What to Expect from Analytica 2024

Analytica is returning to Munich, Germany. The trade fair, which is taking place on April 9-12, 2024, is held every other year in Munich as well as in South Africa, China, Vietnam, and India. It brings together industrial and academic scientists from around the globe. This year the focus is the “laboratory world of tomorrow,” according to a press release, and will have sessions focused on digital transformation, sustainability, machine learning (ML), and more.

“Digitization in the laboratory remains one of the leading topics in the industry,” Susanne Grödl, deputy exhibition director, said in a press release. “Sustainability in the laboratory environment is an equally important issue. At Analytica, relevant solutions will be presented and discussed, such as how to reduce energy requirements or how to reuse materials.”

Topics like AI and sustainability have been major focuses of a variety of analytical science conferences throughout the past year and beyond. At Pittcon in San Diego last month, scientists discussed new strategies for analyzing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and the impact of AI on instrumentation. Late last year, the Eastern Analytical Symposium (EAS) in Princeton, New Jersey hosted sessions on green chemistry and the latest techniques for food analysis.

Indeed, innovation of many kinds is an important topic in analytical chemistry right now. As laboratories face high rates of turnover, scientists are increasingly looking for smarter and faster instruments. There’s also a need for more sensitive tools, as regulations surrounding contaminant detection require lower and lower concentrations.

Analytica 2024 will cover these topics—and much more. But before you jet off to Munich, the editors of LCGC International, broke down exactly what you can expect from the 2024 conference.

Inside the Technical Program

The technical program at Analytica this year will have sessions on topics including food analysis for sustainable nutrition and methods for reducing the carbon footprint of the laboratory.

“The analysis of food also plays an important role in further improving its safety and quality as well as providing reliable consumer information about it,” Grödl said in the release. “In this area, we will also take a glimpse of the future and deal with alternative forms of food, (i.e. novel food), in connection with sustainability and world nutrition.”

Marina Creydt, from the Hamburg School of Food Science, will speak about using mass spectrometry for the detection of food fraud, which has increased in recent years. Creydt’s lecture will specifically focus on the adulteration of various species of truffles (wild mushrooms, highly sought after for their distinctive aroma and flavor).

There will also be several sessions focused on AI and machine learning. Lennart Martens, of Ghent University, will present a session on machine-learning powered flood lights for precision medicine. Martens will discuss how free software tools can improve the information recovery from both existing as well as newly acquired data sets from instruments across a variety of vendors.

PFAS is also set to be a major topic area. The “eternity chemicals” could soon be banned throughout the European Union—and a variety of products will now have to be tested for the presence of PFAS before being introduced to the market. Mark Buecking, of the Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology, will give an overview of the current analytical methods and challenges when it comes to PFAS analysis.

Awards Presentations and Exhibition

Analytica attendees can also attend several awards presentations throughout the week. The conference will have two awards this year, the Eberhard-Gerstel Award, and the Bunsen-Kirchhoff Award.

The Eberhard-Gerstel Award honors a young researcher’s scientific publication on analytical separation techniques in an internationally recognized peer-reviewed journal. The Bunsen-Kirchoff Award celebrates achievements in analytical spectroscopy, by young scientists from universities, research institutes, or industry. The award recognizes work from all areas of analytical spectroscopy, but in particular from innovative subject areas in the nano range (10-9 m) on biomolecules or spatially resolved spectroscopy.

In addition to the awards program, attendees can also visit the exhibit hall. As of October 2023, Analytica reported more than 660 exhibitors had signed up for a booth at the show.

“We are seeing a particularly strong growth from China, where we are already at pre-pandemic levels,” Grödl said. “We are also noticing great interest from innovative start-ups and smaller companies that have not exhibited at Analytica before. In addition, there will once again be large joint stands from the two leading markets, the U.S. and China.”

Attendees can visit LCGC International and Spectroscopy at Booth A1.108.