Welcome to LabAutomation '97! Now in its 6th year and formerly the International Conference on Automation, Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Applied to Analytical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (ICAR), LabAutomation has become the world's premier meeting focused on all facets of laboratory automation. LabAutomation is the USA-based annual version of the former ICAR conference which will now also be held annually in Europe. LabAutomation is one of the growing list of activities sponsored by the Association for Laboratory Automation (ALA), an international non-profit organization, established in April 1995, whose mission is to advance the worldwide utilization of automation, robotics, and artificial intelligence to improve the quality, efficiency, and relevance of laboratory analysis. The ALA has introduced several new vehicles to keep you informed about developments in this rapidly expanding field. Laboratory Automation News (LAN) is now a bimonthly full color guide to the products, news, and scientific articles related to laboratory automation. In addition, our state of the art web site, organized by Tony Beugelsdijk, is updated regularly with information about the ALA and its activities, LAN, and the annual LabAutomation conference.
The scientific committee and the organizers have been working diligently since last January to bring you state-of-the-art lectures presented by leaders in the exponentially growing field of laboratory automation. The exhibition area, organized and directed by David Herold, has been significantly expanded to include all of the leading vendors of laboratory automation equipment and software. We also have many new vendors this year which promise to be tomorrow's leading companies. Each of our exhibitors is committed to providing you with hands-on exposure to their products and services.
This year's scientific program will be an important event, our Beckman Award Lecture given by Joseph Engelberger who is considered to be the father of modern industrial robotics. His lecture, entitled “Medical Robotics: From Hospital to Home Care,” will position the laboratory automation field in the broader perspective of the growing robotic market. We have continued our popular, simultaneous sessions, which focus on selected areas of laboratory automation including laboratory medicine, drug synthesis and discovery, environmental monitoring, artificial intelligence, and software tools. The short course program on Saturday and Sunday will teach skills which can be immediately applied in your laboratory from artificial intelligence to implementing electronic laboratory notebooks. Finally, Wednesday morning has been devoted to emerging technologies which will shape the future of laboratory automation.
The high quality of our scientific program is result of the efforts of our scientific committee with the generous support of our sponsors. We sincerely wish you a pleasant stay at the Sheraton San Diego and a productive LabAutomation '97 meeting.
Sincerely,
Robin A. Felder, Ph.D.
General Chairman
David A. Herold, Ph.D., M.D.
Site Organizer and Chairman of Scientific Committee
Tony J. Beugelsdijk, Ph.D., M.B.A.
Director of Education and New Technologies, Webmaster
