Philadelphia-area students and their teachers received lessons in laboratory science during Science Week, a program that supports science education from elementary through high school levels. Twenty schools in the Philadelphia region participated, including Central High, Parkway Center City, the William M. Meredith Elementary School (K-8) in Queen Village, and Green Woods Charter School (K-8) in Roxborough, and students from the Philadelphia Academies Inc.

Elementary through middle school students rotated among six hands-on workshops on astronomy, chromatography, gases, acid/base reactions, electrochemistry and light and color. High school students experienced a “Weird Science on Fuels and Energy” demonstration at the event. Nationally recognized science demonstrator and educator from the University of Illinois at Chicago Lee Marek, presented the lecture to the high school students.

The six-day program was held at the Pennsylvania Convention Center March 16-21. Pittcon, the world’s premier annual conference and exposition on laboratory science, hosted the event.

 
Click here to read the rest of the article…

 
Pittcon is known for its huge exposition of analytical and laboratory instruments from hundreds of companies. A panel of four academic advisers—specialists in atomic and molecular spectroscopy, chromatography, and mass spectrometry—helps C&EN sift through the many new products introduced at Pittcon each year to identify some of the most noteworthy ones. And instrument industry journalists who attend and cover Pittcon nominate and vote each year on the most innovative and promising new products. These two groups’ selections are presented here.

Instruments highlighted by the four C&EN advisory panelists and instrument industry editors this year include a miniaturized mass spectrometry (MS) instrument, a bioinformatics system, a gas chromatography (GC) detector, a pair of miniature GC instruments, a handheld Raman analyzer, a new detector coating, a portable interferometer, a pH meter, a miniature nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometer, and an optical microscope attachment.

 
Click here to read the rest of the article…

 
Pittcon 2013, the 64th Conference and Exposition for Analytical Chemistry and Applied Spectroscopy, ended on a high note following its first appearance in Philadelphia. Preliminary figures for this global event, which was held at the Pennsylvania Convention Centre, were declared as 18,197 attendees; 40% of which attended the Conference for the first time. New this year was a strategic partnership between Pittcon and the co-located Food Labs Conference hosted by Food Safety Tech*: the organisers of both events were pleased with their first-year success and are looking forward to expanding the relationship.
Pittcon 2013 President Ronald Bargiel commented, “The food industry is one of Pittcon’s top industries for growth. We are excited about this newly formed partnership with Food Safety Tech and look forward to working jointly to increase Pittcon’s presence in the food industry.”

Rick Biros, publisher of Food Safety Tech added, “Co-locating with Pittcon makes perfect sense for everyone. This partnership makes it possible for food industry lab managers to significantly benefit from the first conference [Food Labs] focused on their needs along with having access to thousands of laboratory technology suppliers at Pittcon—all under one roof.”

 
Click here to read the rest of the article…

LabTube.tv Meets Sir Harry Kroto

Click here to watch the interview

 

 

 

 
This is the first instalment of “Perspectives in Modern HPLC”, a new column that will be published every quarter on this topic. Here, we highlight prominent high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and related products introduced at Pittcon 2013, as well as the previous year. A summary of technical details is provided for these new HPLC systems, modules and chromatographic software products, and major product extensions are also presented. The focus is on innovations and unique features from a user’s perspective.

The Pittsburgh Conference on Analytical Chemistry and Applied Spectroscopy (Pittcon) is the world’s largest annual conference and exposition on laboratory science. It is organized by The Spectroscopy Society of Pittsburgh and Society for Analytical Chemistry of Pittsburgh and is managed by a committee of volunteers with a small permanent staff. Pittcon 2013 was held at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia, USA, from 17–21 March, the first time in recent memory to be held in the northeastern United States (the last time was 1990 in New York City). Despite a trend of declining participation by exhibitor staff in recent years, Pittcon remains the premier analytical chemistry conference, unmatched in scope or scale by any contenders. This year, Pittcon boasted more than 18,000 attendees from industry, academia and government agencies from more than 90 countries. There were more than 2000 technical sessions, including plenary lectures and invited, contributed and award symposia; workshops; posters and networking sessions; ~90 short courses; and a huge exposition with more than 1000 vendors displaying at ~1900 booths.

