2023 NACRW Short course
Sunday, July 23, 2023
8:00 am to 4:00 pm
Cost : $375 (lunch provided by NACRW)
"Squeezing more out of Laboratory Analyses with QA/QC"
Instructor: Dr. Jens Andersen
Department of Chemical and Forensic Sciences
Botswana International University
of Science and Technology
Palapye, Botswana
The short course will focus on applications, stories from real-world experience and writing of new guidelines that are based on scientific methodology. The short course of the 2023 NACRW may be a turning point in the history of QA/QC and metrology that will improve the understanding of QA/QC on how to perform research in general.
A vast amount of resources is devoted to quality assurance (QA) and quality control (QC) in the industry and academia. Very frequently, disputes between companies on issues of QA/QC must be resolved in the courtroom in lengthy litigations that involve numerous expert witnesses of analytical chemistry and trace analysis.
In academia, disputes are not often resolved by litigations, but issues of QA/QC do give rise to many heated debates. Many years of intense research and publication of guidelines should have resolved the issues of QA/QC, but this is not the case. Therefore, research and action are needed. The short course addresses the issues of QA/QC in three stages:
1) Evaluation of the current system of ISO standards and certified references. Demonstration of pitfalls and shortcomings of the system, which resulted in a quest for improvements to QA/QC in general
2) The initiatives of the European Commission and the efforts introduced by the concomitant organisations as well as other international organisations of QA/QC that were established to improve chemical analysis with emphasis on performing quantitation correctly
3) Recent advances to introduce QA/QC to research and academia and the efforts that were exerted to simplify practices and procedures. Some real-world applications and demonstration of examples of QA/QC that may be used to improve methodologies and guidelines
