Editorial

Happy New Year 2013!  This year ISOCS will be running a major society event. For the first time in the ISOEN Series of Symposia, the 15th International Symposium on Olfaction and Electronic Nose will be held in Asia. This is a direct consequence of the large increase of activities related to artificial olfaction, and chemical sensing in general, in Asia. The volume and quality of the work being done in this region of the world is shifting the centre from traditional western countries to Asia. This is a unique opportunity to see  the latest developments in device and systems technologies in this part of the world.  Korea was selected in close competiton with India to organize this special edition of ISOEN. Daegu, in the south-eastern part of the Korea peninsula is the chosen location to run ISOEN, 2-5 July 2013. Daegu, the birthplace of SAMSUMG is a medium size city (2.5 million) with continental climate. ISOEN will be run in EXCO, the Daegu Exhibiton and Convention Center (illustration)

Biosensors and Biomimetics: Inspired by Nature

15-20 March 2013 - Kühtai, Austria

The ISOCS Short Course Winter 2013 will be held in Kühtai, the highest ski resort in Austria just 30km west of Innsbruck.

The Short Course will cover fundamental concepts of biomimetics with a special focus on biosensors and their applications. An introduction to science of adapting designs from nature to solve technological problems will be supported with number of case studies including applications in olfactory biosensing, environmental monitoring, health care and robotics.

Registration is closed!

9 - 12 June 2013 - Saarbrücken/Wallerfangen, Germany

Conference with Posters and Exhibition organised by the Automation and Analytical Management Group - Royal Society of Chemistry

This is the fourth annual AAMG conference on monitoring and analysis using sensor technologies. The conference follows the same format as in preceding years with presentations by invited speakers; however, the majority of papers and posters are presented by young researchers.

Wine fraud is a growing problem, with experts estimating that up to 10% of the wines offered to consumers in some European countries are of a lesser quality than the label claims. It’s an issue that affects everyone from expert collectors to average consumers, and is such a concern in some countries that drastic measures have been taken: the Italian Carabinieri Corps, for instance, has educated 25 of their officers as sommeliers. 

This only addresses part of the problem, though. Wine fraud is difficult to detect because of a variety of considerations: the sheer time it takes to train a wine ‘nose’, for example, coupled with the challenge of ensuring these ‘noses’ are in the right place at the right time – not to mention the fact that even top sommeliers aren’t foolproof when it comes to detailed identification. Now though, in collaboration with the University of Córdoba, IBEC researchers have made steps towards combating the problem with their development of a reliable, cheap and quick detector to classify white wines according to their Certified Brands of Origin that could be used in variety of environments.