Traditionally, Pittcon is the forum for new product introductions and a “must-go-to” conference for laboratory scientists looking for new equipment. However, the many meetings with narrower focuses such as mass spectrometry, high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), chiral separations and biotech applications continue to compete for attendees. More importantly, the new information age now offers convenient alternatives for information gathering (such as Google searches, webcasts, virtual meetings and social media). Nevertheless, the opportunities for face-to-face meetings to renew acquaintances and continuing education from symposia or short courses still hold sufficient motivation for many in this annual pilgrimage.

 
Click here to read the rest of the article…

 
Nearly half of all conventions that meet in Philadelphia are connected to life sciences and there’s a reason for that, say the convention center’s marketing group. It’s because the region can tout a wealth of resources in the industry that help attract convention goers.

Nearly half of all conventions that meet in Philadelphia are connected to life sciences and there’s a reason for that, said Bonnie Grant, executive director of the Greater Philadelphia Life Sciences Congress, a division of the Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau. It’s because the region can tout a wealth of resources in the industry that help attract convention goers.

Philadelphia’s rich life sciences sector was just one of the things about which attendees learned at Pittcon, or the Pittsburgh Conference on Analytical Chemistry and Applied Spectroscopy. The annual conference and exposition, focused on laboratory science, took place on March 17-21 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center and attracted more than 18,000 delegates and generated an economic impact of nearly $40 million, Grant said. Approximately 28 percent of the attendees were international visitors, arriving in Philadelphia from 90 countries.

 
Click here to read the rest of the article…

 
The full force of industry serving the scientific community was evident at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia the week of March 18, where more than 1,000 exhibitors were on the premises displaying the many products and services industrial, academic and government labs employ to deliver the promise and potential of their work. Without a doubt, the exposition serves to highlight the latest innovations across a broad spectrum of disciplines ranging from analytical chemistry, drug discovery, nanotechnology, life sciences, environmental science and more.

Many exhibitors reserve Pittcon to introduce new offerings and innovations in the process analytical space serving pharma, and the 2013 conference was no different with developments in informatics and process analytical technologies taking center stage for Pharmaceutical Manufacturing’s readers.

In pursuit of efficiencies across commercial laboratory environments, informatics and related information, technologies are emerging to bridge gaps and create synergies that help researchers and clinicians stick to their core competencies while supporting the management and administration of laboratory data as well as other aspects of lab operations to meet research and development and similar business and competitive imperatives.

 
Click here to read the rest of the article…

 
With more than 1000 companies, Pittcon 2013 (in Philadelphia/USA) saw a rise in exhibitors for the first time in years. The question is, whether this development also see visitor numbers rising…

Philadelphia/USA – 2013 starts with the first big event for analytics: The Pittcon 2013 (March 17.-22, Pennsylvania Convention Center, Philadelphia). In a year without big European tradeshows, Pittcon offers one of the rare chances to get an in-deep insight in the trends and developmens for laboratory technology, food, analytics and pharmaceutical research.

 
Click here to read the rest of the article…

 
For Tom Smith of Penn Hills, gaining access to the international scientific community from his home on Datura Drive might seem like a big challenge.

Smith owns and operates Penn Hills Scientific from his home, supplying moisture-analysis equipment and providing training and services to clients.

And surprisingly, access to a world of science and the laboratory instrumentation industry is just a short car ride away in Wilkins Township.

Smith is a regular exhibitor and conferee at the Pittsburgh Conference on Analytical Chemistry and Spectroscopy, known colloquially as Pittcon. Its staff is based in a Penn Center office in Wilkins.

Once a year, however, the 11-member staff is joined by about 100 local volunteer scientists and educators who come together to host the world’s largest annual conference for individuals who work in the laboratory science field and companies that market lab-science products.

In fact, the conference is so big, it outgrew Pittsburgh’s hotel and convention-center capacity by the late 1960s. It is now hosted alternately by New Orleans, Atlanta, Chicago, Orlando and this year, Philadelphia for the first time.

 
Click here to read the rest of the article…

 
Although Pittcon is no longer a must-attend meeting for some (that would include Agilent and PerkinElmer), there are still plenty of analytical instrument companies that wouldn’t miss it. There are also roughly 9,000 analytical scientists here in Philadelphia who feel similarly.

