Your Guide to the European Winter Conference on Plasma Spectrochemistry

The 20th European Winter Conference on Plasma Spectrochemistry (EWCPS 2025) is scheduled to take place from March 2 to 7, 2025, in Berlin, Germany. This biennial conference serves as an opportunity for the spectroscopy community to come together and share the latest technologies, and applications in analytical plasma spectrochemistry (1). This year’s conference will be held at the Henry Ford Building at Freie Universitat Berlin, and attendees have an option to attend the event in person or virtually (1).

Panoramic view at the Berlin city center at sunset | Image Credit: © frank peters - stock.adobe.com

The EWCPS conference program features sessions dedicated to a wide range of topics related to analytical plasma spectrochemistry and associated mass and emission spectrometric techniques. Featured techniques include inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), glow discharge MS (GD-MS), ICP–atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES), direct current plasma–AES (DCP-AES), microwave plasma–AES (MP-AES), laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS), and laser ablation molecular isotopic spectrometry (LAMIS) (1). Attendees can look forward to numerous plenary, keynote, and heritage lectures, as well as special sessions and technical short courses designed to foster knowledge exchange and collaboration.

One of the most notable events at the Winter Conference on Plasma Spectrochemistry is the presentation of the Emerging Leader in Atomic Spectroscopy Award. This year, the award will be presented to Benjamin T. Manard, who is a research associate at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (2). Manard is being honored for his research in nuclear material characterization and isotope ratio analysis (2).

A notable highlight of EWCPS 2025 is the dedicated ICP-TOF-MS session, featuring the latest advancements and applications from leading scientists in the field. This session will commence with an introduction by Detlef Günther, Full Professor at the Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences at ETH Zurich, followed by flash talk presentations and a dynamic poster exhibition (1). Additionally, the Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry (JAAS) ICP-TOF-MS Award will be presented to recognize research utilizing ICP-TOFMS technology, with a focus on early-career researchers (1).

Several awards will be given out at the conference. These include the following:

• European Award for Plasma Spectrochemistry
• European Rising Star
• JAAS Emerging Investigator
• JAAS ICP-ToF-MS Award
• Student Awards
• Emerging Leader in Atomic Spectroscopy Award (3)

Apart from the awards given out at EWCPS, the conference breaks down the talks int numerous topics. There are 16 topic areas that attendees can explore at the conference:

• Metals in Medical/Biological, Clinical, and Pharmaceutical Science: This topic area addresses how plasma spectrochemistry techniques are advancing the roles and analysis of metals in the medical, clinical, and pharmaceutical spaces (4).
• Trace Elements in Living Systems: Talks in this topic area will focus on the impact of trace elements in biological systems (4).
• Environmental Analysis: In this topic area, attendees will have the opportunity to hear about how plasma spectrochemistry techniques are being used to analyze environmental samples (4).
• Solid Sampling Techniques–Glow Discharges, AAS, ETV: Talks in this topic area will discuss method for analyzing solid samples. Techniques such as atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) will be discussed (4).
• New Instrumentation, Interfaces: Talks in this topic area will go over the latest advances in instrumentation that is helping advance plasma spectrochemistry (4).
• Recycling, Technical Critical Elements: In this topic area, speakers will discuss the analysis of critical elements in recycling processes (4).
• Bio-Imaging: Talks in this session focus on how spectroscopy is being used in biological imaging applications (4).
• Isotope (Ratio) Analysis: These talks will focus on measuring the isotope ratios in various samples (4).
• Laser Assisted Spectroscopy: Laser technology has been used to enhance spectroscopic techniques (4). Talks in this topic area will explore these improvements.
• Speciation and Metallomics: These talks explore the chemical forms of metals and their distribution (4).
• Metrology/Quality of Measurement Results/Reference Materials: These talks look at quality assurance in measurements of reference materials (4).
• Single Particle ICP-MS: These talks focus on the application of ICP-MS and how it is being used to analyze individual particles (4).
• Sample Preparation/Matrix Separation: The talks in this topic area will discuss preparation and separation techniques for samples (4).
• Single Cell ICP-MS: These talks focus on the application of ICP-MS and how it is being used to analyze individual cells (4).
• Analysis of Geochemical, Semiconductor, Petroleum, Nuclear, TCEs, and Advanced Materials: In this topic area, talks will focus on how spectrochemistry is being applied in the semiconductor, petroleum, and nuclear materials industries (4).
• Automation, Digitalization, Data Assessment: Automation and data technologies are transforming plasma spectrochemistry at a rapid rate. Talks in this topic area will focus on how these new data technologies are being applied in plasma spectrochemistry (4).

References

1. EWCPS, Main Homepage. EWCPS2025.de. Available at: https://ewcps2025.de/ (accessed 2025-02-26).
2. Workman, Jr., J. The 2025 Emerging Leader in Atomic Spectroscopy Award. Spectroscopy 2025, 40 (2), 31–36. DOI: 10.56530/spectroscopy.ni9380i3
3. EWCPS, EWCPS Awards. EWCPS2025.de. Available at: https://ewcps2025.de/awards/ewcps-awards (accessed 2025-02-26).
4. EWCPS, Main Topics. EWCPS2025.de. Available at: https://ewcps2025.de/program/main-topics (accessed 2025-02-26)