Announcement Report on the 53rd Hungarian Spectrochemical conference 30 June – 2 July 2010 Hajdúszoboszló, Hungary In 2010, the Hungarian Spectrochemical Conference, now in its 53rd edition, was hosted for the second time in its more than fifty- year-long history by the Hotel Béke of the spa resort city of Hajdúszoboszló, Hungary under the auspices of the Spectrochemical Association of the Hungarian Chemical Society. For the first time, this annually organized scientific event was held together with the Conference on Organic Chemistry, the latter being the main forum for Hungarian researchers in organic chemistry organized by the Organic Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Chemistry division of the Hungarian Chemical Society. These joint events were sponsored by the National Office for Research and Technology, Sigma – Aldrich Ltd., as well as by the three leading pharmaceutical companies in Hungary: Richter Gedeon Plc., TEVA Pharmaceutical Industries Co. Ltd. and Sanofi Aventis Co. Ltd. Moreover, nineteen exhibitors joined this event spreading information on the latest models of modern instruments as well as reagents and materials suitable for scientific investigations. There have been several reasons for merging the spectroscopic conference with other prestigious Hungarian scientific meetings. First of all, in this way, the chances are higher for spectroscopists and researchers working in other areas to broaden their knowledge and to get exchange ideas by attending the scientific sessions of each other. This is important as, due to the highly specialized research areas of the modern and accelerated times, nowadays, one can be easily unaware of the main trends in other branches of Chemistry. On the other hand, although, spectroscopic research is still strong in Hungary due to the high-quality works performed at the main university and research centers of the country, lately, due to the collapse of some industries such as the steel industry, heavily promoted under the communist era, and whose demand for the latest results in the field of spectroscopy was high, the number of attendees from the private sector has been dramatically decreased. Thus, in order to sustain this scientific forum of dissemination of new progresses in field of spectroscopic research and to give possibility to the younger generation consisting of Master and PhD students as well as of postdoctoral fellows to present their first or latest results in front of a wider audience, the proposal of our Spectrochemical Association to keep alive this long series of meetings by merging it with other Hungary scientific conferences was warmly welcomed by the Hungarian Chemical Society and its other divisions. Moreover, the Hungarian Spectrochemical Conference was always a gathering place for Hungarian spectroscopists living abroad or working in the neigh- boring countries in order to cultivate the Hungarian scientific language and to strengthen the relationship with the Homeland. Last, but not least, since 1999, the year when professor Tibor Török, who settled the basis of modern spectroscopy in Hungary, passed away, yearly, a recognized local or international colleague is presented with the Tibor Török Award, established to honor the lifetime contribution of the award winner for enriching - directly or indirectly - the Hungarian spectroscopic research. Up to now, the Török Tibor Commemorative Medal was presented to: Eduárd Plško (Slovakia), László Paksy (Hungary), Nickel Hubertus (Germany), Lajos Pap (Hungary), Tibor Kántor (Hungary), Kurt Laqua (Germany), Ernő Gegus (Hungary), Mikulaš Matherny (Slovakia), Sergio Caroli (Italy), Ferenc Billes (Hungary), Ramon M. Barnes (USA) and in 2010, Joseph Sneddon (USA). The 2010 Török Tibor award went to professor Joseph Sneddon from McNeese State University (Lake Charles, Louisiana) thanking his untiring managing work as an Editor-in-Chief, which made possible to issue six special issues of Microchemical Journal between 1992 and 2007, including in them selected works presented at the biennial series of Hungarian-Italian Symposiums on Spectrochemistry. Although the language of the conference is Hungarian in accordance to the one of the main principles of the European Union, which Hungary joined in 2004, namely, to support the national identity of each member country in a multicultural environment, both the organizing Committees of Hungarian Spectrochemical Conference and the Conference on Organic Chemistry, lead by professor Gyula Záray (Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest) and János Wölfling (University of Szeged), respectively, and together with professor Péter Mátyus (Semmelweiss University, Budapest), president of the Hungarian Chemical Society, consider of primordial importance to invite well known international scientists to present their latest achievements in front of the audience of these conferences. Thus, beside professor Joseph Sneddon, who delivered a plenary lecture entitled, Thirty years of spectrochemistry and still going strong, two other well-known foreign scientists joined the Chemist Conference: Nazario Martín León, professor of Organic Chemistry at the Complu- tense University of Madrid (Spain) and, since 2005, president of the Spanish Royal Society of Chemistry and professor Marco A. Ciufolini, professor in Organic Chemistry at the University of British Columbia (Vancouver, Canada). Professor Martín León delivered a presentation in the topic of chemistry of fullerenes and carbon nanotubes and the synthesis of photo- and electro-active molecular materials, mean- while the interest of professor Ciufolini is directed toward the total synthesis of nitrogenous natural products that possess interesting structures and useful biological activities. It should be also mentioned the review on the role of Chemistry in Medicine offered by Attila Pavláth, former president of the American Chemical Society, who left Hungary in 1956 after the defeat of the Hungarian Anticommunist Revolution. The 2010 Hungarian Spectrochemical Conference took place in one session parallel with the Conference on Organic Chemistry. During the Microchemical Journal 96 (2010) 425–426 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Microchemical Journal journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/microc 0026-265X/$ – see front matter doi:10.1016/j.microc.2010.07.010