Analytical chemistry events celebrate advances and journal

More than 100 delegates attended the Analytical Research Forum at Burlington House World-class analytical chemists gathered to share exciting developments across a range of research areas – and celebrate a milestone anniversary for one of the discipline’s oldest and most influential journals.

The Analytical Research Forum (ARF) kicked off the Burlington House double-header in June, ahead of a special symposium marking the influential Analyst’s 150th anniversary. Breakthroughs benefitting research and work into health, sustainability and public safety showcased the field’s continued relevance beyond the laboratory.

Panel sessions with industry and academic experts, poster competitions showcasing researchers’ work, and speaking opportunities for early-career scientists ensured the two events reflected both the depth and diversity of the field.

Opening the ARF, Dr Philip Kay of JMP highlighted analytical science’s central role in enabling progress across disciplines, while emphasising the need for collaboration to tackle increasingly complex global challenges.

He later described the event as ‘spectacular’ and had ‘exceeded his expectations’, before adding “Analytical science has always been evolving, and there's always innovations in the hardware and in the methods,” he explained.

To be successful with data – whether it’s used by us as scientists or by AI – we need more data and we need the best possible quality of data. We must therefore always strive to measure better and produce better data, faster, cheaper, quicker – it'll never not be important. Dr Philip Kay

The events highlighted the importance of analytical chemistry as an underpinning discipline that enables and facilitates advances across science, from medicine to environmental monitoring.

With more than 100 researchers attending the ARF, Monday had the feel of a broad community gathering that showcased cutting-edge science. Tuesday’s Analyst 150 symposium, meanwhile, also served as a powerful reminder of how much analytical science has influenced the wider world since the journal’s founding in 1876 – and how much the wider world has in turn shaped the direction of the field.

Delegates at the Analyst 150th Anniversary Symposium

Wide-ranging applications highlight analytical chemistry’s impact

One of the defining features of the first of the two events was the range of applications, with speakers demonstrating how analytical chemistry underpins everything from consumer safety to advanced materials science.

Professor Kate Kemsley (University of East Anglia) explored analytical strategies for complex chemical systems, with her work highlighted how increasingly sophisticated techniques can help identify subtle differences – an essential step in ensuring quality, safety and authenticity.

I'm struck by the mix of academia and industry, industry-sponsored academic work, blue-sky academic work, and talks by people at the start of their careers doing PhDs and people towards the other end of their careers like me. It was bustling and there’s a lot of positivity and enthusiasm. Professor Kate Kemsley

Elsewhere, Amy Jackson (University of Exeter/PepsiCo) showed how vibrational spectroscopy can rapidly detect adulteration in products, while Nicolas Spiesshofer (University of Cambridge) demonstrated how advanced materials can enhance spectroscopic signals, allowing scientists to detect substances that were previously too faint to measure.

Taken together, these talks offered a reminder that analytical chemistry’s greatest strength lies in its versatility – providing the tools needed to answer very different questions across a wide range of industries and fields.

Individual insights as health and diagnostics capabilities grow

Advances in analytical science are increasingly shaping healthcare, with both events highlighting how new techniques are enabling more detailed and reliable insights into biological systems.

Professor Melanie Bailey (King’s College London) presented work on single-cell and multimodal imaging on Tuesday, showing how combining techniques can reveal biological processes at an unprecedented level of detail.

At ARF, Dr Jim Walker (University of Bristol) explored picolitre droplet analysis for protein characterisation – working with extremely small volumes to better preserve how proteins behave in their natural state – while the Analyst symposium included Dr Karen Faulds (University of Strathclyde), whose presentation centred on the development of sensitive and selective biosensors using surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy.

Together, these approaches reflect a growing shift towards shift towards understanding biology at even smaller scales and exploring potential new applications.

Dr Jim Walker, of the University of Bristol, won the speaker prize at the Analytical Research Forum for his presentation

Inspired innovation through data and AI

A dedicated panel discussion as part of ARF brought together experts from across academia, industry and the public sector to gather their assessments on what AI might mean for analytical research. As analytical techniques become more powerful, the volume of data they generate continues to grow – making tools that can process and interpret that information increasingly essential.

Dr Lucy Morgan (Pfizer), Professor Cian O’Donovan (University College London), Professor Chris Barnes (National Physical Laboratory), and Professor Kemsley discussed the value of these new tools, emphasising the importance of the human element in applying them to science.

The panellists noted that while large language models have taken over the public discourse about AI, a much wider range of tools has been enabling analytical chemistry for well over a decade. These technologies can be an asset in analytical chemistry now and into the future, but the panellists shared the view that human input will continue to be needed to interpret results and ensure quality.

(L to R) Dr Cian O'Donovan, Professor Chris Barnes, Dr Lucy Morgan, Professor Kate Kemsley and Dr Philip Kay discuss AI's involvement in analytical research

This shift was not confined to the panel discussion itself. Across the ARF programme, talks such as Dr Lukasz Pieszczek’s work on hyperspectral imaging highlighted how increasingly complex datasets are being turned into usable insights through advanced data analysis.

Similar themes were present across the Analyst symposium through digital and app-based tools that are reshaping how analytical results are interpreted. In that sense, AI and data-driven thinking felt like an underlying current running through much of the programme.

Driving sustainability

Analytical chemistry continues to play a crucial role in identifying and understanding environmental challenges, from global pollutants to complex natural systems.

