The Gordon Conference on
Statistics in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering

Pictures courtesy of Mats Josefson

Coffee Break  Canoeing  Lobster Feast  Talent Show

Overview

The Gordon Research Conference on Statistics in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering is one of about 150 conferences sponsored by the Gordon Research Foundation. The general GRC Web site provides some good overview information, including

• a description of the GRCs in general
• topics and venues for 2002 and 2003 conferences

In a nutshell, the conferences bring together researchers and practitioners in an intimate setting with the aim of fostering interdisciplinary exchange on the frontiers of science. They are typically held for a week in the summer at some small college in New England, with relatively few formal talks and ample opportunities for discussion and interaction, both formal and informal. Conferees stay in college accomodations (dormitories) and eat together in college dining facilities.

The GRC on Statistics in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering focusses on new research directions in applied statistics and in the analysis of chemical phenomena. It has met annually for 50 years, drawing statisticians, chemometricians, chemists and chemical engineers from industry, government and universities around the world. Statistical interests typically lie somewhere between Technometrics and JASA, with the applied interests of the former and the technical depth of the latter. New methods of predictive modelling, experimentation, chemometrics, and quality are perennial favorites. Chemical interests range from analytical, organic, and environmental chemistry to chemical process monitoring/control. Typically, readers of the Journal of Chemometrics, Chemometrics and Intelligent Laboratory Systems, and Applied Spectroscopy are a part of the audience.

There are just two talks per day, one in the morning and one in the evening, attended by all conferees. The main speaker gets over an hour both to bring the diverse audience up to speed on the general problem/method being presented as well as to discuss really cutting-edge material. Then a formal discussant gets about 20 minutes to highlight (or disagree with) significant points made by the main speaker. Finally, over an hour is devoted to moderated discussion from the floor---questions, comments, complaints, sermons addressed by conferees to the speaker, discussant, and other conferees. In my experience, this is the most fruitful part of the enterprise for speaker and listeners alike, often wrapping up the whole session with a sort of "take-home" message; it's a feature of GRC presentations that I really miss at other conferences.

Afternoons are free, allowing for one-on-one professional discussions as well as fun and touring in the scenic areas where the conferences are held. There is always a bar of some sort, where the conferees assemble before dinner and after the last talk. The poster session is situated near the bar, encouraging discussion. The conference combines an atmosphere of intense scientific interaction with an amiable intimacy. For example, speaker introductions are informal, and a traditional feature of the conference is a Thursday Night "Talent Show".

2003 Program

Conference activities will take place in the following locations:

• Conference meeting room: Hooker Auditorium
• Posters and social gathering: 1837 Dormitory
• Dining facilities: Willits-Hallowell Conference Center Dining Hall

Posters

In addition to the presentations, this conference also offers a poster session. Keep in mind this opportunity for you, your colleagues, and your students to discuss new research with other people who work in the multidisciplinary arena of statistics in chemistry and chemical engineering. Further, it is an excellent way to involve young researchers in this prestigious conference. The posters are located where conferees gather in the afternoons and evenings, so they get a lot of "casual" traffic during the week, in addition to the ordinarily popular official poster sessions. This makes it an excellent opportunity for both you to bounce your ideas off folks with a wide range of expertise. Send the title and a short abstract of the poster you want to present to the conference vice-chair (Tunde Ogunnaike, ogunnaik@che.udel.edu).

GRC Posters, 2003

1. "The use of a design of experiments to develop a robust calibration model for the prediction of dissolving pulp characteristics," FRANCESCA APRUZZESE
2. "Exploration of Chemometrics for Defense Applications," TERRENCE G D'ONOFRIO
3. "Identification of the Schiff Base Interferent for the Determination of Hexamethylenediamine Concentrations in a 6,6-Nylon Polymer Vent Gas Analyzer," KENNETH DAHL
4. "Screening Outlier Batches in Third-Order Data Models of Chemical Batch Processes," KENNETH DAHL
5. "Multivariate calibration with temperature interaction using two-dimensional penalized signal regression," PAUL EILERS
6. "Model predictive monitoring for batch processes with multivariate methods," SALVADOR GARCIA
7. "Product transfer between plants using multivariate methods," SALVADOR GARCIA
8. "Robust Determination of Key Comparison Reference Values and Uncertainties," DAVID L DUEWER
9. "Systematic study of classifiers for magnetic resonance spectra," FRED A HAMPRECHT
10. "Comparison of Extended Kalman Filtering and Moving Horizon Estimation," ERIC L HASELTINE
11. "Statistical Modeling of Chemical Periodicity and Prediction of Superheavy Elements Properties," NIKOLAY N KHRAMOV
12. "Development of a quick and cheap method to determine the degree of contamination of cereals with mycotoxins produced by Fusarium fungi," GREGOR P. KOS
13. "Chemical texture: from gray-scale to color texture, and beyond,"JUNE LIU
14. "Receiver Operating Characteristics (ROC) Curves Used to Provide Guidance for Model Selection," BARBARA J. MARSHIK
15. "Relating consumer product responses to product descriptors and consumer descriptors by three-block L-PLS Regression," MAGNI MARTENS
16. "Input and Output Variation Analysis for Process Simulations," KURT D. PALMER
17. "The Story of an Application of Multivariate Data Analysis to an Industrial Chemical Process: Learnings and Insights," GAUTHAM PARTHASARATHY
18. "An alternative to Maximum Likelihood Principal Components Analysis when measurement error covariances are unknown," HARIGOPAL RAGHAVAN
19. "Assessing trace elements and common ions concentrations in air pollutant fallout across a region using multivariate statistical techniques," SCOTT RAMOS
20. "A novel method for deriving probability density functions of particle contamination from sampling distributions under the certain conditions," THOMAS F SCHATZKI
21. "Feature Selection for Classification using Support Vector Machines," JÜRGEN VON FRESE
22. "Optimal sampling in high-throughput systems," JOHAN A WESTERHUIS
23. "Bayesian Estimation of Nonlinear Dynamic Systems," WEN-SHIANG CHEN
24. "Outlier Detection in Chemical Data by means of Fractal Cross-Validation," JEFFREY CRAMER
25. "Fault tolerant spectroscopic data evaluation based on extended PCR correcting for uncalibrated spectral features and spectral drifts," FRANK VOGT
26. "Comparison of Jack-knifed ANOVA PLSR and ANOVA," MARTENS H., BYRNE, D., WESTAD, F. AND MARTENS, M.
27. "Pre-processing of input data for simplified GLS modelling, as applied to generalized PLSR," MARTENS, H., WESTAD, F., WISE, B., BRO, R. AND BROCKHOFF, P.
28. "Chemometrics in Bioprocess Engineering," JOSE CARDOSO DE MENEZES
29. "Calculation of spectra with predetermined properties using a reversed PLS algorithm based on orthogonal PLS," OLOF SVENSSON AND MATS JOSEFSON

 

Applying

Although the meeting is open to all interested parties, the number of conference attendees is limited in order to promote maximum interaction. Signing up for a Gordon Conference involves a two-stage process:

1. you apply to register for the conference on-line, and 
2. when your application is accepted you send in your registration, along with remittance for the conference fees.   

Note that although you can apply now, the acceptance process doesn't begin until March, 2003, so it will be a little while before you get notice of the second step.  The fees as they are now known are as follows.


Conferee			Adult Guest
Single	Double	Off-Site	Single	Double	Off-Site
$675	$620	$545	$505	$450	$375

Apply early and you get a $50 discount!  I think you'll agree that the GRC on Statistics is a great value.