WITec GmbH (Ulm, Germany), a manufacturer of optical and scanning probe microscopy systems, has opened new regional offices in Japan and Spain. Both

The International Centre for Diffraction Data (ICDD) (Newtown Square, Pennsylvania) is accepting applications for the 2013 Ludo Frevel Crystallography Awards, established to encourage promising graduate students to pursue crystallography-oriented research.

The Federation of Analytical Chemistry and Spectroscopy Societies (FACSS) has accepted three new member organizations—the AES Electrophoresis Society, the Spectroscopial Society of Japan (SpSJ), and the North American Society for Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (NASLIBS)—as full member organizations.

The North Carolina State University Plants for Human Health Institute (PHHI) and the Dole Nutrition Research Laboratory (Kannapolis, North Carolina) have collaborated to form a joint industry-academic postdoctoral fellowship, the first of its kind at the North Carolina Research Campus (NCRC).

SciX Program Overview and Events

Chris McKay of the NASA Ames Laboratory will give the keynote presentation at the SciX 2012 conference with a talk titled, “The Search for Life on Other Worlds.â€

A new imaging technique developed at the University of California, Berkeley, for the first time reveals the structure of the bacterial biofilms that are responsible for many infectious diseases.

The Wallace H. Coulter Foundation (Miami, Florida) has awarded a grant to the Pittcon Conference committee (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) that will enable the conference to provide educational training and development in laboratory services with a special emphasis on resource-limited countries.

The winners of the 2012 R&D Awards, which salute the 100 most technologically significant products introduced into the marketplace over the past year, have been announced.

The first of seven beamlines at the ALBA synchrotron light facility (Catalonia, Spain) has been put to work.

The University of Dundee (Dundee City, Scotland) has updated its X-ray crystallopgraphy facility with an advanced automated protein crystallography system from Rigaku Americas Corporation (The Woodlands, Texas).

Through the provision of open access to industry, the University of Nottingham (Nottinghamshire, UK) will be the base for the world's first liquid phase photoelectron spectroscopy (LiPPS) machine.

Tao Chen, a PhD candidate from the Chemical Engineering & Materials Science Department at Stevens Institute of Technology (Hoboken, New Jersey), has won the first prize and a cash award for his research presentation at the annual symposium of the Catalysis Society of Metropolitan New York.

PREMIER Biosoft (Palo Alto, California) entered into a marketing and reselling agreement with AB SCIEX (Framingham, Massachusetts) to help advance lipidomics research.

Advion (Ithica, New York) announced a new award for undergraduate students, masters and PhD candidates, and post-doctoral research associates who demonstrate scientific excellence within the field of mass spectrometry.

The Minnie Stevens Piper Foundation, a non-profit, charitable corporation, has named Jorge Gardea-Torresdey one of 10 Piper Professors for superior teaching at the college level.

In a new study, scientists at the University of Warwick (Coventry, UK) present the results of the analysis of petroleum and protein samples to demonstrate the applicability of the absorption-mode in Fourier Transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FT-ICR-MS) to routine experiments.

Jang Hyuk Lee and a team of scientists at the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (Gwangju, Korea) have published new research that describes the potential for fast, inexpensive diagnosis of breast and other cancer cells using advanced Coherent Anti-Stokes Raman Scattering (CARS) microspectroscopy.

Applications are invited for the 2013 Gordon F. Kirkbright Bursary Award, which enables a promising student or non-tenured young scientist of any nation to attend a recognized scientific meeting or visit a place of learning.

A new optical imaging system, developed by an international team of researchers, uses ?speckle imaging,? an optical sensing technique that measures the differences in how laser light bounces off the membranes of healthy and infected red blood cells and may make diagnosing malaria easier, faster, and more accurate.

Edinburgh Instruments Limited (Livingston, West Lothian, UK) has appointed Derek Shepherd as Chairman.

A research group led by University of Michigan (UM) (Ann Arbor, Michigan) chemist Kevin J. Kubarych has applied ultrafast spectroscopy to observe the fastest molecular motions of a liquid hovering just above its glass transition temperature.

The winner of the WITec Paper Award 2011 has been announced.

Floralis Resolution Spectra Systems (Grenoble, France), created last December, has started the production of high-resolution, compact, spectrometers.

In an effort to bridge the gap between photonics and electronics, researchers from Purdue University (West Lafayette, Indiana) have coaxed a thin film of titanium nitride into transporting plasmons, tiny electron excitations coupled to light that can direct and manipulate optical signals on the nanoscale.

Spectroscopy magazine is seeking contributed manuscripts for its August 2012 supplement on Fourier transform-infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy.

AkzoNobel (Amsterdam, The Netherlands), in collaboration with the American Chemical Society (ACS) (Washington, DC), recently launched a new science award in recognition of the vital role that scientists play in advancing chemistry and material sciences research.

Malvern Instruments (Malvern, UK) has opened a new multipurpose facility in Houston, Texas.