In slightly smaller quarters this year, the exhibit hall is packed with companies from around the globe plying their wares to scientists who seem to be interested in more than just browsing. And there is plenty of new stuff for them to covet.

Bruker introduced a number of new products, including the EVOQ™ Qube and Elite: The new LC-triple quadrupole (LC-TQ) mass spectrometers are similar to Bruker’s SCION GC-TQ platform introduced in 2011, Bruker reports, in that they feature significant advances in robustness, ease of methods developments, and productivity. The EVOQ platform was designed for a singular purpose, according to Bruker, and that is “to very reliably quantify thousands of real samples with fast sample-to-report time.”

 
Click here to read the rest of the article…

 
While companies insist they don’t hold back on releasing new products solely to make big splashes at Pittcon, there have been quite a few big introductions already, and the meeting is just starting.

Shimadzu kicked off the meeting last night by giving notice to its competitors that “the sleeping giant is wakening” and introducing the i3D Enterprise Service, in addition to several new gas chromatography products.

Shimadzu partnered with Integrated Analysis on the i3D, which it says is a powerful, private-cloud service for laboratories. i3D integrates storage, processing, and data mining.

According to the companies, with i3D Enterprise Service, laboratory data can be automatically and securely uploaded from instruments to a private cloud and processed on the cloud. This enables workflow execution and data mining in a fraction of the time when compared to processing on a local PC. Researchers with an Internet browser can quickly access all of their data, interrogate it from any location, and share data globally in seconds.

 
Click here to read the rest of the article…

More than 17,000 attendees will convene at this annual conference and exposition on lab science

The Pittsburgh Conference on Analytical Chemistry & Applied Spectroscopy will be held on March 17–21 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia.

Pittcon’s core focus is analytical chemistry and applied spectroscopy, with applications in fields including life sciences, drug discovery, food safety, nanotechnology, water/air analysis, and environmental science.

The conference, which annually attracts more than 17,000 attendees from industry, academia, and government from 90 countries worldwide, is sponsored by the Spectroscopy Society of Pittsburgh and the Society for Analytical Chemists of Pittsburgh.

 
Click here to read the rest of the article…

 
Pittcon Conference and Expo is returning to Philadelphia for its annual week-long convention, held at the Pennsylvania Convention Center from March 17-21. The conference attracts current scientists for its well-known technical courses and also promotes science education in the city.

Through these short courses, the conference offers current scientists the opportunity to learn about the newest research and developments in their field. Other courses allow them to take part in hands-on work and network with their peers. Course topics range from electrochemistry to gas chromatography to technical writing.

 
Click here to read the rest of the article…

 
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — It’s like the Auto Show or the Flower Show, but for scientists!

Thousands of people will be coming from around the world to Philadelphia later this month for the world’s premiere annual conference and exposition on laboratory science.

“When these kinds of conventions come to town, the expo floor is an amazing place to see medical equipment, the operating rooms of the future, the research of the future,” notes Bonnie Grant, executive director of the Greater Philadelphia Life Sciences Congress.

“We’re a city of medical history,” she says. “We have the first hospital, the first medical school, the first children’s hospital, the first medical library, and so much more.”

The Pittcon conference (which started in a Pittsburgh hotel in 1950) is put together by volunteers, and Philadelphia gets more out of it than just visitors.

 
Click here to read the rest of the article…

 
Since its inception in 1950, Pittcon has always been the premier conference and exposition for members of the scientific community to gather to discover and experience the global innovations in technology, instrumentation, and research occurring in the field of laboratory science. For the first time in the history of the event, Pittcon will be in the eminent city of Philadelphia—‘‘the center of it all.’’ Greater Philadelphia is in the heart of the world’s fifth largest economy that includes major research centers in the life sciences, nanotechnology, manufacturing, energy, and pharmaceutical science. The city is only eight miles or a twenty minute rail ride from the Philadelphia International Airport, which is served by 28 airlines and 1,200 flights. Once in the city, commuting is made simple by one of the largest and most extensive public transit and commuter rail systems in the country.

