Abstract
ISLAR ‘93 was a remarkable experience. In Boston that year, I discovered a community of people with interests that matched my own. I recall being fascinated by the presentations and equipment demonstrations. I learned quite a lot, much of which I could take right back home and apply to my own work.
Wanting to be more involved, I volunteered to do “whatever was necessary” at the 1995 International Conference on Automation, Robotics and Artificial Intelligence (ICAR). The venue on Lake Geneva in Montreux, Switzerland, certainly was a nice perk. During that meeting, I worked at the registration desk, carried computers, relayed messages, and met the people that eventually would give me an opportunity that would impact my career in ways I could not then imagine.
I jumped at an invitation to become even more involved in the ALA's 1997 debut of LabAutomation in San Diego, CA. Martin Echols and I were given the opportunity to teach the first version of our short course on Visual Basic for the Laboratory. The material for our short course expanded and matured until it was sufficient to be used as the basis of our first book, Automating Science and Engineering Laboratories with Visual Basic. Presenting the short course in the early days was a challenge. For example, it was several years before we refined the process of setting up the computers for our class. Installing software at three o'clock in the morning before the course was not something we wanted to repeat on a regular basis.
At LabAutomation in 1997, I learned something important about the ALA's leaders—something that has held strong in the organization ever since. These people were different from those I was used to working with in other organizations. There was a real dedication to the field, and a willingness to go the extra mile to ensure that members and meeting attendees got what they paid for and then some. In my enthusiasm, I offered to become even more involved, and they were happy to oblige.
My additional ALA duties in the years following were diverse. Eventually, Steve Hamilton and Gary Kramer invited me to help teach the Introduction to Laboratory Automation short course. I organized a scientific session for the meeting, and then an entire track. In 2002, when the first open election was held for new members of the ALA Board of Directors, I decided to run, and to my great surprise I was elected. At our first board meeting, I was given the job of JALA Executive Editor.
Now, three years later, my term on the ALA Board of Directors is coming to an end. I look forward to continuing my role as JALA Executive Editor, but I have decided not to run for re-election to the board with hopes of enabling more people to become involved with an organization that has a unique spirit and firm dedication to the field of laboratory automation. As one of many ALA volunteers, I can say unequivocally that there were times that we worked very hard, but we gained so much more in return. My years as an ALA volunteer have been a true career altering experience. And, I look forward to many more years to come.
Sincerely,
Mark F. Russo, Ph.D.
Thank you
The Journal of the Association for Laboratory Automation sincerely thanks the many talented volunteers whose contributions resulted in six well-received, peer-reviewed issues of JALA in 2005.
Thank you 2005 JALA Guest Editors
Andy Zaayenga
SmarterLab
Special Issue: Laboratory Robotics Information Group
(JALA 10.2 April 2005)
William Sonnefeld, Ph.D.
Sonnefeld Associates Inc.
Special Issue: LabAutomation2006
(JALA 10.4 August 2005)
Erik Rubin, Ph.D.
Bristol-Myers Squibb
Special Issue: Chemical Process R&D
(JALA 10.6 December 2005)
Thorsten Blume, Ph.D.
