Next week is  PITTCON 2007 in Chicago, the largest trade show in the world featuring analytical instrumentation.  And it is this time of the year, when I am getting ready for this year’s PITTCON that I am reminded of an experience of many years ago, March 1967 to be exact that had a major impact on me and my future career choices.

It was a wintry day in March in Cleveland, and my thesis advisor, Prof. Philip H. Geil, literally crammed into his (at that time already) old red French Renault himself and four of his most senior graduate students, and we made the three hour drive (that seemed like six hours) from Cleveland to Pittsburgh.  These were the days when the PITTCON was still called the Pittsburgh Conference on Analytical Chemistry and it was indeed still being held in Pittsburgh.  This was also the time that the exhibition was held in the ball room of the long time landmark William Penn hotel.  There were fewer than 200 exhibiting companies.  Very small on today’s standards for sure as there are now over 1000 exhibiting companies and from all over the world.

As a graduate student I can recall my amazement at seeing for the first time the “business” side of the conduct of research.  Until that time, I had never really had reason to give any thought about how it came to be that all the marvelous research equipment and instrumentation ended up in our laboratory at what was then Case Institute of Technology but today is part of Case WRU. Prof. Geil was a real role model for us because he first of all took us around the exhibition.  We stopped at all the exhibit booths of those firms from which supplies and equipment had been purchased previously.  I can recall vividly the time we spent at the Rigaku booth because Prof. Geil had some concerns about the short life times that were being experienced on the rotating anode source of the small angle diffraction system we used in our research.  And this is where I learned for the first time not only how important it was to have technically competent representatives in an exhibit booth but also, how much could be learned technically from such booth personnel.  For example, it was then that I learned how to operate the system differently so that longer life times could be realized.

We spent time at several of the manufacturers of transmission electron microscopes (in those days there were no SEMs) and Prof. Geil talked to all of them about what kind of function and capabilities their microscopes had for the study of beam sensitive polymer samples (a concern, ironically that exists still today).  I saw first hand and for the first time, how important that vendor/customer interface can be in terms of both developing new instrumentation needed by the market place but also, how the users of such intrumentation could use the instrumentation they had more effectively.

These lessons, learned by role model emulation, had a major impact on me.  And over the years, by visting exhibitions,  I have learned huge amounts of information that would not otherwise have been easily learned from scientific presentations or published papers,  or in later years, poster presentations.  That one experience in Pittsburgh in 1967 in a major way shaped my own future career path.

I don’t see today’s Professor Geils taking in tow their graduate students and showing them by role model behavior how much can be learned by visiting the exhibition that is a part of so many of today’s scientific meetings.  I do see an almost anti-trade show bent on the part of some of today’s students, almost like it is a second class kind of learning if one spends time in the trade show area.

PITTCON 2007 will open on Feb. 26 and run until March 1 at McCormick Place in Chicago.  It is the premier opportunity for those working with analytical instrumentation to learn about the latest developments and newest products and the newest things that can be done with them.  If you are a student, consider attending. If you are a teacher with students working under you, consider bringing some of your students to the PITTCON this year.  The three hour drive years ago that seemed like six hours was well worth the sacrifice.

I make this point this week because at the typical scientific meeting with a trade show and exhibition, only a small percentage of those attending spend any time in the exhibition at all.  I argue that there is a great deal of lost opportunity for learning from the exhibitors.  And as I pointed out, the best way to learn is by role model emulation: Students take on the habits and attitudes of their teachers and professors.  On the last day of the exhibition (March 1), the entrance fee to the exhibition is free.

If you should decide to come to the PITTCON because of this posting, stop by at the SPI Supplies booth #1903 and say “MicroChuck sent you”.  I would look forward to meeting you and hearing your comments about the MicroChuck blog……..

MicroChuck