Gerhard Schlemmer received his Ph.D. in Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry (Dr. rer.nat.) in 1982 from the University of Braunschweig, Germany. He was assistant lecturer at Braunschweig University for 3 years. Between 1982 and 2001 he worked in various positions in applied research, product management, product support and market analysis at Bodenseewerk Perkin Elmer, Überlingen, Germany. He was involved in major developments in the field of method development and instrumentation in Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy. From 2002 to 2011 he was an employee of Analytik Jena AG, Jena and Überlingen, Germany. He was head of the branch office AJ Überlingen for 8 years and director of Research and development of the Analytik Jena Corporation for 5 years. At this time his responsibilities covered atomic spectroscopy (AAS, CSAAS, ICP-OES), molecular absorption and fluorescence, elemental analysis and products for life science. His publication activities include more than 80 papers, 4 book contributions and two monographs.He was organizer of numerous symposia, conferences and tutorial courses worldwide. He was chairman of the „Deutsche Arbeitskreis für Analytische Spektroskopie (DAAS) "the German Spectroscopy Society within the German Chemical Society (GDCh) for four years, vice chairman of the DAAS "Analytische Fachgruppe" of the GDCh for 8 years and board member of the executive board of the German Chemical Society (GDCh), a society with more than 30000 scientific members for 4 years. In 2007 he received the Jerzy Fijalkowski Award of the Polish Spectroscopic Society and in 2010 the Medal of the Ioannes Marcus Marci Spectroscopic Society of the Czech Republic, both awards in recognition of outstanding contributions in Analytical Spectroscopy. Since 2012 he is consultant for research and development of analytical instruments and scientific analytical projects in the field of Instrumental Analytical Chemistry. In this function he was working on a regular consulting basis with various instrument manufacturers in Europe, China, and United States of America, mainly in the field of elemental optical spectroscopy Frank Vanhaecke received a PhD from Ghent University (UGent) in 1992. He carried out postdoctoral research at UGent and the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz. He is now Senior Full Professor in Analytical Chemistry at UGent, where he also leads the ‘Atomic & Mass Spectrometry – A&MS’ research group, specialized in the determination, speciation and isotopic analysis of (ultra)trace elements via ICP-MS. Frank is (co)author of ca. 470 papers in peer-reviewed journals. In 2011, he received a ‘European Plasma Spectrochemistry Award’, in 2013, he was designated ‘Fellow of the Society for Applied Spectroscopy – SAS’, in 2017, he received the ‘Lester Strock Award’ from SAS and in 2023 the ‘Theophilus Redwood Prize’ from the Royal Society of Chemistry RSC. At UGent, Frank is currently vice-president of the Department of Chemistry, member of the Executive Board and chairman of the Business Development Center ChemTech. José-Luis Todolí is a full Professor of Analytical Chemistry at the University of Alicante in Spain, head of the Applied Chemical Analysis research group and deputy vice chancellor for Knowledge Transfer. In 1991 he graduated in chemistry and in 1994 obtained his PhD degree at the University of Alicante. The same year, he was appointed as an Assistant Professor at the Department of Analytical Chemistry, Nutrition and Food Science at the same institution. In 1997, he was awarded with a European Marie Curie Grant and he performed one-year postdoctoral studies at the Université Claude Bernard in Lyon under the supervision of Professor Jean-Michel Mermet. In 2000 he obtained a permanent position as Associate Professor at the University of Alicante and, finally, in march of 2012 he gained the full professor position that he has occupied since then. The goals of his research have been the development of ICP liquid sample introduction systems; the study of mechanisms of non-spectral interferences in ICP-based techniques and their further correction; the development of calibration strategies; the elemental analysis of petroleum products and biofuels, environmental, clinical and food samples. More recently he has been involved in projects related with laser ablation, development of new chromatographic methodologies and liquid-liquid extraction. He has co-authored around 120 articles, several books and book chapters together with three patents. With around 300 contributions to international conferences, some of them awarded, he has given close to 40 invited lectures. More recently, in 2018, he was awarded by the Spanish Society of Researchers (dependent on the Spanish Research Council) for his contributions to the field of atomic spectrometry. He has collaborated with companies within the frame of more than 50 private contracts.
