda Research Center is located just 20 minutes away by taxi, and several of us took the opportunity to visit.  As you can see, they are really amazing animals and worth the trip…

JAAS Editor Dr. May Copsey and Ling-Yi

PANDA BABIES!

Having a Snack

The Silver Anniversary of the journal was marked by a special one-day session held in Beijing today!

Over 100 members of the analytical chemistry community from around the world participated in a day of great research and discussion, making the event a great success.  The symposium title ‘Highlighting the past, present, and future of atomic spectrometry‘ was indeed the theme, as speakers covered a wide range of topics, from Glow Discharge spectroscopy (myself), to the use of ICP-MS for biological and DNA-based analysis (Prof. Xinrong Zhang), and the use of isotope ratio for a number of elements (C and S included) for forensic and food-science analysis (Dr Rebeca Santamaria Fernandez), new laser ablation strategies for ICP-MS analysis (Prof. Takafumi Hirata), novel applications and instrumentation with continuum-source ETAAS (Prof. Martin Resano), and the role of isotope ratio ICP-MS in a number of unique applications related to the natural environment (Prof. Ashley Townsend).

Manufacturer representatives gave some wonderful technical presentations about the latest instrumentation developments in ICP-MS from Thermo Scientific (Dr Lothar Rothman), ICP-MS from Nu instruments (Dr. John Cantle), ICP-MS from Agilent Technologies (Dr. Steve Wilbur), and the continuum AAS platform from Analytic Jena (Dr. Tai Zhao).  The program closed with two interesting presentations: one from Prof. Zhaochu Hu and Prof. Shan Gao that described the recent evolution of analytical chemistry in China over the last 25 years – and another from Dr Niamh O’Connor and Dr Norbert Jakubowski detailing the inner workings and procedures (and philosophy) of manuscript editing at the RSC.

With over 100 participants, the room was full and discussion was stimulated by the promise of a candy for each question posed to the authors!  Another great Jakubowski innovation!

JAAS Silver Anniversary Symposium Speaker Lineup

Good Friends at the Great Wall: Martin, Ashley, Rebeca, and Steve

Beijing, China: Invited speakers began to arrive in Beijing for the special one-day symposium celebrating the 25 anniversary of JAAS to be held on the campus of Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.  Many took advantage of the great weather (and a bit of extra time) to visit the city and see the sights!

Above, the stalward group of Prof. Martin Resano (University of Zaragoza, Spain), Prof. Ashley Townsend (University of Tasmania), Dr. Rebeca Santamaria-Fernandez (Institute of Photonic Sciences, Barcelona, Spain) – along with yours truly – had the chance to visit (and climb) on the Great Wall.

Many Thanks to our kind hosts and JAAS (particularly Prof. Xinrong Zhang, Niamh, and May) for arranging the tour!

Just a quick reminder– The conference registration deadline for the 2011 European Winter Conference in Zaragoza, Spain is November 30.  After that date, registration rates increase–so do it ASAP!  More information can be found online at:

http://www.winterplasmazaragoza2011.es/registration_info.php