Shortly after its successful start at Nov. 1981 at Washington, D.C., USA the Scientific Committee was expanded by two European scientists: Jan Christer Janson from Pharmacia, Uppsala, Sweden, and Klaus K. Unger from the University of Mainz, Germany. The essential intention was to widen the knowledge base in this rapidly emerging field of biopolymer separation and to undertake actions to move the conference two Europe at a biannual cycle.
KKU could convince Bengt Falck from Pharmacia, Uppsala to step in as a major sponsor of the conference. The first European ISPPP took then place at the famous Leuws Hotel at Monaco with Mike Hirtenstein, Pharmacia, as Executive Director. After the fifth ISPPP at
Nov. 1985 at Toronto the ISPPP was regularly alternating between Europe and the US ( see Table 1: Survey on ISPPP conferences 1981 – 2006). Pharmacia sponsored the ISPPP meetings till the XVIth, held at Nov. 1996 at Luxembourg. There were several outstanding features which contributed to the success of the ISPPP series in this period:
In contrast to to-days ruling the ISPPP conferences from the 2nd to the XVI, with the exception of the XIIth and the XVth, were prepared entirely by a team-action of five members of the Scientific committee as indicated at Table 1, i.e. no single chairman was elected, but the whole Committee took the responsibility. For example the scientific program was always established in a two to three day planning meeting in between the conferences. I have never again experienced such an effective and thorough preparation of a scientific meeting.Tim Wehr from Varian left the Committee after the VIIth ISPPP and was replaced by Joe de Stefano from Rockland Technologies, later Agilent Technologies, PA, USA. The second aspect which heavily contributed to the success of the ISPPP’s in Europe was the strong impact and excellent contributions of Bengt Österlund, Pharmacia, as a Symposium Manager. Thirdly, as it is documented in the last row in Table 1 the scientific outcome of the individual ISPPPs was published in special issues in J. Chromatogr. under the supervision of Eric Heftmann, Elsevier Science Publishers, Amsterdam., (17 volumes in total). After the ISPPP in Luxembourg in 1996 the following ISPPP’s in Europe were held in Vienna, Austria 1998 (Alois Jungbauer as chairman), Lubljana, Slowenia 2000 (Duro Josic as chairman) and Heidelberg, Germany 2002 (Fritz Lottspeich as chairman),whereas the US meetings took place in Florida (Delray Beach 1999, Orlando 2001, Delray Beach 2003 and St. Pete Beach 2005 with Joe de Stefano and Mark Schure as chairmen.
To strengthen the meeting in Europe ISPPP 2004 was held back to back with the SPICA symposium, the European PREP meeting in Aachen, Germany, with Alois Jungbauer as chairman. The idea behind this venture was to offer the delegates from industry and academia a unique opportunity to get an inside view into process chromatography and related techniques of small molecules and biopolymers. This joint exercise organized by the DECHEMA, Frankfurt/Main, Germany turned out to be very successful. After returning to Orlando again for ISPPP 2005, the next European ISPPP 2006 was held again jointly with SPICA in Innsbruck, Austria, where a number of Biotech Research Institutes are located.
Unfortunately, it was decided to discontinue the ISPPP / SPICA cooperation. Therefore, after the meeting 2007 in Orlando, Florida, where the quality of the scientific programme would have deserved a larger attendance, the upcoming 2008 ISPPP will be held in Baden-Baden, returning there after a 22 years.

I personally extend a warm invitation to all of you to join this meeting in a pleasant environment together with my co-chairman Rainer Bischoff.

Nr.

