Talanta 52 (2000) 1 – 2
www.elsevier.com/locate/talanta
Editorial
10th International Conference On Flow Injection Analysis
(ICFIA’99)
After nine successful meetings taking place in
North America, the 10th conference of the Flow
Injection series moved to Central Europe. On the
occasion of the ‘25th birthyear’ of the FIA tech-
nique, the 10th International Conference on Flow
Injection Analysis (ICFIA’99) was held in Prague,
the capital of the Czech Republic, from June
20–25, 1999. The main reason for the selection of
Prague as the conference venue was the fact that
in this pleasant city one of the inventors of flow
injection analysis, Jarda Ruzicka, received his ed-
ucation. So it happened that the ‘jubilee’ meeting
was hosted by Charles University, Faculty of
Pharmacy (celebrating at the same time the 30th
anniversary of the foundation of the Faculty). It
must be noted that the conference was organised
in close co-operation with the flow analysis re-
0039-9140/00/$ - see front matter © 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
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search group of the University of Washington
(Seattle) and the Japanese Association for Flow
Injection Analysis (JAFIA) under the auspices of
the Czech Pharmaceutical Society.
The conference was attended by over 100 active
participants from 28 countries of all continents.
Besides the host country with thirteen attendees,
the most numerous groups of scientists arrived
from Japan, Spain, Finland, Portugal and the
USA, the country spectrum mapping almost all
important academic and industrial centers of re-
search in the field of flow injection analysis (FIA)
and sequential injection analysis (SIA) all over the
world.
The scientific programme of the conference pro-
ceeded in the premises of the Faculty of Sports of
Charles University; it involved in total 37 oral and
2 Editorial
70 poster presentations, reflecting the main topics
of the meeting — novel theoretical and practical
aspects of flow methods ranging from the new
concept of renewable sensing surfaces in SIA
(bead injection technique, J. Ruzicka) to sophisti-
cated coupling of FIA with vibrational spectro-
scopic detection (FTIR – FIA flow through
sensors, B. Lendl) and numerous applications of
FIA and SIA in biotechnology, environmental
analysis, process chemistry, pharmacy and
biomedical science.
Obviously, no conference would be complete
without appropriate social events. The partici-
pants of the opening ceremony taking place in the
Carolinum Great Hall of Charles University (dat-
ing back to 1348) witnessed a tribute to Jarda
Ruzicka, Elo Hansen and Gary Christian who
were awarded Charles University Commemora-
tive Medals for their outstanding scientific
achievements in the field of analytical chemistry.
The festive evening continued with Antonin Dvo-
rak’s string music performed by the famous Ko-
cian Quartet of Prague, and was concluded by a
delicious buffet in the historical rooms of Charles
University. The next event, the conference dinner,
was combined with a steamboat cruise on the
Vltava River, revealing beautiful views of the
illuminated Prague Castle. The last night, many
flow analysts appreciated continuous flow of
tasteful beer in the cellars of a small Prague
brewery interspersed with accordion music, inter-
national chant and friendly discussions.
It was really a great honor and valued reward
for the organisers to hear from their colleagues
that the conference was a great success. We hope
that the next convention in the ICFIA series,
which is planned for the end of the year 2001 in
Chiang Mai, Thailand, will again lead to many
stimulating discussions and give an opportunity to
meet all our old and new international friends and
colleagues.
Miroslav Polášek,
Petr Solich
Analytical Chemistry Department,
Faculty of Pharmacy,
Charles Uni6ersity,
Heyro6skeho 1203,
500 05 Hradec Kralo6e,
Czech Republic
E-mail: polasek@faf.cuni.cz