American Laboratory
By Robert Stevenson
For gas chromatography (GC), the big news at Pittcon 2012 was the absence of Agilent (www.agilent.com) and PerkinElmer (www.perkinelmer.com). This was a consequence of an overall downsizing caused by the “six-year effect” where the cycles of ACHEMA and Analytica coincide. Many firms are reluctant to increase promotional spending, so compromises must be made. The reduction of spending at Pittcon was evident across the board, but was particularly strong in GC. Twenty years ago, Pittcon was viewed by spectroscopists as the world’s largest meeting in separation science. Slowly at first, the focus shifted: At Pittcon 2012, spectroscopy clearly dominated the exhibition.
