European Analytical Column No. 31

(January 2003)

Miguel Valcárcel, Ernst-Heiner Korte

Biennially the European Conference on Analytical Chemistry, EUROANALYSIS, is organized on behalf of DAC-FECS. In 2002, EUROANALYSIS-12 took place from 8 to 13 September in Dortmund, Germany; almost 400 posters along with 107 lectures and talks were presented to about 450 registered participants from 48 countries of all continents.

It is often observed that a successful meeting incite colleagues of the particular country to participate in the following event. One is tempted to attribute the number of Portuguese participants in Dortmund to such an effect of the Lisbon conference in 2000. Via the special Portuguese-Brazilian relations this influence seems to have been extended so that the Brazilians constituted the largest delegation from outside Europe at EUROANALYSIS-12. Completely unexpected was the number of participants from Iran. Within Europe the distribution over countries varied considerably with some countries almost not represented or even missing totally. As a positive tendency it can be reported that EUROANALYSIS still brings together colleagues from Europe's East and West. The difficulties in meeting did not disappear but changed with the political and economic situation, therefore new efficient strategies to preserve EUROANALYSIS's bridging function must be developed. By far the largest foreign delegation came from Spain; this is a promising sign because Spain will host the forthcoming event: EUROANALYSIS-13 from 5 to 10 September 2004 in Salamanca.

The topics of the submitted contributions definitely covered a broad spectrum of analytical tasks and developments for which EUROANALYSIS has to provide a forum as outlined by the DAC statutes. The oral programme provided information on new prospects and developments and focussed on aspects of particular attraction or importance. During recent years a particularly strong evolution of life sciences occurred along with opening new fields in the related analysis. A good deal of the oral programme of EUROANALYSIS-12 - plenary lectures as well as parallel sessions and workshops - can be attributed to these developments - from the opening lecture on DNA microarrays to biometrology and biosensors. Strategies and tools to cope up with the new demands such as miniaturization and high throughput screening including automatization were presented and discussed. Another focus was material science with its tremendous analytical requirements e.g. in the production of semiconductor devices.

The opening lecture by Ed Southern, Oxford, UK, mentioned before was honoured by the status of a FECS Lecture 2002. Another distinguished lecture was given by Jürgen Popp, Jena, when he was awarded the 2002 Bunsen-Kirchhoff-Prize for his contributions to spectroscopic analysis of single microparticles. Holding EUROANALYSIS in Dortmund in 2002 had been stimulated by the 50th Anniversary of the Institute of Spectrochemistry and Applied Spectroscopy (ISAS), a government subsidized institute located in this city which is developing analytical instruments and methods. Implementing the celebration into the conference added three eminent lectures and a festive evening.

Meanwhile the editorial work on the EUROANALYSIS issue of the journal Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry is progressing. Material presented in the session of the Study Group Education is available as "e-meeting" at the Royal Society of Chemistry homepage.

Due to tradition and convenience, the DAC Annual Meeting was held on Sunday, 8. September, in Dortmund before EUROANALYSIS commenced. 20 FECS member societies were represented by their appointed Delegates, another six Observers and Guests were present. In the months before, numerous Delegates got involved in the discussions concerning the proposals of the project "Tuning Educational Structures in Europe" aiming on a degree "Eurobachelor" for Chemistry in the context of the so-called Bologna declaration. The first draft allocating a minor share of scores to analytical chemistry alerted the community and as a consequence it became a prevailing topic of the Annual Meeting. The discussion is going on how to reach a reasonably balanced representation of analytical science among the other fields of chemical education. DAC will watch closely the development and cooperate with the relevant bodies.

DAC has always been paying particular interest in education, as it is obvious from the large dedicated Study Group, the early compilation of the DAC Eurocurriculum, and the textbook "Analytical Chemistry". The renewed interest in the curriculum prompted the Annual Meeting to create a Task Force under the guidance of Reiner Salzer, Dresden, Germany, which is expected to submit an updated and expanded version of the Eurocurriculum in one years time. As to the textbook Analytical Chemistry, a thorough revision is on the way. Out of the four editors of the first edition, Robert Kellner and Michael Widmer, passed away, now Miguel Valcárcel is joining the remaining editors, Matthias Otto and Jean-Michel Mermet, in the challenging work of revising structure and text of the book. Their task is supported by numerous valuable observations and proposals by lecturers, students and other users. The Annual Meeting formally approved the undertaking as a DAC project; the 2nd edition of the book is hoped to appear before the end of 2003.

DAC seeks cooperation and mutual exchange of views on all aspects of analytical chemistry with institutions and structures active in this field. Beyond the inner circle as specified by the FECS Constitution and the DAC regulations, these bodies may be supranational groups or societies, temporary structures organizing a symposium or journals - just to mention a few which are in the discussion at present. The Annual Meeting formally decided to strengthen the links to the journal Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry with the generally visible indication of stating the DAC cooperation on the cover of the journal. Similar partnership with Analytical Chemistry has been agreed and is coming into operation now. DAC is open to extend such cooperation with further allies.

Once a year, the General Assembly of FECS gathers in a place proposed by one of the member societies. In conjunction with this event the Executive Committee and the chairmen of the FECS Divisions and Working Parties meet. In 2002 the venue was a castle near Posnan, Poland. FECS has undergone considerable changes in recent years and in particular has strengthened its political role as member of the Alliance for Chemistry in Europe, AllChemE. Such a role includes a councillor function for which FECS needs appropriate internal structures. Regrettably the Divisions and Working Parties are mostly related to special fields rather than to the core disciplines. Therefore, two so-called Standing Committees were established within FECS: one shall deal with the political role of FECS in AllChemE, while the other shall deal with education, professional affairs and ethics.

The basis of FECS was widened to include "non-profit-making national scientific and technical societies and professional institutions in Europe whose interests include the science and/or practice of chemistry". In other words, the Federation has been opened to chemical groups whose members would not call themselves scientists. Now the acronym FECS stands for "Federation of European Chemical Societies and Professional Institutions".

All these changes have been supervised by Reto Battaglia as FECS President with his personal style of steadiness and sovereignty, integrating deviating views and keeping course. During the last year he was assisted by the President-elect Gábor Náray-Szabó of the Hungarian Chemical Society, who chaired the FECS Working Party on Computational Chemistry. He was manager as well as professor, and is experienced in expert bodies as well as on the diplomatic stage. At the FECS meeting in Poland, Gábor Náray-Szabó took over Presidency.

Meanwhile, the 1st FECS European Chemistry Congress has been confirmed to be held in Budapest 20 to 25 August 2006. This is the previously discussed pan-European conference encompassing the entire field of chemistry - with some similarity to the ACS meetings in the USA. The DAC wants to be visible at this Congress and wants to carry on with its own conference, EUROANALYSIS, which therefore will be shifted to odd years then.