A Word from Our Director

In 2006 CPAC celebrated its 22th Anniversary continuing the strategy of 'adaptive response' to the evolving needs for real time analysis.  At the Spring Sponsor meeting, Bruce R. Kowalski, Professor emeritus and CPAC co-founder, described how he envisioned and ultimately created CPAC. Kowalski’s goals in 1984 were to provide a forum for industry to foster improvements in their ability to monitor their processes, a way that would save money, time and resources.  Two decades later CPAC is still effective in providing that forum and while our objective has been refined, our success has come via research projects that respond to both the current and future needs of industry.  During this year we have graduated our 135^th Ph.D. and noted our 390^th publication.

CPAC originated as a National Science Foundation Industry/University Cooperative Research Center located at the University of Washington. CPAC has been a groundbreaker in demonstrating Industry/University/Government collaborations, successfully operating in an academic environment while responding to the needs of its industrial sponsors.  This success has also benefited other UW and NSF centers who have often modeled CPAC organizational and operation procedures.

CPAC has continued to foster a multidisciplinary and academic/industrial bicultural nature.  At the 2006 Spring (May) Sponsor meeting, CPAC-funded researchers presented current project results as well as proposals for continued funding.  In addition, CPAC offered a workshop on chemometrics and a tutorial on the subject of “Corrosion Monitoring” that brought together experts from the Material Testing Institute and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory as well as a variety of industry case studies.  Creating a forum for discussion and technical development for corrosion monitoring is a potential CPAC initiative. A very successful one-day workshop on the New Sampling and Sensor Initiative (NeSSI) was held after the meeting to review the status of developments at a variety of industrial component manufacturers and end-users.  NeSSI, now an approved ISA standard, has adopted communication specifications making the system 'smart' to increase its functionality and meet hazardous area requirements. The increased flexibility of NeSSI is being demonstrated by the incorporation of new CPAC and vendor analytical devices on the NeSSI platform.  Another NeSSI workshop is being planned for after the May 2005 Spring Sponsor meeting.

The 2006 CPAC Summer Institute (July) continued the CPAC mission of outreach to its sponsors and former students through continuing education. The theme of the meeting,  “Micro-instrumentation for High Throughput Experimentation and Process Intensification,” will be continued this summer (July 19-21, 2006) with a number of key participants in the areas of micro-reactors, reaction engineering, and micro-analytical technologies already expressing interest in presenting their work in this brainstorming environment.

CPAC’s emphasis on initiatives that have broad sponsor interest has continued to mature.  Encouraged by the success of NeSSI, CPAC has launched several other initiatives and platforms in direct response to our members’ needs, including: the Fermentation Monitoring and Control Platform (FermI), the Chemometrics On-Line Initiative (COPA), and a Micro-Reactor Instrumentation Platform for high throughput experimentation.

CPAC continues to be involved in the FDA focus on Process Analytical Technology (PAT) to improve pharmaceutical quality and costs by achieving better process understanding. CPAC has participated in FDA committees, symposia, and training of FDA personnel, as well as being active at many other key national meetings, which have academic, industrial, and government significance.  In addition to numerous invited presentations, in 2006 we will again have a CPAC booth at IFPAC, PITTCON, and ISA.

The present chair of the CPAC industrial advisory board (IAB) is Steve Doherty, Eli Lilly, and the chair-elect is Carol Zrybko, Kraft Foods.  They serve as a communication link to the steering team of the IAB and the overall sponsor network on a number of communication and operational topics within CPAC.

"I am happy to discuss our programs as well as answering any questions you may have about participating in CPAC during 2006.  If you're not currently a member and are interested in learning more about joining CPAC, please give me a call."

Mel Koch, CPAC Director