From 5-9 April 2002, Robinson College at the University of Cambridge was the venue for this, the 12th Symposium in the series that started at Brussels back in 1978.
As in previous symposia, delegates came from far and wide this time including Australia, Peoples Republic of China, Iran, Russia, USA. The attendance was more than 200 delegates plus accompanying friends from 24 countries and together there were around 180 presentations.
The Symposium was blessed with sunny weather albeit a little chilly and windy at times. Delegates took time to look around Cambridge and on the last afternoon had a guided tour of the Cambridge colleges and took tea at Corpus Christi College.
Communications between delegates and the Secretariat were almost entirely via the Internet and email. Very little printed paperwork was used.
Abstracts of presentations were made available on the web site http://www.lumiweb.com within a day or so of their receipt.
The Secretariat was fortunate to have an association with the International Society for Bioluminescence & Chemiluminescence (http://www.unibo.it/isbc).
The Society nominated three distinguished members to act as the Scientific Programme Committee - Professors Peter Herring and Anthony Campbell and Dr Phil Hill - who collated the submitted abstracts and from them generated the final programme.
The International Society recognized the need to encourage young scientists in the disciplines and so provided financial support for 13 young scientists under the age of 35 years. Similarly the US Office for Naval Research supported 4 young US scientists.
A plan made at the last Symposium to have a lecture in memory of the late Professor Gordon Stewart (University of Nottingham) was brought to fruition by the generous support of Hamamatsu Photonics UK Ltd. Professor Aladar Szalay (Loma Linda University, USA) accepted the invitation by the International Society to present the lecture, "Contributions Of Light-Emitting Organisms To Cellular And Biomedical Imaging". Gordon died of a brain tumour in 1999 at the early age of 48 years, cutting short a glittering career. He had made many advances in bioluminescence particularly in the area of imaging (An In Memoriam for Gordon appears in Hill P, Stanley PE. Luminescence 2000;14:235-8).
The Marlene DeLuca Prizes were again generously given by Dr Fritz Berthold with his new company Berthold Technologies (www.bertholdtech.com). Dr Berthold has provided these prizes at each symposium since 1988 at Florence and in memory of Marlene DeLuca who made such a big contribution to the science of bioluminescence. The President of the International Society, Professor Aldo Roda (University of Bologna, Italy and President of the International Society) chose a small Committee from the Society to judge the presentations and recommend the winners. Dr Berthold himself presented the prizes.
The Organising Secretariat recognize and thank those companies and organizations who exhibited and supported the Symposium in various ways.
They are mentioned on the Symposium web site www.lumiweb.com.
Thanks are again due to John Wiley & Sons for publishing the abstracts in the journal Luminescence. Each registered delegate received a copy of this issue when they registered. Late abstracts received until early March 2002, were published in the Symposium Handbook and will appear in a future issue of Luminescence.
Delegates who made presentations (programme can be seen at http://www.lumiweb.com/sym2002/sessions/abstracts_all.html) were invited to submit short manuscripts for the Proceedings volume. This will be edited by Professor Larry Kricka and Dr Philip Stanley and published by World Scientific Publishing, Singapore. All registered delegates will receive a copy and it is hoped this will be available late in 2002.
Finally, the Organising Secretariat wish to thank the members of the Conference Office at Robinson College. Their on-site administration was excellent.
Dr Philip STANLEY
Organising Secretariat
12th International Symposium on Bioluminescence & Chemiluminescence
CRTT Ltd, 48 Glisson Road, Cambridge CB1 2HF, UK
www.lumiweb.com
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