Dear friends

Dear friends,

The International Symposiumfor High-Performance Thin-Layer Chromatography, Basel , 06–08 July 2011
(HPTLC 2011) began with a unique arrangement and presentation of the famous opening of the Basel carnival,
Basler Morgenstraich. The more than 310 participants were surely awake and ready to listen to the latest information
about HPTLC from all around the world. A truly international flavour was evident as scientists from about
40 countries were attracted by this congress. In the final program 50 oral lectures and about 160 posters were presented
(see www.hptlc.com).
The interest of the younger generation was very encouraging, as 22 % of the participants were students. The attendees were about equally distributed between academia and industry, which underlines the practical importance of HPTLC today.
The meeting gave ample opportunity to exchange knowledge and to arrange or extend research cooperation.
All in all, the scientific level of the symposium was greatly appreciated, due in large part to excellent presentations by young speakers
as well as the introduction of interesting new research fields that utilized planar chromatography.
Numerous requests were made for arranging the next International HPTLC Symposium, assumedly in 2013. Various locations in
Europe as well as in Asia were suggested, all of them appearing highly attractive. Hope to see you there,
wherever “there” turns out to be.

Sincerely,
Gerda Morlock
cbs@camag.com