The dynamic Exposition opens on Monday, March 18, and will feature the latest instrumentation, equipment, and laboratory supplies from leading companies from around the world. Approximately 50% of exhibitors launch new products at Pittcon, and 20% offer exclusive onsite discounts. You will find everything from glassware to sample preparation equipment to the most sophisticated and
innovative pieces of equipment such as optical emission or fluorescence spectrometers and UV/VIS, FT-IR, and atomic absorption spectrophotometers. In addition to the traditional specialized areas on the floor for new exhibitors, life science suppliers, and Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS), there will also be a German and a Japanese pavilion.

Pittcon continues to grow and diversify to include emerging disciplines while maintaining its core in analytical chemistry and applied spectroscopy.

Click here to read the rest of the article…

 
About 20,000 scientists — some local, and others from around the world — will be in Philadelphia later this month for the 2013 Pittcon conference.

Ronald G. Bargiel, president of Pittcon (The Pittsburgh Conference on Analytical Chemistry and Applied Spectroscopy), said the event scheduled for March 17 to 21 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center marks the return of the 63-year-old annual conference for laboratory scientists to the Northeast.

Pittcon was last held in this part of the country when New York City played host in 1990.

Click here to read the rest of the article…

 
Although spring has not quite arrived, March does usher in the Spring 2013 meeting circuit. As analytical chemists, at least in the USA, two of our largest annual meetings are soon here. The first is Pittcon in Philadelphia, PA (March 17−21), followed by the ACS Spring 2013 National Meeting in New Orleans, LA (April 7−11).

Click here to read the rest of the article…

 
Friday, February 18, 2013

For the first time Philadelphia will play host to the 64th Pittcon, which will be held the Pennsylvania Convention Center on March 17 – 21, 2013.

Pittcon is the world’s largest annual premier conference and exposition on laboratory science and attracts more than 17,000 attendees from industry, academia and government from 90 countries worldwide. Pittcon provides a showcase for scientific innovations on laboratory equipment, technology and supplies, unique networking opportunities and educational programmes. Experience innovation from over 930 exhibitors, a diverse Technical Program of over 2000 presentations as well as networking sessions that provide the chance to exchange innovative ideas with scientists from around the world.

Nobel Laureate Sir Harold (Harry) Kroto (pictured right) will deliver the Pittcon 2013 Wallace H. Coulter Plenary Lecture, ‘Exameter Objects to Nanometer Ones and Back Again’. The Plenary Lecture will be part of the Opening Session for the Technical Program at Pittcon 2013.

Click here to read the article…

 
Starting 16 March, Pittcon 2013 will open its doors in Philadelphia, PA. Traditionally Pittcon attracts more visitors when its venue lies in the north eastern states of the US. The restored Pennsylvania convention center now is big enough for hosting the world’s most important conference on laboratory instrumentation. Like every year you have the opportunity to meet all manufacturers and experts in the field at one place. And – it’s a nice place. Philadelphia alone is worth a visit. With Pittcon on top, there is no excuse to be elsewhere from March 16th to 21st. Like in the past, the G.I.T. Laboratory Journal had an interview with Ron Bargiel, Pittcon’s President in 2013, to give you an impression on the reasons why you should visit Philadelphia in March. We hope to meet you there!

G.I.T. Laboratory Journal: Pittcon is a non-profit organization. What are the projects you plan to support with the revenues of Pittcon 2013?

Ron Bargiel – Pittcon President 2013

Ron Bargiel: Each year, together with its co-sponsoring technical societies, The Society for Analytical Chemists of Pittsburgh (SACP) and The Spectroscopy Society of Pittsburgh (SSP), and funded by the Pittcon event, these societies award The Pittsburgh Conference Memorial National College Grants (PCMNCG) to small college science departments. The awards are approximately $10,000 for the purchase of scientific equipment, audio-visual, teaching aids, and/or library materials for use in the teaching of science at the undergraduate level for colleges and universities throughout the United States. The award program has grown over the years to include 10 - 12 colleges that meet the nearly 300 grants have been awarded through PCMNCG since its inception in 1974. In addition to this award, Pittcon generates over $1 million dollars for the SSP and the SACP to provide financial and administrative support for various science outreach activities including science equipment grants, research grants, scholarships and internships for students, awards to teachers and professors, and grants to public science centers, libraries and museums.

