Applications are invited for the 2015 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.

Carolyn Mountford, of the University of Newcastle (Australia) has received an Agilent Thought Leader Award in recognition of her innovative work using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy technology in cancer research.

The California Department of Public Health has proposed to establish the first regulatory limit in the United States for hexavalent chromium (chromium-6) in drinking water. The proposed Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) sets the limit for hexavalent chromium at 10 parts per billion. California, like those of other states and United States federal government, currently only regulates total chromium levels.

The Spectroscopy Society of Pittsburgh (SSP), one of two Pittcon conference and exposition sponsors, has selected Alfred G. Redfield as the recipient of the 2015 Pittcon Spectroscopy Award. Redfield is a professor of biochemistry and physics, Emeritus, at Brandeis University (Waltham, Massachusetts).

Agilent Technologies (Santa Clara, California) is offering a recycling program that enables customers in the United States and Canada to return used atomic absorption lamps. Under this new program, laboratories are invited to return used hollow cathode lamps for recycling.

Magritek (Wellington, New Zealand), a provider of compact NMR and MRI instruments, and LEAP Technologies (Carrboro, North Carolina) have formed a partnership to develop automated solutions for the NMR products.

A study that addresses the need for analytical tools for identifying, characterizing, and setting up adequate conservation strategies for museum collections that contain plastics was completed within the framework of two research projects dealing with the conservation of contemporary artworks.

A new study by researchers at the Department of Anesthesia and Perioperative Medicine, at the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry (Ontario, Canada) used near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) to detect impaired tissue oxygen saturation in patients with this syndrome.

Anasys Instruments Corporation (Santa Barbara, California) has licensed a Department of Energy Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) (Oak Ridge, Tennessee) nanoscale mass spectrometry imaging technology that allows for simultaneous chemical and physical characterization and could lead to advances in materials and drug development.

Teledyne Instruments (Thousand Oaks, California), a subsidiary of Technologies Inc. (City of Industries, California) has acquired Photon Machines, Inc. (PMI).

Spark Holland B.V. (VE Emmen, Netherlands) and Gerstel GmbH & Co. KG (M?lheim an der Ruhr, Germany) have entered into an agreement based on Spark's patented dried blood spot (DBS) technology.

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RamanFest, an international event held by Horiba Scientific (Edison, NJ) in conjunction with Harvard University (Cambridge, Massachusetts) has added Professor Mildred Dresselhaus, of MIT (Cambridge, Massachusetts) to its growing list of world-renowned speakers.

In a distribution agreement between B&W Tek, Inc. (Newark, Delaware), and VWR International, LLC (Radnor, Pennsylvania), B&W Tek?s Raman products will be promoted and sold in the U.S. and Puerto Rico.

TSI (Shoreview, Minnesota) has acquired the business assets and Raman spectroscopy technology of Enwave Optronics, Inc. (Irvine, California).

Michael Doyle, a founder and CEO of Axiom Analytical (Tustin, California), and the president of Symbion Systems (Tustin, California), will receive this year's Coblentz Society Williams-Wright Award.

Ocean Optics (Dunedin, Florida) has named Gabriel Orsinger of the University of Arizona (Tuscon, Arizona) as the winner of the 2014 Ocean Optics Young Investigator Award.

Horiba Scientific (Edison, New Jersey) has acquired Photon Technology International (PTI) (Birmingham, New Jersey).

Spectroscopy magazine is seeking contributed manuscripts for its June 2014 supplement on Raman spectroscopy.

Madrid-based National Institute for Aerospace Technology, a public research organization specializing in aerospace research and technology development, will contribute to the ExoMars mission to Mars in 2018, with an instrument that uses Raman spectroscopy.

Engineers from the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth (Hanover, New Hampshire) and radiologists are developing new approaches for an emerging technique in diagnostic imaging for breast cancer-MRI with near ?infrared spectroscopy (IIRS) as reported in the February issue of the journal Academic Radiology.

The Eighth International Conference on Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS 2014) will be held at Tsinghua University (Beijing, China) from September 8-12, 2014.

The Center for Nano-Optics has been created at Georgia State University (Atlanta, Georgia), under the leadership of Georgia State Physics Professor Mark Stockman. The center will expand the university?s nanotechnology focus and continue the development of two university inventions ? the spaser, and the nanoplasmonic metal funnel.

Labcyte, Inc. (Sunnyvale, California), an acoustic dispensing company, has been awarded $1 million to create an innovative process to detect cancer-related proteins in samples, with initial work in breast cancer detection.

The Coblentz Society, an affiliate of the Society of Applied Spectroscopy, was approached with a challenge from an anonymous donor during the SciX13 conference.

Bristol Instruments, Inc. (Victor New York), a designer, manufacturer, and marketer of optical interferometer-based instrumentation, has moved its headquarters to better accommodate the company?s growing business in the scientific research, fiber communications, and optical metrology markets.

The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), as part of an ongoing interagency partnership, have awarded a total of up to $53 million to fund tobacco-related research in fiscal year 2013 to create 14 Tobacco Centers of Regulatory Science (TCORS).

The Urine Metabolome Database (UMDB) (www.urinemetabolome.ca) containing detailed information on over 3000 metabolites has been launched following the comprehensive quantitative metabolome characterization of urine by scientists at the University of Alberta, Canada.