CONFERENCE REPORT European Winter Conference on Plasma Spectrochemistry Cambridge UK 8-13 January 1995 The 1995 European Winter Conference on Plasma Spectrochemistry was held in the historic city of Cambridge. Cambridge provides an ideal venue for such a prestigious meeting and I am sure that all the delegates found it to be a beautiful and interesting city. Prior to the official opening many delegates had arrived early to take advantage of the six pre-symposia. The courses on offer were ‘Instrumentation and Theory’ ‘Advanced Topics’ ‘Sample Preparation for ICPs’ ‘Speciation’ ‘Quality Systems in the Laboratory’ and ‘Sample Presentation for ICPs’. Sam Houk managed to get through his lectures on ‘Advanced Topics’ despite the fact that his luggage had been lost en route but he did notice that most of the delegates preferred to sit towards the back of the lecture theatre.Approximately 250 delegates were registered for the conference and over 20 companies attended the manufacturers’ scientific event held in the River Suite of the Garden House Hotel. Credit for these healthy figures and the putting together of such a well organized event must be given to the Organizing Committee who were seen in a variety of guises ranging from session Chairpersons to removal men and women. bright and very early on the Monday morning by the Mayor of Cambridge Councillor Joye Rosensteil. Once this and the domestic announcements had been dealt with it was on to the first The conference was officially opened plenary lecture given by Mike Blades on solvent loading effects in the inductively coupled argon plasma.He provided a broad perspective of the effects of solvent and solvent load on the analytical and physical characteristics of the ICP. These results were then compared and contrasted with results already published in the literature. The afternoon session was opened with an invited lecture from Steve Haswell who described the ‘missing link from sample to the instrument’. Anyone expecting him to break into song about British rail pies (as at BNASS) must have been disappointed but I suspect that was a performance never to be repeated. Following on was an interesting paper on LA-ICP-MS given by John Watling. He described how the cannabis plant is particularly efficient at concentrating precious metals such as gold and platinum though not necessarily the minds of the prospectors.All those hoping to disappear for a quiet evening after a stimulating first day were in for a shock as it was a mad dash down to the Garden House Hotel for what turned out to be the first of two superb poster sessions. The quality of the presentations was excellent with a lot of lively discussion going on well into the evening not to mention the ample supply of liquid refreshment and the pleasant surroundings of the River Suite. Day two was opened with a Plenary by Skip Kingston. He described how Barry Sharp (Chairman of the Conference organising committee) and Judith Egan- Shuttler who had been presented with a bou- quet of flowers in honour of her years of service as Editor and then European Associate Editor of JAAS Delegates enjoying the banquet at King’s College I Journal of I Analytical Atomic Spectrometry older sample preparation techniques are no longer appropriate and need to be re-designed to optimize ICP analysis.Particular attention was paid to microwave sample digestion for its ability to provide uncontaminated efficient and reliable homogeneous digests. Tuesday evening saw the second of the two poster sessions which lived up to the high standard set by the first the previous day. Caruso on Elemental Speciation. Joe demonstrated how plasma source mass spectrometry is an excellent element specific detector for various types of chromatography with detection limits in the sub-pg range being achievable with supercritical fluid chromatography.He emphasized that proper treatment of the sample prior to chromatographic separation is essential to preserve the original elemental species. Wednesday afternoon was only a short session to allow plenty of time for the manufacturers’ scientific event. An array of instruments was on display with plenty of willing staff on hand to answer any questions. Two of the largest stands situated at opposite ends of the room were those of Fisons Instruments and Finnigan-MAT. In the light of recent events a joint stand may have been the best approach! applications of lasers. Ken Niemax’s Wednesdays Plenary was given by Joe Thursday morning was devoted to the Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry May 1995 Vol 10 31 NL to R Kathryn Lamble Steve Hill and Warren Cairns The manufacturers’ scientific event Plenary was on spectrochemistry with diode lasers and focused upon the use of wavelength modulation (WM) techniques for the improvement of signal-to-noise ratios in laser atomic absorption spectrometry (LAAS).He also presented work on the coupling of gas chromatography with WM-LAAS. Thursday afternoon was left free to allow delegates a break or the chance to go on one of the three organized trips. The first was a guided tour of the places of interest in Cambridge for those who had not yet had a chance to look around. The second was a trip to the Imperial War Museum at Duxford with its large display of fighter and commercial aircraft from the first world war to the present day. The final trip was to the National Stud at Newmarket.It was noted that many of the male delegates were rather subdued on the return journey probably contemplating their own inadequacies as compared with the mighty stallions they had just encountered. The highlight of the week for me and I think many others was the Conference Dinner. The dinner was held in the Great Hall at Kings College probably the most famous of all the colleges in Cambridge. The hall provided impressive and suitable surroundings for such an occasion. After dinner entertainment was provided by the Gentleman of St Johns who gave us a rousing performance of their vocal talents. The final day had come round all to quickly for most. The concluding Plenary was given by Les Ebdon looking back to look ahead in plasma spectrochemistry. He suggested that recent trends in plasma spectrochemistry have been fuelled by the need to obtain more information and to obtain it more rapidly with this in mind he attempted to suggest future developments. The scientific programme now concluded all that remained was the official closing of the conference and an invite to all delegates to reconvene at the 1996 Winter Conference in Fort Lauderdale in Florida. I for one hope to be there. BARRIE MASTERS Loughborough University of Technology Leicestershire UK 32N Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry May 1995 1~01.10