Ian Colbeck is an Emeritus Professor in the School of Life Sciences, University of Essex. Over a career spanning more than four decades, he is internationally recognized in aerosol science. His research examined the physico-chemical properties of aerosols, nanoparticles in the environment, indoor air quality, and microbial bioaerosols. In recognition of his scientific achievements and his leadership within the aerosol research community he received the International Aerosol Fellow Award in 2018 from the International Aerosol Research Assembly. He has been a long serving member of the Aerosol Society Committee and was President of the Society from 1998 to 2002.
Ian Colbeck and John Pritchard
The inaugural meeting of the Aerosol Society was held on 15 July 1986 at the Royal Free Hospital. It was formed to recognise the need to provide a forum to encourage translation of science across the different disciplines. This theme continues today, and still provokes great interest, as evidenced by the success of the Aerosol CDT.
Since its formation the Society has hosted an International Aerosol Conference, 4 European Aerosol Conferences, Annual Conferences, 36 Drug Delivery (DDL) Conferences as well as numerous one day meetings. This talk will give a brief overview of the formation of the Aerosol Society, the significance of DDL, and an analysis of how the topics and institutions at the Annual Conferences have changed over the years.
For example, the very first one day meeting was on aerosols in veterinary science; a topic which rarely appears nowadays even at European Aerosol Conferences. The first annual conference was attended by over 100 participants and consisted of 2 plenaries and 37 oral presentations. These were split into sessions on (i) sampling, generation and analysis; (ii) industrial and nuclear aerosols; (iii) fundamental and theoretical; (iv) medical/biological aspects; (v) agricultural aspects; (vi) atmospheric. Speaker affiliations included the Health and Safety Executive (Cricklewood), Warren Spring Laboratory, Central Electricity Generating Board, AEE Winfrith.
