lunes, 13 de mayo de 2019

Raising Awareness for Autism at Pittcon's 70th Birthday

Sponsored Content by PittconMay 9 2019

Since its establishment as a Conference on Analytical Chemistry and Applied Spectroscopy, Pittcon has emerged as the world's biggest annual conference and exposition for laboratory science.

The annual congresses are always highly anticipated as a special chance to connect with peers from around the world, discover cutting-edge innovations, and investigate solutions to forthcoming laboratory challenges alongside developers of the latest technology and apparatus. This year’s congress possessed additional appeal, as it represented Pittcon’s 70th anniversary.

The 70th Pittcon Annual meeting occurred at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia between the 17th and 21st of March 2019. Attendance was nearly 10% more than in 2018, comprising over 12,500 delegates from 94 countries worldwide representing government, academia and industry.

Outside of the United States, the top five attending countries were China, Canada, Japan, the United Kingdom and Mexico. The interests of the attendees were similarly wide ranging, including various scientific disciplines, which ranged from agriculture and food science to drug discovery and nanotechnology.

Additionally, the Pittcon exposition featured stands from 713 companies exhibiting the most recent analytical instrumentation, products and services. Of these companies, 101 were exhibiting at Pittcon for the first time. Many of the booths provided delegates with hands-on experience of the latest technologies.

The main attraction of the Pittcon congress, its dynamic scientific programme, was also extensive, and offered over 2,000 technical presentations and 75 short courses, each imparting skills training and continuing education for laboratory professionals across a broad spectrum of subjects.

The Pittcon charity focus of 2019 was the Parent Education & Advocacy Leadership (PEAL) Center. Pittcon 2019 offered an extra space for the PEAL Center to increase awareness for individuals with autism and other disabilities. This repeats a similar productive partnership in 2011. Former Pittcon President Penny Gardner exclaimed, “After 2011, I honestly didn’t think I’d get another opportunity to preach the message of autism awareness at Pittcon. We’ve got a lot of irons in the fire this year in terms of fundraising and awareness and we expect it to be a very successful effort.”

The PEAL Center

The PEAL Center assists families of children with disabilities and special healthcare needs throughout Pennsylvania. It supports them in connecting with the services they require, supplies them with access to specialist tools designed to augment awareness and skills for coping with special needs, and helps them to access inclusive education, health care, and community-based services.

PEAL consistently endeavors to defeat stereotypes and destroy barriers for people with disabilities. This year, Pittcon helped to generate donations and knowledge to underpin the invaluable work of the PEAL Center during its 2019 annual conference.

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)

One of the disabilities for which the PEAL Center is increasing awareness is autism spectrum disorder, or ASD. People with ASD are usually perceived as being different, and the PEAL Center is striving to teach people that this does not need to be viewed negatively, to advocate their integration into society and to enhance their employment opportunities.

ASD is a permanent developmental condition that generates difficulties with communication and social interaction, and is linked to restricted/repetitive interests and behaviors. These are often associated with sensory problems, such an oversensitivity to touch, sounds or smells. The conjunction of these issues may cause behavioral difficulties for certain individuals.