The 2012 Eastern Analytical Symposium Program

The promise of innovation, new alternatives and solving analytical challenges is the heart of the 2012 EAS program themed “Energizing Analytical Solutions.” The energy comes with a fresh start in a very different environment from the first 50 years of the Eastern Analytical Symposium.

At the 2011 EAS we followed the singer, song-writer Tim McGraw’s advice from his song “The Next Thirty Years” 1. We celebrated our age, the ending of an era and the turning of a page. This year, as we start our second half century, our objective is to focus on where we go from here.

Here is where we are going in 2012. As the year unfolds, you will see a greater distinction made in our technical program between invited and contributed sessions. A group of about 50 scientists are working diligently to prepare over 50 invited sessions where the speakers will talk in depth on a variety of technical and problem solving areas. These invited sessions are the strength of EAS and what we support to attract you to attend this premier analytical meeting.

The chairs of these invited sessions, all leaders in their respective areas from academia, industry and the government will join me in bringing the most innovative research for you to learn and evaluate. They are selecting the most energizing solutions to some of the most challenging problems on our planet. In these continuing tough economic times, as analytical chemists we need to follow the advice of Lord Ruthorford when he says “We haven’t the money, so we have to think.” On coming to EAS 2012 you will see the breadth of solutions achieved from this thinking process. The solutions range from solving forensic dilemmas at crime scenes, to directions of anti-counterfeit analysis to protect commercial products in a global economy, the latest in structure elucidation, portable hand-held spectroscopic instruments, quantum cascade lasers, consumer product testing and chemometrics. In separations and mass spectroscopy we look forward to solutions using SFC, UHPLC, and capillary liquid chromatography, large and biomolecule analysis and hyphenated techniques. For analytical managers and supervisors, presentations on creative and innovative management techniques and the trends in outsourcing will be presented. For surface scientists, expect an emphasis on programs dealing with soft surfaces and tribology, hard surfaces and deposition, and thin films and imaging. For art conservationists, expect the “state-of-the-art” in all skills with a focus on mass spectrometry. For the NMR aficionado, dynamic sessions on the structure and dynamics of biological systems and materials, hyphenated NMR for metabolites and natural products and EPR of biological systems and materials will be found.

We excitedly invite you to plan to join us at the EAS 2012 conference in November. This is also an invitation to contribute a paper to EAS in your own analytical subject area for review and acceptance. Complementary papers to the topics mentioned above are especially welcome.  Our deadline for contributed paper submission is April 15, 2012. All areas of analytical chemistry are welcome. This is your opportunity to share your work in depth with a broad group of scientists that you can “energize” with the solutions you have worked on in your laboratory; continual innovation comes from the energy of this exchange.

EAS sponsors or co-sponsors nine separate awards during the conference. The awardees have been announced and the programs for their award sessions are being developed. These are the stellar scientists in the fields of analytical chemistry and the sessions guarantee to invigorate us around future directions. So come to EAS contribute, enjoy, have fun, take away some new things, and “energize” your analytical life with the best science available in 2012.