About DCS

The history of the Dutch Chemometrics Society starts in 1972, with the merger of the discussion groups "Automation" and "Computerization" into the "Laboratory Optimization" group of the Royal Netherlands Chemical Society. This discussion group, which was driven by first generation chemometricians like A. Dijkstra, G. Kateman and H.C. Smit, was later re-named into the "Working Party on Chemometrics", which also functions as the Dutch Chapter of the International Chemometrics Society. Two important initiatives taken by this group were the organization of a series of short courses on chemometrics for industry and the start of a series of international conferences on chemometrics in analytical chemistry (CAC). CAC I (1978), II (1982) and IV (1988) were held in The Netherlands.

Present activities of the Dutch Chemometrics Society include an annual symposium on chemometrics, workshops on more focused topics, as well as contributions to activities of (other working parties of) the Royal Netherlands Chemical Society. The symposium follows a "classical" format, whereas the workshops present a forum for advanced, in depth discussion in a very informal setting. With the dissemination of chemometrics into industry and institutes the need for such workshops grew rapidly, since chemometricians rarely find discussion partners in their immediate working environment. In 1989 three such workshops, one on Multivariate Data Analysis (MVA workshop), one on Experimental Design and Optimization, and one on Quality Assurance started with a meeting frequency of three times per year. The latter two workshops dried out of new topics, but the Multivariate Data Analysis Workshop is still going strong. In 2005, a new discussion group was started with a focus on the analysis of proteomics and metabolomics data (Bio-MVA workshop).

The second generation chemometricians also started a new conference series: the International Chemometrics Research Meeting (ICRM), which was held in The Netherlands in 1994, 1998, 2002, 2006, 2011, 2014 and 2017. ICRM has a format which makes it complementary to other conference series in this field. Key elements are: extended exchange of ideas in an informal atmosphere, limited number of lectures on a few selected topics, scheduled plenary discussion sessions, plenty of time for informal discussion, and continuous poster display.

Participants to the Dutch Chemometrics Society activities come from universities (40%), industry (40%) and institutes (20%).