Click here to read the entire interview…

 
Friday, December 21, 2012

Click here to read the article…

Pittcon will be held in Philadelphia for the first time this year. Philadelphia is the centre of one of the top life science clusters in the USA, bringing together the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical devices, R&D and a wide range of other supporting industries.

Pittcon 2013 offers a unique opportunity to get a hands-on look at the latest innovations in analytical science and chromatographic technology from leading companies from over 30 countries. Pittcon 2013 will be held from March 17 -21 2013 (expo dates: March 18-21) at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,. USA.

Approximately 50% of exhibitors use Pittcon as the venue to launch new products and 20% of companies offer exclusive on-site discounts on equipment. Several specialty areas will be open on the floor including: New Exhibitor, Life Science, and Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS) areas and international pavilions for Japan and Germany. Attendees will get the chance to participate in live demonstrations and product seminars. Technical personnel will be available to talk about challenges faced by laboratory managers and offer solutions to improve efficiency.

This dynamic exposition will be complimented by a diverse all-inclusive technical programme offering more than 2,000 technical presentations, as well as affordable short training courses and unique networking opportunities. As members of the scientific community coming from over 90 countries converge on Pittcon 2013, networking will become a primary activity among participants. The advance registration fee of $130 before February 18, ($260 after) gives conferees unlimited access to the exposition floor and technical programme.

Click here to read the entire article…

 
It is our pleasure to announce that Scicasts and Pittcon – the world’s largest annual premier conference and exposition on laboratory science – have entered into a partnership agreement to create a brand new Scicasts channel: Pittcon Laboratory Science News.

The agreement is part of Scicasts Partnership scheme offered to a selected group of leading organizations in science and technology sectors around the world. The scheme involves building a co-branded channel to assist scientific communities in establishing continuous communication with their members and event delegates through their own Scicasts blogs, videos (TV), newsletters and social media groups.

Click here to read the entire article…

By Colonel Mason

Assuring data integrity when moving from paper to the electronic Laboratory to be studied at Pittcon world conference on laboratory science.

DALLAS (Oct. 8, 2012) – Quality assurance in data as laboratories increasingly move from paper to electronic will be a major focus of special courses held at the Pittcon Global Exposition, Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia, March 17 – 21, 2013.

Among the many short courses, which can be seen at the website, will be Designing and Implementing the Electronic Laboratory, Writing Testable and Verifiable User Requirements for Computerized Laboratory Systems, Integrated Analytical Instrument Qualifications (AIQ) and Computerized Systems Validation (CSV). The courses range from half days to two full days and are taught by experienced professionals expert in each field.

Click here to read the entire article…

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW with Short Course Instructor Bob McDowall

Bob McDowall outlines his 2013 Short Course presentations on data manipulation concerns during an interview on the ScienceNews Radio Network program, the Promise of Tomorrow with Colonel Mason.

By Colonel Mason

World famous nanotechnology pioneer and Nobel Laureate, Harry Kroto, will present new fullerene results at world conference on laboratory science

DALLAS (Sept. 10, 2012) – Nobel Laureate and nanotechnology pioneer Sir Harold Kroto will present new information from his research on how fullerene molecules are created when he opens the Pittcon conference and expo Sunday, March 17, 2013, in Philadelphia. The most recent fascinating breakthrough is the discovery by Canadian astronomers that the molecule is in some stars.

Click here to read the entire article…

Several UCF researchers took advantage of a unique opportunity in March to share their work at the world’s largest annual conference and exposition for laboratory science.

UCF was invited to showcase university research at a booth located in the event’s centralized Technology Park.

Click here to read the entire article…

 “A most valuable resource”

More than 15,000 people involved in various aspects of analytical chemistry converged on Orlando, March 11-15, for the Pittcon 2012 annual conference and exposition.
The exposition included almost 1000 exhibiting companies occupying just under 2000 booths and showcasing their latest laboratory instrumentation, equipment and services across a broad range of applications and technologies. Of those exhibitors, 191 (20 percent) were exhibiting from 28 countries outside the US, continuing the international flair that the event has developed through the years. Around 29 percent of the conferees were also from outside of the US, with 89 global countries represented.

