Pittcon Editors' Awards


Pittcon Editors’ Awards honoured the best new products on show at the Pittsburgh Conference on Analytical Chemistry and Applied Spectroscopy, or Pittcon, for 20 years from 1996 having been established by Dr Gordon Wilkinson, managing editor of Analytical Instrument Industry Report. On 8 March 2015, the event returned to the Morial Convention Center in New Orleans and this was the last occasion when the awards were presented.
The independent awards, which represented the results of an informal poll of leading editors, had become an important feature of the world's largest trade show for the laboratory equipment industry. Pittcon organisers and media center supported the scheme and provided details and photographs on the exhibition's Press and Media Information page. In 2016 the group of editors and journalists that formed the core of the judging panel reluctantly decided to discontinue the awards program citing gradually dwindling support from ever-busier media representatives.

History and organisation

The awards were started because of the challenge that editors faced of effectively covering the trade show, which in 2015 hosted 925 exhibitors. New exhibitors at the Morial Convention Center totalled 130 companies. Walking past every booth at an event such as this represents a trek of over.
Accredited media representatives, of whom there were more than 150 per year, were invited to list up to three new products on a nomination form provided on registration at the Media Center. Editors were invited to attend a judging session towards the end of the trade show. They reviewed entries and voted on the nominated products. The only criterion was that products must have appeared at the exhibition for the first time, but winning products usually featured innovations in technology or industrial design, or enabled new analytical applications.
Gold, Silver and Bronze winners were determined and plaques were awarded to the booth personnel of the winning companies on the final morning of the four-day exposition. Other nominated products received an Honourable Mention.

Award winners

Winners for the period 1996 to 2015, together with the names of their products, are listed below. Of the award winners, the majority were the largest instrument makers in the industry, but over 30 small companies or start-ups went home with awards, illustrating that editors were able to use their technical expertise to spot innovations irrespective of the marketing budgets of exhibitors.
Company names are listed in the format used at the date of the award, although may have now changed as a result of change of ownership. Trademarks are acknowledged, but not indicated; readers should check corporate literature or websites for current intellectual property rights. Web links are only provided for award-winning products up to five years old. Products introduced earlier have usually been updated with more recent models.
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