Analytica 2024: A Look Inside the Awards Program

During the 2024 Analytica conference, which will be held in Munich, Germany from April 9–12, 2024, there will be two award presentations highlighting the work of notable separation scientists and spectroscopists. Both awards will be presented by the GDCh Division of Analytical Chemistry, a division of the German Chemical Society, which was founded in 1867 and hopes to give “chemistry the recognition it deserves and giving it room to develop,” according to the society’s website (1,2).

Munich Cathedral Liebfrauenkirche in Munich, Germany | Image Credit: © igorp1976 - stock.adobe.com

Analytica is a trade fair for laboratory technology, analysis, and biotechnology (3). Over the past 50 years, Analytica has been a place to discuss innovative laboratory technology and biotechnologies on an international scale. Analytica hosts events around the globe at locations including Shanghai, China, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and Johannesburg, South Africa.

Awards in Chromatography

The Separation Science Working Group operates within the GDCh Division of Analytical Chemistry. The group itself is made of people interested in chromatography and related separation and analysis methods. Its main objectives include organizing meetings that can expand peoples’ knowledge in chromatography, implementing national and international lecture conferences in coordination with the Division of Analytical Chemistry, and managing the scientific aspects of said lecture conferences (4).

Every two years, the Separation Science Working Group awards the Eberhard Gerstel Prize to someone in the GDCh Department of Analytical Chemistry. This award is presented to a young scientist who has published an outstanding paper on analytical separation techniques in an internationally renowned and peer-reviewed journal. This year, the award is funded by Gerstel (5). Criteria for the award include originality, how important the articles are on a scientific, methodological, or technical level, and the independence of the work. The awardee is selected by an international jury of scientists. Previous award recipients include the 2022 winner Christoph Gstöttner of the Leiden University Medical Center in Leiden in the Netherlands and 2020 winner Sebastian K. Piendl of the University of Leipzig in Leipzig, Germany.

Awards in Spectroscopy

The Bunsen-Kirchhoff Award, which is sponsored by Analytik Jena, will also be presented at Analytica, and is meant to acknowledge a young scientist’s work in spectroscopy. Started by the German Working Group for Applied Spectroscopy (DASp) in 1990, the award recognizes research from various sub-areas of analytical spectroscopy, though it notably focuses on nanoscale, biomolecule, or location-resolved spectroscopy (6). The prize includes a stipend of €3,000. Previous recipients of the award include the 2022 winner Carlos Abad Andrade of the California Institute of Technology in California, USA and 2020 winner Natalia P. Ivleva of the Technical University of Munich in Munich, Germany.

Attendees can visit LCGC International and Spectroscopy at Booth A1.108.

References

(1) About the GDCh. GDCh 2024. https://en.gdch.de/gdch.html#_c43537 (accessed 2024-3-11)

(2) About Us, Our Mission Statements and Our History. GDCh2024. https://en.gdch.de/gdch/about-us.html (accessed 2024-3-11)

(3) Analytica. Analytica 2024. https://analytica.de/en/ (accessed 2024-3-12)

(4) Working Group Separation Science. GDCh 2024.https://en.gdch.de/network-structures/gdch-structures/analytical-chemistry/working-groups/ak-separation-science.html (accessed 2024-3-11)

(5) Eberhard-Gerstel-Preis.GDCh 2024.https://www.gdch.de/netzwerk-strukturen/fachstrukturen/analytische-chemie/arbeitskreise/ak-separation-science/eberhard-gerstel-preis.html (accessed 2024-3-11)

(6) Bunsen-Kirchhoff Prize for Analytical Spectroscopy.GDCh 2024. https://www.gdch.de/netzwerk-strukturen/fachstrukturen/analytische-chemie/arbeitskreise/ak-daas/bunsen-kirchhoff-preis.html (accessed 2024-3-11)