Schering AG
Special Issue: Chemical Process R&D
(JALA 10.6 December 2005)
Thank you 2005 JALA Authors
John Allen
Thomas Astle
Zsolt Banki
Miklos Bathor
Cecile Baudiment
David Beebe
Matthias Beller
John Bergeron
Alexander Bertok
Attila Bielik
Rex Bitner
Thorsten Blume
Wayne Bowen
John Thomas Bradshaw
Annette Brodte
David Brooks
Jeff Brown
Oliver Bruttger
Bob Busacca
Christine Caillet
Eric Carlson
Michael Catalano
William Chandler
Janet Cheetham
James Collett
J. Colin Cox
Richard Curtis
Merrill Davies
Edward Delaney
Li Di
Christian Dinter
Jorg Drauschke
Ping Du
Oliver Duerr
Greg Dummer
Stanley Dunn
Marshall Edgell
Todd Edwards
Andrew Ellington
Thomas Farrell
Tobe Freeman
Isabel Galdo
Dirk Gordes
Heather Grbic
Damian Hajduk
Nan Hallock
Hyeok Hahn
Jochen Hampe
Michael Harre
Stephan Heyse
Hanbo Hu
John Isbell
Tom Jung
Paul Kaplita
Brent Karcher
Robert Kearney
Edward Kerns
Gyorgy Keseru
Tanya Knaide
W. Andreas Koch
Susan Koller
Laila Kott
Carol Kreader
Thomas Kruger-Sundhaus
Thomas Kudla
Luigi LaVecchia
Jennifer Lee
Hans Joerg Lehmann
Tanguy LeNeel
Gordon Leung
Wen-Jeng Li
Michael Lindemann
Lisa Liu
Vivian Liu
Justin Ly
Kuo-Sheng Ma
Marc Madou
Todd Maloney
Carl Manaster
David Mathre
Ryan McGuinness
J. Christopher McWilliams
Glennys Mensing
Julia Michelotti
Dinah Misner
Laszlo Molnar
Delphine Morin
Ben Moshiri
Harribert Neh
Jeannie Nguyen
Joseph Nolfo
Johannes Ottl
Chirag Patel
James Paulson
Thomas Pearce
Yves Pegon
Jonathan Petersen
Gary Pielak
Judith Provis
Karishma Punwami
Urs Regenass
Karl Reich
Tim Riedel
Bernd Rinn
Alex Rogers
Victor Rosso
Erik Rubin
Walter Ruediger
Mark Russo
William Rust
Alan Sasso
Stefan Schreiber
Armin Schuetz
David Semin
Hemanth Shenoi
Gordon Shyy
D. Richard Sidler
Dorothy Sims
Ole Sindt
Keming Song
William Sonnefeld
Dana Spence
Denice Spero
Torsten Staab
Yongkui Sun
Cuong Ta
Lois Tack
Paul Takhistov
Helming Tan
Roger Tang
Markus Teuber
Michelle Thomas
Kerstin Thurow
Andreas Topp
Alain Truchaud
Victoria Uvarova
Rafael Valdes-Camin
Jennifer Van Dinther
John Venit
Edward Verdonk
Stefan Wachter
Maggie Wacker
Danhui Wang
Raymond Waterbury
Scott Weber
Gregory Webster
Hans Wehner
Hilmar Weinmann
Harold Weller
Christian Wendler
David Wilson
Paul Wylie
Fang Yi
Ding Yuan
Andy Zaayenga
Peter Zbinden
Hong Zhou
Jim Zoval
Thank you 2005 JALA Peer Reviewers
Mike Ashley
Thomas Astle
Arezou Azarani
Mark Beggs
Tony Beugelsdijk
Thorsten Blume
John Thomas Bradshaw
Christine Brideau
Andrew Bullen
Eric Carlson
Andrew Carmen
Bernard Choi
Edward Delaney
Nader Donzel
Joerg Dreessen
Adam Fermier
Steven Fillers
Rob Fitzgerald
Peter Gates
Oliver Geschke
Steve Hamilton
Rifat Hamoudi
C. John Harris
Thomas Hartmann
David Herold
Paul Higginson
Ying Huang
Paul Kayne
Henning Klank
Anne Kopf-Sill
Steve Kubala
John Laycock
Tanguy LeNeel
Rodney Markin
Robert McDowall
Roger McIntosh
Ben Moshiri
Carl Murray
David Nirschl
Laura Pajak
James Paulson
David Pechter
Henry Powell
Timothy Rhodes
Steve Richmond
Erik Rubin
Kara Beth Rubin
Giles Sanders
Burkhard Schaefer
Reinhold Schaefer
Toshiyuki Shiina
Rick Sidler
Gary Siuzdak
Jay Smith
William Sonnefeld
John Souverijn
Torsten Staab
Peter Stark
James Sterling
Tetsuro Sugiura
Kailash Swarna
Kerstin Thurow
Alain Truchaud
John Venit
Richard Wagner
Hilmar Weinmann
Harold Weller
Tony West
Mike Wheeler
Tong Zhu
Juergen Zimmermann