11th Workshop on Progress in Analytical Methodologies in Trace Metal Speciation
Muenster,Germany September, 4–7, 2007

TraceSpec 2007 in Münster, Germany - Chemical Analysis of a special Type

More than 200 scientists from 34 countries came together in Münster September 4-7, 2007 at the Workshop TraceSpec 2007 to discuss the developments of analytical methodology for trace element speciation analysis. In its 11th version this biannual workshop has reached a critical mass that shows the increasing interest in this special topic.

For the first time the IAEAC invited the European Virtual Institute for Speciation Analysis (EVISA) as a co-organizer for this workshop. The institute having a German office in Münster, finally organized the meeting under the new name “TraceSpec” together with the Universität Münster (Prof. Uwe Karst) in the historical rooms of the Münster Castle. It was the main aim of the organizers to join the different groups working in the field of speciation analysis across the boarders of methods and techniques with special emphasis to facilitate the participation of young scientists and scientists from third world countries.
The castle with its foyer, the Senators Lounge and the great hall created a very nice atmosphere for the different parts of the event such as the instruments exhibition, short course, lectures and poster presentations. Coffee and lunch breaks were served in the exhibition area to intensify the contact possibilities during the dense scientific program of the workshop.

An introduction into the theme was given by Dr. O.F.X. Donard from the University of Pau, France at the first day with a short course under the title „ Speciation analysis - the practical way“. Approximately 40 participants joined this course and appreciated especially the plentiful practical hints from the experienced expert related to difficulties that have to be faced in speciation analysis of complex samples. A get-together mixer in the evening within the exhibition area allowed for a first meeting of the participants and intensive discussions with the exhibitors. The exhibition in the foyer of the castle was the meeting point during the whole event, with all coffee breaks and lunch breaks served within this area in order to facilitate the contact with the exhibitors.
The main workshop was opened the other day by the organizers Prof. Uwe Karst (University of Münster), Prof. Dieter Klockow (IAEAC) and Dr. Michal Sperling (EVISA) in the main theatre hall of the Castle. The demanding scientific program with more than 40 lectures and 80 posters was devoted to the main research topics of speciation analysis, namely environmental analysis, food and health, biosciences (proteomics, metabolomics, metallomics) and technical and methodological developments. In order to facilitate an interdisciplinary discussion, the program was run in 5 sessions in a single stream. The scene for each of these topics was set by an invited lecture, giving either an overview or presenting important contributions for the development of speciation methodology. Most of the attendees participated actively by giving either an oral lecture (43) or by presenting a poster (83).

The afternoon coffee breaks were extensively used to discuss more than 80 posters in two sessions. The very high quality of the posters created a hard time for the poster jury that had to find the "best" posters with respect to novelty, clarity and presentation for the poster awards sponsored by the IAEAC, Thermo Scientific, AHF, Perkin-Elmer and PS Analytical.
A well organized social program completed the event. To a great extend the participants followed the invitation to visit the Münster planetarium for a totally different presentation (Discovery of the Southern Hemisphere) or visited the city center with a guided tour.
Also the conference dinner in the warm atmosphere of the typical rooms of the historical farmhouse “Mühlenhof” and a barbecue evening in front of the castle created the environment for intense discussions between the participants, this time not only speciation related.

Before closing this excellent workshop, Prof. Uwe Karst announced the Poster awards. He mentioned that the jury members had a difficult task, since the quality of the posters was high in general. Altogether, the poster jury had selected 5 posters.
The "Roland W. Frei Award" sponsored by IAEAC with 700 ¤ was given for the best poster of a young scientists in both poster sessions. The jury selected Yvonne Scheller from the Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz with her work on the "Detection of Ni-species and Co-species in single living plant cells with high lateral resolution" as the winner .

Four other prices, two for each poster session were sponsored by Thermo Scientific, AHF Analysentechnik, PerkinElmer, and PS Analytical. Winners of the second awards were Senchao Lai (Johannes Gutenberg - Universität, Mainz) and Daniel Pröfrock (GKSS, Geesthacht), while the first awards were given to Harald Hagendorfer (Karl- Franzens-Universität, Graz) and Arunachalam Venkatachalam (ISAS, Dortmund).

The workshop was closed Friday afternoon by the organizers by thanking especially the members of the local committee behind the scene for their excellent work and all the participants for their contributions and lively discussion. Finally, the next meeting in this series was announced to take place September 15-18, 2009 in Mainz, Germany, again with IAEAC and EVISA as co-organizers together with the University of Mainz.

M. Sperling, Director, EVISA