The Champions League of Measurement Science

There are numerous physical measurement methods, usually based on fundamental principles and often of great interest to scientists. It is amazing how smart we can measure, how little, and how fast. However, in most cases scientists just amaze each other. The rest of the world remains unmoved  – and sometimes completely unaware.

A much smaller number of techniques become truly relevant for analyzing and characterizing products and processes. Consequently, these techniques are adopted and perfected by the (major) instrument manufacturers, with a concomitant proliferation into industry. These elite techniques become part of what is commonly referred to as analytical chemistry. Analytical chemistry, therefore, can be seen as the ‘Champions League’ of measurement science.

A technique cannot enter the Champions League unless the team is complete. The fundamental principles must be sound and well established. Techniques that rely too much on art – that is to say, the skill of the analyst – without sufficient foundation in science lead to unreliable results, frustration and, ultimately, rejection. The (academic) scientists working on the principles of analytical techniques are not necessarily analytical chemists. They may be physicists, biologists, engineers, and so on. However, based on the nature of their activities, they could all be classified as Analytical Scientists.

An analytical technique in the Champions League must have important applications that are relevant for industry or society, for example, hospitals or food-safety institutes. However, the benefits of the technique must also be recognizable for instrument manufacturers (who form the third pillar of the team) to attract their significant and sustained interest. The true Champions League techniques spiral upwards through a virtuous cycle: increasingly better and affordable instrumentation becomes available, an increasing number of relevant applications are addressed, and the underlying science is increasingly understood.

Meetings on analytical chemistry are showcases of the Champions League, provided they have adequate participation from fundamental scientists, application specialists and instrumentation experts. If the balance is wrong (for example, because too few delegates from industry find it worth the effort, time and money to visit), analytical technology can develop slowly or even in the wrong direction.

The Seventh International Symposium on the Separation and Characterization of Natural and Synthetic Macromolecules (SCM-7) is strongly rooted in industry. The title of the conference reflects an application-driven – or industrial – perspective. The reality is that there is still a great need for better methods for the analysis and characterization of ‘large molecules,’ and there is a great deal of potential synergy between groups of scientists applying related sets of techniques for divergent purposes. SCM-7 pulls together many speakers from industry and uses an active industrial advisory board to help the community focus on the most relevant applications. And for the first time, SCM-7 is accompanied by a (partly overlapping) two-day meeting – the International Scientific COAST meeting (I SCM). I SCM will explicitly focus on academic-industrial collaborations, with a view to addressing COAST’s overarching goal of facilitating more comprehensive analytical science and technology.

Whichever team you support, a quick trip to Amsterdam offers a prime opportunity to experience what the analytical Champions League is really like.

The Seventh International Symposium on the Separation and Characterization of Natural and Synthetic Macromolecules (SCM-7), Amsterdam, The Netherlands, January 28–30, 2015. www.scm-7.nl The International Scientific COAST meeting (I SCM), Rhone Congress Centre, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, January 27–28, 2015. www.ti-coast.com