Date

Place

Chairme(a)n

Symposium Manager

Publication

I

Nov.1981

Washington,DC, USA

F. Regnier, T. Wehr, M.T.W. Hearn

L. Chow, Sh. Schlessinger

II

Dec. 1982

Baltimore, MD, USA

F. Regnier, T. Wehr, M.T.W. Hearn, J.C. Janson, K.K.Unger

P. Batchelder, Sh. Schlessinger

J. Chrom. 266, 1983

III

Nov. 1983

Monaco, Monaco

F. Regnier, T. Wehr, M.T.W. Hearn, J.C. Janson, K.K.Unger

M.Hirtenstein, Sh. Schlessinger

J. Chrom. 296 & 297, 1984

IV

Dec. 1984

Baltimore, MD, USA

F. Regnier, T. Wehr, M.T.W. Hearn, J.C. Janson, K.K.Unger

Sh. Schlessinger

J. Chrom. 326 & 327, 1985

V

Nov. 1 985

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

F. Regnier, T. Wehr, M.T.W. Hearn, J.C. Janson, K.K.Unger

P. Llewellyn, Sh. Schlessinger

J. Chrom. 359, 1986

VI

Oct. 1986

Baden-Baden, Germany

F. Regnier, T. Wehr, M.T.W. Hearn, J.C. Janson, K.K.Unger

B. Österlund

J. Chrom. 397, 1987

VII

Nov. 1987

Washington, DC, USA

F. Regnier, T. Wehr, M.T.W. Hearn, J.C. Janson, K.K.Unger

C.T. Wehr, Sh. Schlessinger

J. Chrom. 443 & 444. 1988

VIII

Oct./Nov. 1988

Co penhagen, Denmark

F. Regnier, J. De Stefano,
M.T.W. Hearn, J.C. Janson, K.K.Unger

B. Österlund

J. Chrom. 476, 1988

IX

Nov. 1989

Philadelphia, PA, USA

F. Regnier, J. De Stefano,
M.T.W. Hearn, J.C. Janson, K.K.Unger

A. Goldberg

J. Chrom. 512, 1990

X

Oct. 1990

Wiesbaden, Germany

F. Regnier, J. De Stefano,
M.T.W. Hearn, J.C. Janson, K.K.Unger

B. Österlund

J. Chrom. 548, 1991

XI

Oct. 1991

Washington,DC, USA

F. Regnier, J. De Stefano,
M.T.W. Hearn, J.C. Janson, K.K.Unger

B. Österlund

J. Chrom. 599, 1992

XII

Nov./Dec. 1992

Sydney, Australia.

M.T.W. Hearn

D. Chambers, J. Hodder

XIII

Nov./Dec. 1993

San Fransisco, CA, USA

F. Regnier, J. De Stefano,
  M.T.W. Hearn, J.C. Janson, K.K.Unger

P. Batchelder

XIV

Nov. 1994

Heidelberg, Germany

F. Regnier, J. De Stefano,
  M.T.W. Hearn, J.C. Janson, K.K.Unger

B. Österlund

J. Chrom. 711,1995

XV

Nov. 1995

Boston, MA, USA

F. Regnier

J. Heine

J.Chrom. 743,1996

XVI

Nov. 1996

Luxembourg

F. Regnier, J. De Stefano,
  M.T.W. Hearn, J. C. Janson, K.K.Unger

B. Österlund

XVII

Oct. 1997

Rockville, MA

USA

J. De Stefano

J. Cunningham

XVIII

Nov. 1998

Vienna, Austria

A. Jungbauer

G. Prohazka

J. Chrom. 852,1999

XIX

Oct./Nov. 1999

Delray Beach, FL,USA

J. De Stefano

J. Cunningham

J. Chrom 890, 2000

XX

Nov. 2000

Lubljana, Slowenia

D. Josic

A. Strancar

XXI

Nov. 2001

Orlando, FL, USA

J. Cunningham

XXII

Nov. 2002

Heidelberg, Germany

F. Lottspeich

DECHEMA, Frankfurt/M.

XXIII

Nov. 2003

West Palm Beach; FL, USA

J. DeStefano, M. Schure

J. Cunningham

XIV

Oct. 2004

Aachen, Germany

A. Jungbauer

DECHEMA, Frankfurt/M.

XXV

Nov. 2005

St. Pete Beach,FL, USA

J. DeStefano, M. Schure

J. Cunningham

XXVI

Oct. 2006

Innsbruck, Austria

C. Voss

DECHEMA, Frankfurt/M

XXVII

October 2007

Orlando,   Florida, USA

M. Schure, J.J de Stefano

Giuffrida Associates, Washington

XXVIII

Sept. 2008

Baden-Baden, Germany

K.K.Unger, R. Bischoff

DECHEMA, Frankfurt/M.