The comprehensive Technical Program included more than 2,000 individual presentations distributed among Invited Symposia, Organized Contributed Sessions, Achievement Awards, Workshops, and Poster presentations. More than 100 invited speakers addressed topics of global interest, including alternative and sustainable energy, homeland security, food and drug safety, environmental issues, new materials development, and bioanalytical techniques. Also available were 95 short courses, while the Employment Bureau noted that over 450 interviews were arranged during the conference as well.

Click here to read the entire article…

By Emil W. Ciurczak

Trade show consolidation can be a good thing, at least when it gives smaller innovator companies room to grow. 

While watching recent NOVA episodes on PBS, I found myself cheering about the recovery of forests around Mt. Saint Helens following its massive eruption, and about how sustainable teak cutting was allowing rainforest growth to continue without destroying surrounding trees. It’s no surprise that these vignettes tickled my scientific interest. After all, I was an Eagle Scout, and I did teach environmental science.

However, they also reminded me of changes that have taken place at Pittcon, the nation’s largest analytical equipment exposition and conference. The form of this year’s show was notably different. There were wider pedestrian walkways, one large area in the center of the floor for posters and another for “resting” with chairs, tables, and snack centers. The numbering of aisles also started at “700,” not “100,” perhaps to make the number of aisles seem greater than actually existed.

Click here to read the entire article…

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.

Click here to read the entire article…

American Laboratory
By Barbara Foster

Micro Raman was big news at Pittcon 2012. While the hardware has stabilized, there were intriguing new developments in the science and its applications.

Bridging the microscopy/spectroscopy chasm

Historically, atomic force microscopy (AFM) has been the gateway for Raman microscopy, but the emphasis at Pittcon was on the optical. Major manufacturers—from micro Raman industry leaders Renishaw (www.renishaw.com) and Horiba (www.horiba.com) to Bruker Optics (www.brukeroptics.com), Jasco (www.jascoinc.com), Kaiser Optical Systems (www.kosi.com), and Thermo Fisher Scientific (www.thermofisher.com)—all featured fully integrated systems, typically centered on Olympus BX research-level microscopes (www.olympusamerica.com). (WITec [www.witec.de] and CRAIC Technologies [www.microspectra.com], which follow similar formats, elected not to exhibit at Pittcon this year.)

Click here to read the entire article…

American Laboratory
By Jeffrey M. Perkel

This past March, some 15,754 people from 90 countries descended on Orlando, Florida, for the annual Pittsburgh Conference on Analytical Chemistry and Applied Spectroscopy (Pittcon^®) (www.pittcon.org/exhibitors/attendstats.php). As always, the conference is an opportunity for technology vendors to get face time with their customers, and for researchers to glimpse the latest and greatest those companies have to offer. This year’s Pittcon featured 948 exhibitors, from A&D Weighing to Zoex, promoting products to support a range of technologies and industries. Here, American Laboratory rounds up some of the more interesting product launches in spectroscopy and mass spectrometry.

Click here to read the entire article…

Spectroscopy
By Howard Mark

As usual, there was concern at the 63rd Pittsburgh Conference on Analytical Chemistry and Applied Spectroscopy (Pittcon 2012) about how well the conference is doing. Although this reviewer heard casual comments about how the show appeared smaller and the aisles less crowded, other comments by some exhibitors indicated good attendance at their booths, and “quality” leads from those attendees who stopped in.

Despite these comments, we can only go by the figures. The total cumulative attendance was 15,754 as compared to the final 2011 attendance of 17,199. A breakdown of the attendance by attendee type and a comparison with previous Pittcons can be found at: http://www.pittcon.org.

Click here to read the entire article…

Chemical & Engineering News
by John Baltrus

Laboratory Equipment

Plans for the Pittcon 2013 Technical Program have already begun. Chair of the 2013 Program Committee, Theresa Stauffer, invites people to start planning now for next year’s Conference in Philadelphia (it will be Pittcon’s first time in this city). Pittcon’s Program Committee is currently accepting proposals for Symposia, Workshops, and Organized Contributed Sessions.

