Anal Bioanal Chem DOI 10.1007/s00216-013-7555-0
CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS
IMA 2013 - The 8th International Conference on Instrumental Methods of Analysis - Modern Trends and Applications Maria Ochsenkühn-Petropoulou
# Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014
The 8th international conference “Instrumental Methods of Analysis - Modern Trends and Applications” (IMA 2013) was held from 15 to 19 September 2013 at the Conference Center of the Porto Palace Hotel in Thessaloniki, Greece, and was coorganized by the Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry, Chemical Engineering Department of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (chairperson Roxani Tzimou-Tsitouridou) and the Laboratory of Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry, School of Chemical Engineering of the National Technical University of Athens (chairperson Maria OchsenkühnPetropoulou) with the support of the Division of Analytical Chemistry of the European Association for Chemical and Molecular Sciences. Instrumental Methods of Analysis Modern Trends and Applications is a biannual series of conferences that started in 1999. IMA 2013 was attended by about 250 scientists from 21 countries. The scientific program consisted of 14 sessions with 17 plenary lectures given by invited and honorary speakers as well as of 65 oral and 160 poster presentations. During the conference, there was an exhibition of instrumentation and analytical supplies sponsored by respective companies. Aims and topics IMA 2013 provided, as usual, an excellent framework for the presentation of new concepts, instruments, methods, systems, and applications in the field of modern chemical analysis. Owing to great interest on the part of the mass spectrometry (MS) community, including the related instrument companies, one conference day was dedicated to new MS research. Other very interesting topics on instrumental
M. Ochsenkühn-Petropoulou (*) School of Chemical Engineering, Laboratory of Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry, National Technical University of Athens, Iroon Polytechniou 9, 15773 Athens, Greece e-mail: [email protected]
methods of analysis were also presented on the 5 days of the conference, as mentioned below. Scientific program and conference highlights The conference began on Sunday, 15 September 2013 in the afternoon and was opened by the chairpersons from the two universities. Following the opening ceremony, three plenary lectures, covering a broad spectrum of analytical chemistry, were presented by the following honorary speakers: G. Vasilikiotis (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece), L. Ebdon (University of Bedfordshire, UK), and V. Simeonov (University of Sofia, Bulgaria). A video commemorating the past seven conferences, presented by K.M. Ochsenkühn, closed the opening session. The whole of the following day was dedicated to MS, where the state of the art in MS research was presented regarding new developments in instrumentation, strategies for the analysis of the metabolomics, DNA, quantum dots, engineered inorganic nanoparticles, and emerging pollutants, and the application of “hyphenated” MS techniques in the fields of pharmaceutical, biomedical (clinical, ecotoxicology), food, environmental, and material (nanomaterials) science. Highlights included the invited lectures by G. Hieftje (USA) entitled “New instruments and methods for optical and mass spectrometry” and A. Sanz-Medel (Spain) entitled “In the search for absolute determinations in targeted proteomics: the promise of ICP-MS.” Interesting lectures were also given on analysis of DNA and other biomarkers by MS, on analysis of new drugs with sophisticated MS techniques, and on new inorganic and organic MS instrumentation, given by representatives of the respective international companies. After the lectures, the exhibition was officially opened (Fig. 1). Two parallel sessions related to spectrochemistry, materials science, quality control and sample handling were held on Tuesday afternoon after a morning excursion to Vergina.
M. Ochsenkühn-Petropoulou
Fig. 1 Some of the invited speakers, together with the chairpersons, at the opening of IMA 2013 exhibition. From the left, A. Sanz-Medel, J. Szpunar, R. Lobinski, R. Tzimou-Tsitouridou, M. OchsenkühnPetropoulou, G. Hieftje, F. Adams, and L. Ebdon
Highlights of these sessions were the invited lectures entitled “Analysis and speciation of nano-scaled materials by grazing-incidence and high-resolution X-ray spectrometry” by B. Beckhoff (Germany), “Recent advances in green microextraction techniques for the isolation, preconcentration and gas chromatographic determination of organic environmental pollutants” by J. Namiesnik (Poland), and “NMR methodology developments in the analysis of complex metabolite mixtures” by I. Gerothanassis (Greece).
On Wednesday, 18 September, topics on environmental analysis/speciation, materials science, and electrochemistry/ sensors were presented. Highlights included the invited lectures by F. Adams (Belgium) entitled “The odyssey from bulk analysis to nano-analysis” and J. Szpunar (France) entitled “Marrying speciation analysis and proteomics.” In the evening the conference dinner was held in the roof garden of the Porto Palace Hotel, accompanied by traditional Greek dances. The last day was dedicated to archaeometry, with two very interesting invited lectures given by two Greek experts, M. Karayannis and J. Stratis. At the closing ceremony, awards were given for the four best posters (one for each session) chosen by the Poster Committee on the basis of their scientific content and presentation. The names of the young scientists and researchers who received awards as well as the topics of their posters and pictures of the award ceremony are available at http://www. ima2013.web.auth.gr/awards.htm. In conclusion, IMA 2013 was another successful and enjoyable conference bringing together experts in instrumental methods of analysis, researchers, instrument companies, and young postgraduates to present their work, to discuss possible scientific collaborations, and to explore employment opportunities. Future and related conferences The next conference (IMA 2015) is scheduled to take place from 20 to 24 September 2015 in Kalamata on the Peloponnese peninsula. You are welcome to join us there in 2 years.
CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS
IMA 2013 - The 8th International Conference on Instrumental Methods of Analysis - Modern Trends and Applications Maria Ochsenkühn-Petropoulou
# Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014
The 8th international conference “Instrumental Methods of Analysis - Modern Trends and Applications” (IMA 2013) was held from 15 to 19 September 2013 at the Conference Center of the Porto Palace Hotel in Thessaloniki, Greece, and was coorganized by the Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry, Chemical Engineering Department of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (chairperson Roxani Tzimou-Tsitouridou) and the Laboratory of Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry, School of Chemical Engineering of the National Technical University of Athens (chairperson Maria OchsenkühnPetropoulou) with the support of the Division of Analytical Chemistry of the European Association for Chemical and Molecular Sciences. Instrumental Methods of Analysis Modern Trends and Applications is a biannual series of conferences that started in 1999. IMA 2013 was attended by about 250 scientists from 21 countries. The scientific program consisted of 14 sessions with 17 plenary lectures given by invited and honorary speakers as well as of 65 oral and 160 poster presentations. During the conference, there was an exhibition of instrumentation and analytical supplies sponsored by respective companies. Aims and topics IMA 2013 provided, as usual, an excellent framework for the presentation of new concepts, instruments, methods, systems, and applications in the field of modern chemical analysis. Owing to great interest on the part of the mass spectrometry (MS) community, including the related instrument companies, one conference day was dedicated to new MS research. Other very interesting topics on instrumental
M. Ochsenkühn-Petropoulou (*) School of Chemical Engineering, Laboratory of Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry, National Technical University of Athens, Iroon Polytechniou 9, 15773 Athens, Greece e-mail: [email protected]
methods of analysis were also presented on the 5 days of the conference, as mentioned below. Scientific program and conference highlights The conference began on Sunday, 15 September 2013 in the afternoon and was opened by the chairpersons from the two universities. Following the opening ceremony, three plenary lectures, covering a broad spectrum of analytical chemistry, were presented by the following honorary speakers: G. Vasilikiotis (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece), L. Ebdon (University of Bedfordshire, UK), and V. Simeonov (University of Sofia, Bulgaria). A video commemorating the past seven conferences, presented by K.M. Ochsenkühn, closed the opening session. The whole of the following day was dedicated to MS, where the state of the art in MS research was presented regarding new developments in instrumentation, strategies for the analysis of the metabolomics, DNA, quantum dots, engineered inorganic nanoparticles, and emerging pollutants, and the application of “hyphenated” MS techniques in the fields of pharmaceutical, biomedical (clinical, ecotoxicology), food, environmental, and material (nanomaterials) science. Highlights included the invited lectures by G. Hieftje (USA) entitled “New instruments and methods for optical and mass spectrometry” and A. Sanz-Medel (Spain) entitled “In the search for absolute determinations in targeted proteomics: the promise of ICP-MS.” Interesting lectures were also given on analysis of DNA and other biomarkers by MS, on analysis of new drugs with sophisticated MS techniques, and on new inorganic and organic MS instrumentation, given by representatives of the respective international companies. After the lectures, the exhibition was officially opened (Fig. 1). Two parallel sessions related to spectrochemistry, materials science, quality control and sample handling were held on Tuesday afternoon after a morning excursion to Vergina.
M. Ochsenkühn-Petropoulou
Fig. 1 Some of the invited speakers, together with the chairpersons, at the opening of IMA 2013 exhibition. From the left, A. Sanz-Medel, J. Szpunar, R. Lobinski, R. Tzimou-Tsitouridou, M. OchsenkühnPetropoulou, G. Hieftje, F. Adams, and L. Ebdon
Highlights of these sessions were the invited lectures entitled “Analysis and speciation of nano-scaled materials by grazing-incidence and high-resolution X-ray spectrometry” by B. Beckhoff (Germany), “Recent advances in green microextraction techniques for the isolation, preconcentration and gas chromatographic determination of organic environmental pollutants” by J. Namiesnik (Poland), and “NMR methodology developments in the analysis of complex metabolite mixtures” by I. Gerothanassis (Greece).
On Wednesday, 18 September, topics on environmental analysis/speciation, materials science, and electrochemistry/ sensors were presented. Highlights included the invited lectures by F. Adams (Belgium) entitled “The odyssey from bulk analysis to nano-analysis” and J. Szpunar (France) entitled “Marrying speciation analysis and proteomics.” In the evening the conference dinner was held in the roof garden of the Porto Palace Hotel, accompanied by traditional Greek dances. The last day was dedicated to archaeometry, with two very interesting invited lectures given by two Greek experts, M. Karayannis and J. Stratis. At the closing ceremony, awards were given for the four best posters (one for each session) chosen by the Poster Committee on the basis of their scientific content and presentation. The names of the young scientists and researchers who received awards as well as the topics of their posters and pictures of the award ceremony are available at http://www. ima2013.web.auth.gr/awards.htm. In conclusion, IMA 2013 was another successful and enjoyable conference bringing together experts in instrumental methods of analysis, researchers, instrument companies, and young postgraduates to present their work, to discuss possible scientific collaborations, and to explore employment opportunities. Future and related conferences The next conference (IMA 2015) is scheduled to take place from 20 to 24 September 2015 in Kalamata on the Peloponnese peninsula. You are welcome to join us there in 2 years.
