11th Workshop and Meeting of the Users' Group for Mass Spectrometry and Chromatography (MaSC)
Submitted by Marina Herriges on 26 Mar 2024
The 11th Workshop and Meeting of the Users' Group for Mass Spectrometry and Chromatography (MaSC) will take place in Washington, DC from Monday 16th – Friday 20th September 2024. The workshop will take place at three locations: the National Gallery of Art (NGA), the Library of Congress (LC), and the National Archives (NARA) on 16-18 September. The meeting will be held at the National Gallery of Art on the 19-20 September.
Workshop, 16-20 September 2024:
Analysis of volatiles from cultural heritage and exhibition and storage materials
Chromatographic and mass spectrometric methods for the characterization of volatile organic compounds have become highly sophisticated and versatile, and are finding increasing use for the study of cultural heritage materials, whether to study the composition of the works of art and historical objects themselves, or to evaluate exhibition and storage materials to ensure their safe use in proximity with valuable artefacts.
A three-day workshop exploring these methods will be held at three venues in the Washington, DC area:
- National Gallery of Art – analysis of exhibition and storage materials using direct thermal desorption techniques, including data analysis and discussions of standardization protocols for data collection and data sharing and comparison among cultural heritage institutions
- Library of Congress – methodologies for collecting and analysing offgassing directly from cultural heritage materials
- National Archives at College Park, Maryland – solid-phase microextraction methodologies for collecting offgassing from book, paper, and other archival materials.
MORE DETAILS WILL BE FORTHCOMING OVER THE NEXT FEW WEEKS – please check mascgroup.org/workshops-
Participation in the workshop will be limited due to laboratory space constraints. Those wishing to attend will be requested to submit a detailed CV and short paragraph describing their experience with sampling and analysis of volatiles and how they would benefit from the workshop. Details regarding registration deadlines and fees will be posted by April 1.
Meeting, 19-20 September 2024:
The meeting will be held in the West Building Lecture Hall of the National Gallery of Art and will comprise discussions and presentations on novel applications of chromatographic and mass spectrometric techniques to the study of art and cultural objects. Presentations of studies related to the workshop themes are encouraged, but contributions on a broad