The timeline for review of the submitted proposals is rather tight, so in order for the organizers to have enough time to arrange the sessions, the Program Committee will review all suggestions in late April 2012. Therefore, the deadline for proposal submission will be April 6, 2012 – please note the deadline – it’s not far away!

Proposals for symposia are being sought in all areas of analytical chemistry and applied spectroscopy. In addition to the classical analytical and spectroscopic topics, areas such as bioanalytical chemistry, nanotechnology, environmental analysis, food analysis, forensics, pharmaceutical analysis, and life science technologies in genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, bioinformatics, high throughput screening, and drug discovery, as well as chemical applications on art objects, energy research and education are also solicited.

In 2013 there will be a continued emphasis on program quality, particularly in the area of poster presentations, which have and will continue to grow, and there will be fewer oral contributed sessions. the Program Committee have been working for the past several years to make the whole program experience-the Technical Program, Short Courses, and Conferee Networking-as streamlined as possible in order to give conferees their best educational and networking experience.

The general Call for Papers will be sent out in June, and the deadline for contributed oral and poster abstracts will be in mid-August. As always, abstracts must be submitted electronically via the Pittcon website in order to be considered for the 2013 Technical Program. Please feel free to contact the Program Committee if you have any comments or questions about the 2013 Technical Program. They can be reached by e-mail at program@pittcon.org or by phone at 800-825-3321 or 412-825-3220, x 219.

Chemical & Engineering News
By Jeff Huber

With more than 900 exhibitors competing for the attention of 15,000-plus attendees, giveaways played a notable role in the marketing strategy used by several companies at Pittcon 2012. Take Matheson, for instance.

At last month’s meeting in Orlando, the industrial/specialty gas and equipment provider drew large crowds thanks to a daily raffle featuring lab coats airbrushed by Philadelphia-based artist Freddy Sicoli. In a mini art studio at Matheson’s booth, Sicoli delighted onlookers by airbrushing lab coats with playful caricatures that included some of pop culture’s favorite scientists. Dexter from the Cartoon Network show “Dexter’s Laboratory” and Muppets Dr. Bunsen Honey­dew and Beaker were among them.

“I didn’t know if it was going to go off so well at first,” recalls Sicoli, who was surprised by the number of people who approached him to request their own personalized lab coats. “So many people were asking me for my number that I ran out of cards,” he says.

“What two things could be more different than airbrush art and specialty gas? But they make a great partnership,” says Beth Sullivan, corporate marketing and communications manager at Matheson, which will soon release a limited-edition welding helmet with artwork designed by Sicoli. As for Sicoli himself, he and the rest of his crew at Killer Kreations Art Studio will continue filling airbrush orders that come in through their website for automobiles, surfboards, and, yes, even lab coats.

Elsewhere on the Pittcon floor, Shimadzu Scientific Instruments (SSI) made quite the splash by passing along the common cold, mad cow disease, and Salmonella to its customers. Before concerned readers report the company to the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, however, Newscripts should probably mention that these harbingers of disease came in the benign form of GIANTmicrobes—those lovable plush dolls designed in the shape of microorganisms. A new microbe emblazoned with the SSI logo was distributed during each day of the convention.

“People were coming constantly to the booth to ask about them,” says Kevin McLaughlin, SSI senior marketing and communications coordinator, of the dolls. “On a day-by-day basis, you’d see some of the same people come back. ‘Oh, I was here on Monday for the common cold. What do you have today?’ ”

For GIANTmicrobes Vice President of Marketing Laura Sullivan, the excitement generated by her company’s dolls at Pittcon makes perfect sense. “In the world of corporate premiums, like mugs and T-shirts and pens,” she says, “this is just a fun, new way to capture customers’ or partners’ attention.”

According to Sullivan, a large part of the stuffed microbes’ appeal comes from their scientific integrity. For instance, GIANTmicrobes’ common cold is actually shaped like a rhinovirus, and mad cow disease is a cuddly prion with black and white bovine spots. “At the heart of it all, it really is about the content and the education,” Sullivan says of the dolls.

For readers hoping to cuddle up next to disease agents such as flesh-eating bacteria or Escherichia coli, GIANTmicrobes are available at specialty gift shops and through the company’s website.