The Technical Program featured more than 2,200 presentations and opened on Sunday, March 2 with the Pittcon Heritage Award presentation and the Plenary Lecture. Dr. Leroy Hood, President and Founder of the Institute for Systems Biology received the award and also delivered the Plenary Lecture – “Systems Biology and Systems Medicine”.

The Technical Program also included two special symposia celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Society for Applied Spectroscopy.

For the second consecutive year, we co-programmed with the American Chemical Society Division of Analytical Chemistry (ACS-DAC). We are pleased to announce that the ACS-DAC will continue to co-program with Pittcon for the next three years.

The Short Course program included over 100 courses covering 60 different topics. The program again served as an excellent reason for conferees to attend Pittcon.

Our Conferee Networking Sessions were expanded from 8 to 27 this year and attendance was excellent.

Jackson Square, the networking and relaxing area near the center of the Exposition floor proved to be very popular with everyone and will be continued next year in Chicago for Pittcon 2009, but called Millennium Park.

Our Science Week program this year was dedicated to assisting the schools, teachers and students of the New Orleans and Baton Rouge areas that were affected by Hurricane Katrina and the resultant flooding. For the second consecutive year, we devoted approximately $125,000 to this effort.

Again, our thanks to all for your support of Pittcon 2008.  We look forward to seeing you in Chicago next March for Pittcon 2009.

John A. Varine
Pittcon 2008 President
varine@pittcon.org