At the 30th International Symposium  on Chromatography which took place September 14-18 in Salzburg, Austria I had the priviledge to chair a group of peers who volunteered to help select the best posters presented. Close to 600 posters were presented at the symposium of which 286 have opted to compete for the award. The Best Poster Award competition was sponsored by Genzo Shimadzu and consisted of eight 500€ grants. So it was my task to reduce the group of 286 to the eight best contributions. 

I  was invited to contribute to the above distinguished seminar, arranged by Thermo Fisher Scientific. The event took place at the Thermo Fisher Scientific site in Germering close to Munich, September 4 and 5. The seminar was arranged and moderated by Dr. Frank Steiner and Dr. Remco Swart. Several well known scientists were present like Prof. David McCalley, Univ. South West England, Prof. Wolfgang Lindner, Vienna University, Prof. Christian Huber from Salzburg University, Prof. Gert Desmet, Free University of Brussels, Prof. Gérard Hopfgartner from Geneva University, Prof. Peter Schoenmakers, University of Amsterdam. Presentations were delivered by David McCalley,  Christian Huber, Dr. Stephan Lamotte, Dr Thorsten Teutenberg, Univ. of Duisburg, Dr. Bas Eeltink, Free University of Brussels, Dr. Chris Pohl of Thermo Scientific and myself. A PDF-copy of my talk can be found in the menu item "My Orals".

Dear Visitor,

I have prepared a comprehensive blog on CE-MS interfacing methods. Actually the information provided is distributed over three separate blogs viz. "CE-MS, the first steps", "The triple tube IF" and "Sheathless CE-MS IF". The first blog describes how CE-MS interfacing was developed until the HP/Agilent triple tube CE-MS interface was introduced on the market. The second blog has a few articles about the triple tube interface while the third blog describes new development and gives my assessment of the current status in CE-MS interfacing.

The 41^th Symposium on High Performance Liquid Phase Separations and Related Techniques, HPLC2014, took place in the Hilton Riverside Hotel, New Orleansand from May 11-15. The symposium was attended by approx. 770 delegates. About 60-70 of these were registered as exhibitors. Accounting for invited delegates, there were about 600 paying delegates. More than 200 orals and over 450 posters were presented. Ca. 45 manufacturers exhibited besides 20 media partner. These numbers are significantly lower than at HPLC2013 in Amsterdam.

The 30^th International Symposium on MicroScale Bioseparations (MSB2014) took place in Pécs, Hungary, April 27 - May 1. The meeting was organized by Prof. Ferenc Kilár, who was the symposium chairman together with Profs. Attila Fellinger and András Guttman as co-chairmen under the auspices of the University of Pécs. The MSB symposium traditionally focuses on fundamental aspects of separations on the microscale or down to nanoscale. The scientific areas of the symposium cover the application of electrically driven, microscale separations for (bio)analytical  measurements  in  life  science  research,  (bio)pharmaceuticals  development,  forensics, toxicology,  doping  analyses,  food  safety  and  authenticity  and  keeping  our  environment  clean  and sustainable. See the symposium website for more information.

 Dear all,

It is my particular pleasure to announce that I have received the Uwe D. Neue Award in Separation Science at the 41^st International Symposium on High Performance Liquid Phase Separations and Related Techniques (HPLC2014), May 11-15 in New Orleans, USA. For details about the symposium click here. This award honors a distinguished industrial scientist, preferably 15 or more years after receiving his or her doctoral degree, who has made a significant contribution to the field of separation science and continues to advance it. In addition, the awardee should be an industrial scientist, and one who was instrumental in the embodiment of technology in commercial products. The award was created in honour of the legacy of Dr. Uwe D. Neue, late scientist and Waters® Corporate Fellow and is sponsored by Waters Inc.

From January 28 -  January 31, the wellknown Hyphenation Techniques in Chromatography took place in Bruges, Belgium. Since a few years, the focus of the symposium has been expanded with Hyphenated Techniques for Sample Preparation. This were the 13^th issue of HTC and the 3^rd issue of HTSP. Bruges is a small town in the western part of Flanders in Belgium which is dominated by its medieval patrimonium of churches and official buildings, squares and streets. The symposium took place in Congress Centre Oud Sint-Jan which is one of those old buildings rejuvenated into a congress center. The site is very concise but allowed three parallel sessions, provided ample space for posters and an exhibition on the top level where coffee and lunch was served. Further details can be taken from the symposium website.

From October 6 - 9, 2013, the 20^th International Symposium on Electro- and Liquid Phase Separation Techniques (ITP2013) took place in Puerto de la Cruz, Tenerife, Spain. The symposium series is one of the premier symposia on electrical field driven liquid phase separation techniques. Originating from a conference with premier focus on isotachophoresis (explaining the acronym) the series evolved to comprise all liquid phase electro separation techniques. Initially bi-annually, the series now takes places every other year in the Americas and Europe and has expanded it focus to encompass pressure driven liquid phase separations (HPLC).