Professor Damien Arrigan (pictured left) – who travelled from Curtin University, Western Australia for the two events – explored research trends in the electrochemical analysis of PFAS, also known as forever chemicals.

His presentation during Analyst 150 also delved into his own work on a potential portable analyser that could in time become a valuable tool for detecting quantities of PFAS in water sources, helping to cut the need for sample collection for subsequent lab testing.

Dr Nicholle Bell (right) receives her 2024 RSC Environment, Sustainability and Energy Early Career Prize from Dr Zoe Ayres

Meanwhile, in her RSC Prize lecture, 2024 Environment, Sustainability and Energy Early Career Prize winner Dr Nicholle Bell highlighted how analytical science can help protect one of the world’s most important carbon sinks in the fight against climate change: peat.

The research from Dr Bell - who is NERC Independent Research Fellow at the University of Edinburgh - and her team shows the vast majority of the UK’s peatlands are at least partially damaged, while the talk emphasised that measures to restore peatlands take an extremely long time to return these areas to full health.

Whether tackling global pollutants or more localised environmental systems, these talks highlighted the crucial role analytical chemistry plays in providing the evidence needed to inform better decision-making.

Doing more with less via ultra-sensitive detection technologies

The ability to give clarity on the make-up and safety of food, drink and other facets of everyday life has been a core aspect of the discipline for decades. The original edition of Analyst published in 1876 included work focused on safeguarding human health and that focus remains a consideration for many across the field today.

Professor Stephen Husbands presents data showing the drugs identified in vapes analysed as part of his team's research

That was evidenced by University of Bath’s Professor Stephen Husbands, whose team has identified a way to reduce harm and avoidable deaths by being able to detect potent drugs using a portable and fast device.

Part of the 2025 Horizon Prize-winning Harm Reduction team, he laid bare some of the terrifying truths about drugs in prisons and, increasingly, in so-called ‘liquid THC’ vapes bought online by children in his presentation.

Prisons, police forces and charities have all provided feedback to decrease the risk of drugs to people who are already vulnerable, and to monitor new drug trends as they emerge. Now, thanks to a new device developed by the team, those working on the frontline can detect substances on-site and in seconds using just small samples.

Across both events, there was a strong emphasis on detecting ever smaller quantities of substances, more quickly and often outside traditional laboratory environments.

New tools and technologies shaping what’s possible

Alongside this range of applications, the programme also highlighted the tools and technologies making that progress possible, from advances in instrumentation to increasingly integrated analytical approaches.

Closing the ARF event, Dr Hamish Stewart (Thermo Fisher Scientific) outlined some of the exciting advances he and his team have made on multi-reflection analysers. As lead scientist of the 2025 Horizon Prize-winning Orbitrap Astral Team, he explained some of the successes, near-misses and challenges faced by his 40-strong group in developing cutting-edge tools in a comparatively short time.

After giving his RSC Prize lecture, he said of the award win: “Most of my colleagues have their certificates framed on their wall or on their desk, and I think it gives them a lot of energy, a lot of pride."

Dr Hamish Stewart gives his RSC Prize lecture for winning the 2025 Analytical Science Horizon Prize

The best way to honour our oldest journal? A piece of cake

The Analyst symposium brought several months’ worth of celebrations of the pioneering journal to a close, offering a moment to reflect on its legacy and the future direction of analytical science.

With members of the Editorial Board travelling in from across the world, the event underlined the journal’s global reach and enduring influence within the analytical community. Marking the milestone, Professor Bailey - the Editor-in-Chief of Analyst - cut a commemorative cake, capturing both the celebratory mood of the day and the sense of continuity that defines the journal.

She noted: “There are loads of things that I’m excited about. First, we need to make lab-based techniques smarter, capable of integrating with different technologies. They may be doing multimodal analysis, taking the data from different techniques, be that imaging or bulk. We need to make them faster so we can run more samples. We need to make them more sensitive so that we can analyse smaller things.

“There are also a huge number of people developing devices that we can take out into the field, becoming miniaturised and becoming driven by smartphones, which is really exciting. Not everything has to be lab-based, and those measurements certainly have a huge role to play."

The discussions across the two days highlighted how journal and field continues to be relevant as ever. As analytical techniques grow more powerful, more data-driven and increasingly embedded in real-world challenges, Analyst looks set to remain firmly at the cutting edge for years to come.

The value of community

Another celebration at the ARF saw Dr Zoë Ayres receive the RSC Analytical Community Presidents Medal in recognition for her years of hard work. Since first volunteering with the RSC a decade ago, she has worked to broaden participation and improve representation in chemistry as well as influencing policy, supporting early-career researchers and looking at how the analytical community can address some of the world's biggest challenges.

Dr Ayres, who is the Head of Laboratory Facilities for the Open University and also sits on the Board of Trustees for the Analytical Chemistry Trust Fund, said: "Analytical science has a real big role to play when it comes to taking blue-sky research and then applying it to real-world problems.

"I have come back to the Analytical Research Forum time and time again because it brings together people from all different aspects of analytical science and that allows you to share and cross-pollinate ideas, which is really important.”

She added of her volunteering work and as Analytical Science Community Council President: "The more I've got involved with the RSC, the more connections that you make and the bigger difference you can have. I've come into projects that have started before me and now projects that were started by me will continue after me so I'm delighted to be handing over to the next president [Victoria Hilborne] because I know that she's going to do amazing work."

Dr Zoë Ayres (right) receives the RSC Analytical Community Presidents Medal

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