Finalists for Pittcon's excellence awards released

Pittcon, the world’s leading conference and exposition for laboratory science, is pleased to announce the selection of eight finalists in the first ever Pittcon Today Excellence Awards conducted by CE Communications, official publishers of Pittcon Today and Pittcon Buzz.

These awards were designed to recognize innovations at this year’s exposition and offer a new channel for exhibitors to showcase their scientific advancements. From a UV spectrometer, to cutting-edge tools advancing biology, to robotics facilitating more efficient medical practices, judges viewed all types of scientific innovations and selected finalists out of a diverse pool of more than 80 submissions.

Gold, Silver and Bronze awards were categorized in three groups based on company reported sales. The winning companies and products were:

Less than $10,000,000 in sales

• GOLD – Biovendor Instruments - MALDI COLONYST®
• SILVER – Elemission Inc.- Mission Coriosity
• Bronze was withdrawn

$10,000, 000 – $100,000,000 in sales

• GOLD – Hirschmann Inc. - Opus Dispenser
• SILVER – Metrohm - Process Ion Chromatograph
• BRONZE – Tosoh Bioscience LLC - TSKgel Protein A-5PW HLPC Column

More than $100,000,000 in sales

• GOLD – Waters Corporation - ACQUITY QDa Mass Detector
• SILVER – Phenomenex - β-Gone β-Glucuronidase Removal products
• BRONZE – Beckman Coulter Life Sciences - New Optima AUC Analytical Ultracentrifuge

A blue chip panel of judges, consisting of thought leaders from across academia, industry and trade media selected this year’s winners based on submissions’ ingenuity, creativity, implementation and outcomes, as well as the products’ projected impact on the industry and wider public.

When asked to comment on their winning the Bronze, Beckman Coulter’s Chad Schwartz, AUC Product Manager stated:

We are beyond excited to be considered as one of the eight finalists for Pittcon's Excellence Award. Such a prestigious honor validates all of the hard work and passion that went into the development of this new technology. Beckman Coulter continues to be on the forefront of innovation and the Optima AUC is only the latest example in a storied history of products that have contributed to diagnosing and curing many of the world's diseases."

Gold recipient, Jonathan Scott, Product Manager, ACQUITY QDa Detector for Waters commented, "Since the introduction of the ACQUITY QDa Detector in 2013, we at Waters have been delighted to see the positive impact that mass detection has had on scientists across different disciplines. The main objective behind the ACQUITY QDa project was to remove the barriers that typically prevented scientists having immediate access to mass data, specifically in chromatography laboratories."

"Whether used for reducing method development times, improving the efficiency of compound purification workflows or even for teaching the fundamentals of MS to undergraduates, the ACQUITY QDa continues to broaden the accessibility of mass data to our LC customers.”

This year’s finalists are among nearly 800 exhibitors at the Chicago event. Pittcon attracts attendees from industry, academia and government from 90 countries worldwide. Pittcon 2018 will be held February 26 through March 1, 2018, in Orlando, Florida.