JOURNAL OF ANALYTICAL ATOMIC SPECTROMETRY, MARCH 1987, VOL. 2 87 Foreword Third Biennial National Atomic Spectroscopy Symposium : Bristol, UK, July 23rdD25th, 1986 A Special issue of TheAnaZyst (February 1983) was devoted to a series of papers dealing with new developments in atomic spectroscopy, that were presented at the First Biennial National Atomic Spectro- scopy Symposium (BNASS) held in Shef- field in July 1982. A similar special issue (May 1985) dealt with material from the 2nd BNASS held in Leeds in July 1984. The BNASS series of meetings has completed a memorable double with this, the first Special Issue of the Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry, which provides a record of much of the original work presented at the 3rd BNASS held at the University of Bristol last summer.The Biennial National Atomic Spectro- scopy Symposia are organised jointly by the Atomic Spectroscopy Group of the Analytical Division, Royal Society of Chemistry, and the Spectroscopy Group of the Institute of Physics. The 3rd BNASS differed from its predecessors by being integrated with the 7th SAC Con- ference, organised by the Analytical Divi- sion of the RSC, which ran from the 20th to the 26th July. The abbreviation SAC is derived from the Society for Analytical Chemistry, the forerunners of the RSC’s Analytical Division, who founded the highly acclaimed series of SAC Confer- ences. These are international confer- ences, dealing with all aspects of ana- lytical chemistry, and they occur every three years. Inevitably, every six years an SAC Conference and a BNASS will both be due to occur and just as inevitably the former would contain a large contribution from analytical atomic spectroscopy, and so it was decided to combine them in 1986.The outcome of this experiment was generally judged by the organisers and the delegates to have been successful. The symposium opened on the Wed- nesday afternoon, when SAC delegates traditionally attend social events, indus- trial visits and up-date courses. About 200 SACIBNASS delegates attended the Association of British Spectroscopists Lecture given by Professor Leo de Galan entitled “A Physicist’s View on Current Questions in Atomic Spectrometry.” The first poster session for 3rd BNASS was also held during the afternoon and was well attended, and discussion was catalysed by the suitable refreshments provided by courtesy of ARL Ltd.and Chelsea Instruments Ltd. The second poster session was held during Thursday. In all, 57 poster themes were displayed and the standard of presentation was exceptional. Although it was hard to make a choice, the award for the best poster from a student was won by Simon Sparkes from Plymouth Polytechnic on the subject of slurry atomisation. The Thursday and Friday plenary lec- tures of the SACIBNASS meeting had been specially selected to appeal to atomic spectroscopists. Regrettably, Professor L’vov from Leningrad, who was expected to speak on Thursday, had to cancel. However, his place was filled most ably at short notice, and some sacrifice of his family holiday, by Dr. Jean-Michel Mermet who spoke on “Mixed Gas or Air ICPs: Toys or Tools?” Friday’s plenary lecture was given by Professor G.Tolg whose subject was “Extreme Trace Analysis of the Elements-The State of the Art Today and Tomorrow.” The lecture programme consisted of 33 presentations, timetabled in two parallel streams, on Thursday and Friday. Of these, eight had been invited to give overviews and themes, and together with the contributed papers and posters they gave the delegates a comnprehensive account of recent advances in atomic spectroscopy. The invited lecturers and their topics were: V. Sychra et al., “Advances in metal- based electrothermal atomisers”; K. Dittrich, “The use of lasers and other non-thermal excitation in atomic spectroscopy for trace analysis”; Anne Thorne, “Fourier transform atomic spectroscopy”; R.D. Snook, “Torch con- figuration and designs for inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spec- trometry”; M. s. Cresser, “Pneumatic nebulisers-poor pumps and inferior sub- samplers?”; A. R. Date, “ICP-MS: the best thing in analytical chemistry since chopped light?”; G. J. Oliver, “X-ray fluorescence analysis in the ceramic and allied industries”; and D. A. Hickman, “Analysis in forensic science using atomic spectroscopy. ” The lecture sessions covered elec- trothermal atomisation, non-thermal excitation, background correction, Fourier transform atomic spectroscopy, atomic emission spectroscopy, nebulisers and sample introduction, ICP-MS, X-ray techniques and other aspects of applied atomic spectroscopy. It has always been a particular aim of BNASS to provide younger workers in the field of atomic spectroscopy with an opportunity to participate fully in a major conference.The organisers were very pleased that many students were able to attend. We are most grateful to BDH, Chelsea Instruments, Hilger Analytical, ICI, Pye Unicam and Shell for providing funds to be used as student bursaries. It was particularly welcome and appropriate that the first student to be awarded a bursary by the Kirkbright Memorial Fund, Curtiss Monnig of the University of Indiana, attended this symposium. The members of both the SAC86 Ex- ecutive Committee and the 3rd BNASS Organising Committee are to be congratu- lated for the quality and content, scientific and social, of the meeting, Particular thanks are due to Dr. Neil Barnett, Chairman of the 3rd BNASS Scientific Programme Committee, and his col- leagues, for arranging an interesting, lively and well balanced programme. We look forward with enthusiasm to the Fourth National Biennial Atomic Spec- troscopy Symposium, for which plans are now being made, to be held at the University of York in 1988. We believe readers will be interested and enlightened by the contents of this Special Issue of JAAS, individual copies of which may be purchased from the Royal Society of Chemistry, Distribution Centre, Blackhorse Road, Letchworth, Herts., SG6 lHN, UK. E. J. Newman Chairman of 3rd BNASS Organ ising Corn M ittee