Educational and Networking Opportunities at Upcoming Eastern Analytical Symposium

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The 2015 Eastern Analytical Symposium and Exposition (EAS) takes place November 16–18, in Somerset, New Jersey. This year, attendees can expect plenty of educational and networking opportunities for analytical scientists.

The 2015 Eastern Analytical Symposium and Exposition (EAS) takes place November 16–18, in Somerset, New Jersey. This year, attendees can expect plenty of educational and networking opportunities for analytical scientists. In advance of the event, LCGC spoke to EAS President Oscar Liu about some of the most interesting and exciting activities scheduled for the event.

What is the significance of this year’s theme?

Liu: The 2015 EAS theme, “Analytical Innovation from Benchtop to Business,” highlights the impact that analytical chemistry has in generating business results. The analytical community has always been progressive and innovative. In analytical research laboratories, scientists identify new entities, create novel instruments, define scientific processes, and provide pioneering analytical services to tackle even the most complicated problems and challenges. These analytical innovations benefit myriad businesses, including instrument manufacturing, pharmaceutical development, new materials development, agrochemistry, law enforcement, art conservation, and more. The 2015 EAS conference will showcase these advancements in all areas of analytical science.

This year you have a Nobel laureate giving the keynote address. Can you tell us more about that?

Liu: We are honored and very excited that Professor Kurt Wüthrich, the 2002 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, will deliver the 2015 EAS plenary lecture. Professor Wüthrich won the Nobel Prize for his development of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy for determining the three-dimensional structure of biological macromolecules in solution. He is currently the Cecil H. and Ida M. Green Professor of Structural Biology at Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, and a Professor of Biophysics at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, in Zurich, Switzerland. His research interests are in molecular structural biology, protein science, and structural genomics. 

Professor Wüthrich has won numerous awards, received many honorary degrees, and given invited lectures throughout the world. The title of his plenary lecture is “From Basic Research in NMR to Use in Daily Human Life.” The lecture will take place on Monday, November 16, at 4:30 pm in the Grand Ball Room of the DoubleTree Hotel. It will be followed by a social mixer. The lecture and mixer are open to all EAS registrants and exhibitors.

What else is new or exciting about this year’s event?

Liu: 2015 is the International Year of Light, and EAS is proud to be a sponsor. There are many technical sessions in the 2015 program, dedicated to light and related technologies, such as “Celebrating the ‘International Year of Light’-How Spectroscopists Are Helping Save the World” and “Light and the Single Molecule-Viewing the Nanoworld.” Spectroscopy has always been an important area at EAS, and this year, with the International Year of Light upon us, it is even more special.

To tie into the theme of the 2015 EAS conference and to continue the educational mission of EAS, the dean of the Rutgers School of Business, Professor Lei Lei, has organized a session titled “Business Essentials for Technology Entrepreneurs” to help entrepreneurs and business managers. In it, attendees will learn the essentials of how to start up, manage, market, and lead a business in a technical field. 

This year EAS published a call for proposals to solicit ideas for technical programs and short courses. We received very positive responses and accepted many of the proposals. Two technical sessions that will be of general interest are “3D Technology: Leveraging Today's Tools for Tomorrow's Applications” and “Analytical Testing for the Cannabis Industry: Consumer Safety vs. Regulatory Requirements.” Three-dimensional technology is applied to almost all fields, from space exploration to pharmaceutical and medical device industries, and offers incredible prospects in the analytical field. With the movement to legalize medical cannabis, the time has come to learn analytical testing, as well as safety and regulatory requirements, for the cannabis industry. The 2015 EAS conference will provide this session as a service to this newly formed industry.

EAS has long been concerned with its attendees’ employment, and we have provided an Employment Bureau to aid in connecting job seekers with potential employers. This year the Employment Bureau has entered the digital age by providing resumés in PDF format. The digital format makes it easier and faster for employers to find prospective applicants, through EAS’s secure portal.

We have also added a social-networking opportunity for all EAS attendees on Tuesday afternoon at a mixer from 4:00 to 5:30 pm in the exposition hall. The exposition hall will remain open during the mixer, providing attendees and exhibitors the opportunity to network in an informal setting, where foods and drink will be provided. In addition, there will be a special poster session during the mixer.

What is new in the chromatography programming for this year’s EAS conference? Why did you feel it was important to address the topics in those sessions?

Liu: The 2015 EAS Award for Outstanding Achievements in Separation Science honors Professor David S. Hage of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln for his significant contributions to separation science, particularly developments in affinity chromatography. The award session on Tuesday afternoon will focus on affinity chromatography’s applications in medicine, natural product screening, cellular pharmacology, and clinical, pharmaceutical, and environmental analyses. 

EAS continues to expand in the area of bioanalysis by liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC–MS) with two sessions on biomarker assay development. The 2015 EAS conference will offer a session entitled “Young Investigators of Chromatography” where the audience will learn from the most promising next generation of chromatographers in the areas of 2D-LC, gas chromatography (GC)–MS-MS, and other modern techniques. There will also be sessions on modeling of chromatographic separations and on vacuum chromatography, an older technique that is generating renewed interest.  

We also will offer several new short courses in chromatography: “Getting the Most for GC and GC–MS” (where students will not only learn the theory and application, but will also have an opportunity for hands-on practice with instruments), “Practical Guide to Performing HPLC and UHPLC experiments in reversed mode,” “Introduction to GLP Regulations and LC–MS-MS Bioanalytical Method Validation,” “Advanced HPLC/UHPLC, HPLC Method Development Made Easy,” and “Making the Transition to GC–MS, GC–MS-MS, and GC×GC-MS.”  So, there are opportunities to learn novel techniques.                                                                                                                                                                             

Are there also favorite topics returning to the program this year?

Liu: Chromatography is one of the most commonly used techniques in the analytical laboratory. Many favorite chromatography topics will return in the technical program, including LC column technology, 2D chromatography, LC–MS, therapeutic peptide and protein analysis by LC–MS-MS, GC, and applications of chromatography in agricultural, environmental, pharmacology, drugs, and biotherapeutics. There will be poster presentations every day that focus on chromatography. 

There are also many returning favorite chromatography short courses: “Practical Gas Chromatography,” “Troubleshooting Chromatographic Systems,” “LC–MS-Theory, Instruments and Applications,” “How to Develop Validated HPLC Methods,” and “LC–MS Method Development for Small Molecule Pharmaceuticals.” 

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