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Vol.
25 No. 5
September-October 2003
Chromatography
and Separations in Biosciences
by
Vadim A. Davankov
The
twenty-first of March 1903 is considered the birthday of chromatography.
On that day, at a meeting of the Warsaw Society of Natural
Scientists, Mikhail Semenovich Tswett presented a lecture
entitled "On the Novel Category of Adsorption Phenomena and
their Application to Biochemical Analysis." This was the first
public disclosure of the dynamic adsorption analysis, which
Tswett soon began to call chromatographic adsorption analysis.
Chromatography, which changed science in a most revolutionary
way, became the premier separation technique of the 20th century.
To
commemorate the 100th anniversary of chromatography, a jubilee
international symposium called 100 Years of Chromatography
was held 13-18 May 2003 in Moscow as part of the 3rd
International Symposia on Separations in BioSciences.
The symposium was held in the New City Hall of Moscow. Moscow
Mayor Yuri Lushkov started the opening session that consisted
of three main lectures. The first lecture, entitled "Mikhail
Tswett: The Creator of Chromatography," was given by the chair
of the symposium, V. A. Davankov, who briefly described the
tragic fate of Mikhail Tswett in the turbulent periods of
World War I, two Russian Revolutions, and the Civil War. Davanakov
also gave an overview of Tswett's pioneering studies into
adsorption phenomena and their evolution into a chromatographic
separation technique. Two additional lectures, delivered by
Professors Rudolf Kaiser and Heinz Engelhard, reviewed the
difficult start of gas and liquid chromatography and the triumphant
developments in the field in the last half century.
Corresponding
to the jubilee character of the meeting, the scientific program
of the next four working days was rather broad and incorporated
reports from all types of liquid and gas chromatography, as
well as electromigration techniques. It consisted of 30 lectures,
40 oral 20-minute-long presentations, and 300 poster presentations.
Reports on chiral separation techniques and achievements in
the separation of polymers, viruses, and bacterial cells,
and updates from the rapidly expanding area of proteomics
and metabolomics were especially well presented. Parallel
to the scientific program, an exhibition of 30 international
and local manufacturers of chromatographic materials and equipment
was held, which included 6 vendor seminars. The total number
of participants was about 600, with about 250 foreign guests
from 43 different countries represented. Regretfully, Chinese
scientists were not able to participate in the Moscow meeting
because of restrictions placed on travel by their national
authorities in order to prevent the spread of the SARS epidemic.
The
social program of the meeting was also intense and included
visits to the Kremlin, the famous Bolshoi Opera Theater with
its premiere of Verdi's Nabukko, and to the unique Obraszov
puppet theater, which presented a special English version
of its "Extraordinary Concert." A post-symposium bus tour
through a chain of historic Russian cities and monasteries,
the so-called Golden Ring, was delightful. There was also
a three-day visit to St. Petersburg, which was about to celebrate
its 300th anniversary and was exceptionally clean and decorated.
The
success of the meeting was only partially due to its impressive
scientific program and unusually good weather in Moscow. Much
more important was the informal and friendly atmosphere during
the meeting; the feeling that the chromatographic world community,
as a big international family, gathered to celebrate this
outstanding eventthe 100th anniversary of Mikhail Tswett's
discovery.
Vadim
A. Davankov <[email protected]>
of the Russian Academy of Sciences is also a Task Group Member
of the Revision of Terminology of Separation Science project
within the Analytical Chemistry Division.
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