A look at what's on offer at this year's Pittcon.
After a 13-year absence, Pittcon will be returning to the vibrant city of Atlanta, Georgia, USA — the entertainment and cultural centre of the southern United States. Atlanta is home to a robust food and beverage industry, one of the largest concentrations of colleges and universities in the southern United States, and the site of a rapidly expanding biotech and pharmaceutical sector. If you haven't been to Atlanta in the past three years, you haven't seen it, according to the organizing committee.
Pittcon 2011 includes a wide-array of symposia, short courses, poster sessions, networking opportunities and, of course, an exhibition featuring leading analytical and chromatography suppliers. Pittcon 2011 will be held from 13–18 March 2011 in Georgia World Congress Center, Atlanta, Gerogia, USA.
For those seeking to develop new skills or learn more about chromatographic techniques, an attractive feature of Pittcon is the informative short courses. There are about 61 short courses associated with liquid chromatography and gas chromatography. Several of these are new to Pittcon this year and include topics such as LC–MS Strategies for the Identification of Impurities, Degradants and Metabolites; LC/MS: Method Development and Applications to Small Molecules; and New Concepts of TOF-MS for Fast GC and GC×GC Applications. Pittcon short courses are offered from 12–18 March. Any individual that pays a registration fee for three short courses, receives free conference registration.
The Conference itself includes 53 invited symposia which showcase nationally and internationally recognized scientists. Some of the symposia of interest to LCGC readers include:
As well as the invited symposia, there are an additional 200 papers that are related to chromatography in the organized contributed, and poster sessions and workshops. The advance registration fee of $105 allows unlimited access to all parts of the technical programme as well as the exhibition. Pittcon also offers free one-day registration on 17 March 2011.
Posters will be displayed in two opposite sections on the floor, the Red and the Blue Poster Areas. New for 2011 is Centennial Park, located in the middle of the floor that will provide a place for conferees to relax, network, view exhibitor videos, enjoy an interactive Coca-Cola display and pick up complimentary copies of leading industry publications.
As social networking and mobile devices are on the rise and fast becoming invaluable tools for business and scientific communities, both will play a significant role in Pittcon this year. For the first time, Pittcon will have a Twitter Café located in Pittcon booth #5079 where conferees can send Pittcon Tweets that will appear on a large screen monitor in Centennial Park. Pittcon has also implemented a mobile application by the name of Pittcon 2011 for attendees to build an agenda and to access exhibitor, technical programme and short course information prior, during and after the event. Local maps, restaurants and Atlanta attraction listings will help visitors find their way around the city after conference hours.
An important function of Pittcon is to recognize and honour scientists who have made outstanding contributions to analytical chemistry and applied spectroscopy. This year Janusz Pawliszyn, professor of chemistry at the University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada and a member of LCGC Europe's editorial advisory board (EAB) will receive the prestigious Dal Nogare Award for 2011, presented by The Chromatography Forum of Delaware Valley (CFDV), for his development of SPME (Solid Phase Micro-Extraction) technology. Awardees are chosen on the basis of contributions to the fundamental understanding of the chromatographic process. Sessions presented in this award include Unified Theory of Extraction – Where Does SPME Fit?; Monitoring Free Drug Concentrations; Ionic Liquids in Separations and Mass Spectrometry, A New Frontier; Directions in Separation Science to Register an Agricultural Product; Nitrophenols: Measurement in Air and Rainwater by 2-Dimensional; and Chromatography and Very Long Path Detection.
Philip Britz-McKibbin, associate professor of bio-analytical chemistry and chemical biology at McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada, will receive the 2011 ACS Division of Analytical Chemistry Award for Young Investigators in Separation Science. Philip's research interests have included fundamental studies of separation science involving capillary electrophoresis and mass spectrometry, which are aimed at the development of novel methodologies relevant to metabolomics, metabolite profiling and biomolecular interactions. Sessions included in this award presentation are New Advances in Capillary Electrophoresis–Mass Spectrometry for Metabolomics; Mass Spectrometry-based Metabolomics as a Unique Biochemical Approach for Therapeutic Discovery; Towards a Standardized Metabolomics Repository; Role of Separation Science in Biomarker Discovery: Opportunities and Pitfalls; and What the Heck is that? The Challenge of Metabolite Identification in Metabolomics.
Pittcon attracts nearly 20000 attendees from industry, academia and government from 90 countries worldwide. Each year thousands of scientists take advantage of the opportunity to see the latest in instrumentation all on one exhibition floor. At this year's Exposition, 1000 exhibiting companies, including leaders in chromatography instrumentation and accessories, will be present at the Georgia World Congress Center from 14–17 March 2011.
A complete list of exhibitors is available on the Pittcon website at www.pittcon.org.
Contact: Marian Nardozzi
E-mail: nardozzi@pittcon.org
Location: Georgia World Congress Center, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Tel: +1 412 825 3220 x 203
Fax: +1 412 825 3224
Registration: www.pittcon.org/register
Characterization and Assessment of Effects of Drying Temperature on Edible Mushrooms with HS-GC–MS
September 6th 2024To gain insight into the effect of drying temperature on its composition, headspace solid-phase microextraction-gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (HS-SPME-GC–MS) was used for the identification of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) of 86 mushroom samples that were divided into five groups and dried at different temperatures.
Modern HPLC Strategies: Improving Retention and Peak Shape for Basic Analytes
August 16th 2024In high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), it is common for bases and unreacted ionized silanols on silica-based columns to cause irreproducible retention, broad peaks, and peak tailing when working with basic analytes. David S. Bell, Lead Consultant at ASKkPrime LLC offers innovative HPLC strategies that can help mitigate such issues.
Real-Time Measurement of EPA Regulated HON Compounds and Environmental Pollutants Using SIFT-MS
September 6th 2024This application note describes the determination of method detection limits (MDLs) for the newly regulated HON (Hazardous Organic NESHAP) compounds, which validate SIFT-MS as an effective solution for measuring these toxic VOCs and other environmental pollutants in ambient air, whether at the fence line or in a mobile setting.