

We were lucky this year with moderate temperatures and no precipitation, though the meeting attendance was reduced because of travel bans related to Covid. Nevertheless, one potential issue for this location is the unpredictable weather of this midwestern city near the Great Lakes in early March. Chicago is home to 69 of the 1000 most prominent companies in the United States, which include Boeing, Abbott Laboratories, Caterpillar, and Kraft Foods. The city has 2.7 million residents, and the Greater Chicago area boasts a population of 9.5 million. Chicago is an industrial, agricultural, financial, transportation, and communication center, as well as the third largest city in the Unites States. Chicago has been the most frequent venue for Pittcon in recent years, with previous Pittcons held in Chicago in 20, in a three-year rotation. The 71st Pittcon was held at McCormick Place in Chicago from February 29 to March 5, 2020, a week before to the semi-shutdowns of Europe and North America from the spreading Covid-19 virus.

The Pittsburgh Conference on Analytical Chemistry and Applied Spectroscopy (Pittcon) is one of the world’s largest conferences on laboratory science.

It summarizes their significant features and user benefits. This installment describes new high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and mass spectrometry (MS) instruments, chromatography data systems (CDS), and related products introduced at Pittcon 2020 or during the prior year.
