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Phospholipid Divison web pageAOCS Phospholipid Division
Newsletter October 2007Results of AOCS Lecithin Short Course Québec 2007
Willem van NieuwenhuyzenThe Lecithin Short Course met its expectations and budget. The short course was attended by 31 paying participants, 7 instructors and organizers, and 6 MSc students of Laval University as demonstrators in the labs and pilot plant.
5 registrants came from Canada, 9 from the USA, 3 from Latin America, 9 from Europe, and 5 from Asia. Most worked for companies. During the last afternoon, participants were asked to fill in an enquiry form with their judgment about the course. We got a 60% response rate.
Some findings:
- Most participants got the information about the short course from AOCS Website / Phospholipid Division Newsletter / e-mailing.
- 40% registered for the short course only, the others combined the short course and Annual Meeting.
- All respondents were happy with the program and their expectations were met.
- Most people would like a follow up short course in 2-3 years in connection with an AOCS Annual Meeting. Program suggestions were made. Among them: more specific food applications, marine phospholipids, health aspects, rheology background.
- Laboratory demonstrations could be improved by adding product and equipment info and test procedures to the hand out / CD-ROM. Participants would like to be active with “hands on the bench.”
Conclusion
A number of remarks are useful for further short courses. However a short course should be pre-competitive. Therefore we cannot handle all proprietary lecithin processing details and specific food application with specific lecithin types. And interests of participants is scattered.
A number of program suggestions may have been fulfilled by attending papers at the 4 Phospholipid sessions during the AOCS Annual Meeting.
It was not that easy to achieve full balance between the oral presentations and the lab demonstrations. The Laval-INAF professors Joseph Arul and Paul Angers stimulated their MSc students to train lecithin emulsification test and emulsion procedures. The students did marvelous jobs in organizing the laboratory tours, making presentations in English language (most students usually speak French) and answering questions. The number of enquiries and discussions during the presentations and the demonstrations was adequate.
Personally I was very pleased to organize this short course and I got a lot of positive remarks.
Also in this newsletter:
Message from the Chair, Jonathan Maynes
31P-NMR Round Robin Tests on Phospholipids, by Bernd W. K. Diehl, Ph.D.
In Memoriam: David W. Yesair (from inform August 2007)
Patent Applications: Enzymatic modification of lecithin
AOCS, 2710 S. Boulder, Urbana, IL 61802-6996 USA
Division Officers
Chairperson
Jonathan Maynes
phone: 1-314-982-3162
fax: 1-314-982-2899
Vice Chairperson/MDC
Gary List
phone: 1-309-681-6388
fax: 1-309-681-6340
Secretary
Moghis Ahmad
phone: 1-847-775-4568
fax: 1-847-887-9281
Treasurer
Toni Wang
phone: 1-515-294-5448
fax:1-515-294-8181
Member-at-Large
Bernie Szuhaj
phone: 1-260-489-6849
Member-at-Large
Lance Colbert
phone: 1-217-451-5802
fax: 1-217-451-2457
Member-at-Large
Randy Zigmont
phone: 1-203-262-7100
fax: 1-203-262-7101
Member-at-Large
Walt Shaw
phone: 1-205-663-2494
fax: 1-205-663-0756
Member-at-Large
Susan Gurkin
phone: 1-770-986-6268
fax: 1-770-986-6282
Member-at-Large
Willem van Nieuwenhuyzen
phone: +31 72 505 5617
fax. +31 72 505 5618
Immediate Past Chairperson
Bruce Sebree
phone: 1-217-451-4067
fax: 1-217-451-2693
Past Chairperson
Joseph Casey
phone:1-260-425-5926
fax: 1-260-425-6435