Reid All About It

What is the origin of Reid Forum?

The Forum has been running every two years since 1975. It was conceived by the late Eric Reid, who directed the Wolfson Bioanalytical Unit at the University of Surrey, as a forum for bioanalytical scientists to discuss the issues of the day in an open, collaborative environment. I first attended in 1997 and learnt a huge amount from discussions with wonderful scientists like Howard Hill, Ian Wilson, Derek Stevenson and Eric Reid himself. This year, I am following in their footsteps by chairing the meeting – it’s a great honor.

What’s special about the event?

There is a great sense of community that you don’t typically get at other, larger meetings. We encourage early career scientists and students to come along and mix with some of the biggest names in the field. The small size and active social program mean that by the end of the three days, you can easily come away knowing every attendee by name. We firmly believe that collaboration is the key to moving the field forward, and creating social networks has been a key principle of Reid from the beginning. We are moving to a new location this year, and we’ve pulled out all the stops for our social events – from a fun pub quiz to a meal in one of Cambridge’s oldest dining halls.

Reid Forum is also unusual amongst academic or industry conferences in that we actively encourage people to not just celebrate their successes, but also share their failures – something that is made possible by the supportive environment fostered by the event.

What are you looking forward to in this year’s program?

Tony Edge will host a session in which five vendors will present their vision for the future of bioanalysis, and answer questions about where they see the field going. It’s always interesting to hear from regulators, and this year Stephen Vinter from the MHRA will be covering some of the hot topics in bioanalysis from the regulatory angle.

There is a pre-conference training course on large-molecule analysis by chromatography on September 4, which we expect to be very popular with industry scientists.

We have an entire session dedicated to immunochemistry and immunology. As bioanalysts, many of us are being stretched to look at molecules outside our own area of expertise, and this session will offer lessons learned from those who have made the transition from small to large molecule analysis.

The 2017 International Reid Bioanalytical Forum will be held September 4–7 at the Cambridge Belfry, Cambourne, UK. For more details or to register see http://www.chromsoc.com/ChromsocEvents.aspx