The European Award for Plasma Spectrochemistry has been donated by Agilent Technologies to promote analytical plasma spectrochemical developments and applications in Europe. The prize will be awarded for either a single outstanding piece of work in the field of plasma spectrochemistry, usually carried out after a PhD thesis, or for continuous important contri­butions to this field. The award is not limited to any age of the candidate but he/she must be an European national or the work must have been carried out in an European laboratory.

The prize will be awarded every second year and presented at the “European Winter Conference on Plasma Spectrochemistry”. The winner is invited to present a lecture at this conference following the award ceremony. The prize consists of EUR 5000, coverage of the usual costs for participating at the European conference, and a trip to Japan to attend a scientific event or seminar, where the winner will also be invited to present a lecture. The first winner of the award was

Prof. Dr. Detlef Günter from ETH of Zürich, in recognition of his innovative methodical developments and applications in geochemistry using laser ablation ICP-MS technique.

Applications or nominations for the 2005 European Award for Plasma Spectrochemistry, to be presented at the 2005 European Winter Conference on Plasma Spectrochemistry between 30 January - 3 February 2005 in Budapest, Hungary must be sent to the chairman of the jury until Jun. 30, 2004, at the latest dead-line.

Applications or nominations must clearly describe the subject of the scientific work to be con­sidered by not more than two pages and corresponding reprint(s) must be attached. A curriculum vitae as well as a publication list together with the contact details of the candidate must also be submitted. An electronic version of the hard copy of the application or nomination with attachments is requested.