IRDG ("Infrared and Raman Discussion Group") traditionally has an all-day Christmas meeting, attracting a large attendance. For many years this was held at King’s College London, and then moved to University College, London (UCL). This year the program was:
· Handheld Vibrational Spectroscopy: The Present and the Future
o Richard Crocombe (Crocombe Spectroscopic Consulting)
· The Lost Art of Infrared Interpretation Within Industry
o Curt Marcott (Light Light Solutions)
· Shining Light on Medieval Manuscripts
o Andy Beeby (Durham University)
· “You Ought to be in Pictures”: the Emergence of Infrared Spectral Imaging
o Neil Lewis (Mettler Toledo Autochem)
· 130 Years of the IRDG and the Coblentz Society: What Can We Learn from People, History and Books
o Michael George (University of Nottingham)
· Watching Chemical Reactions with Ultrafast Infrared Spectroscopy
o Andrew Orr-Ewing (University of Bristol)
The talks were held in a very classical, steeply-raked, lecture theatre, just steps away from Jeremy Bentham, one of early supporters of UCL. Check out Bentham’s Wikipedia entry for the somewhat bizarre story….
The meeting included a poster session, and a very nice traditional lunch. Over lunch, Neil Lewis described Prof. Bill George’s contributions to spectroscopy, and Bill was presented with the Norman Sheppard Award.
