ALA/AAPS Partnership Grows

In the February 2006 issue of JALA, ALA Executive Director Greg Dummer writes that “Regardless of whether scientists are developing new cures for cancer or fruit-flavored shampoos, ALA can help them increase productivity, elevate experimental data quality, reduce process cycle times, and enable experimentation that otherwise would be impossible.” ALA does this through a firm commitment to education and to leveraging the fact that, regardless of work setting, lab automation professionals share more similarities than differences. The guest editorial in this issue (“Are You a Laboratory Automation Engineer?” by Joseph G. Liscouski) nicely illustrates this concept.

Because ALA is the only organization devoted entirely to exploring the research, development, application, and integration of lab technologies, we continue to search for ways to benefit members by complementing, not competing, with other nonprofit professional societies and organizations. The ALA Career Connections program that was launched at LabAutomation2006 is the first tangible example of such a benefit, and its value has grown significantly since then—as has ALA's mutually beneficial working relationship with the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS).

I am pleased to announce that ALA and AAPS are cosponsoring a workshop in conjunction with the 2006 AAPS Annual Meeting and Exposition in San Antonio. The workshop, which is to take place on October 28, is entitled “Applications of Ion Chromatography in Pharmaceutical Drug Analysis.” In addition, ALA will present one of its popular LabAutomation short courses at the AAPS Annual Meeting. In turn, AAPS will offer one of its short courses at LabAutomation2007. AAPS also has pledged to promote the ALA Academic Travel Awards Program to its worldwide network of student chapters. (Last year, for the seventh year in a row, this ALA program funded participation in LabAutomation2006 for 29 full-time students and junior faculty members from as far away as South Korea.)

The results of our 2005 JALA readership survey tell us that 32% of ALA members work for biotechnology organizations, and 28% work for pharmaceutical organizations, but these joint initiatives with AAPS serve 100% of ALA members. In addition to the face value these opportunities offer in the short term, they are contributing to the enrichment of our overall, long-term educational continuum; attracting important new thought leaders to the ALA team; maximizing available resources; and heightening awareness of ALA among new audiences.

We appreciate and value the bridges that have been built between AAPS and ALA, and we look forward to developing even more pathways for cooperation. In the meantime, we continue to explore similar opportunities with professional societies serving other important segments of the ALA membership. As the only organization devoted entirely to lab technologies, we believe that the common ground ALA offers these colleagues will make a critical difference in their success as well as our own.

Sincerely,