On 27 and 28 June 1989, a Symposium on “Future Trends in Spectroscopy” took place at the headquarters of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, the Casina Pio IV, in the Vatican gardens. The occasion for this Symposium was the 50th anniversary of the first publication of Spectrochimica Acta, the founding editor of which was the Vatican Astronomer, Father Alois Gatterer. Participants in the Symposium included representatives of the combined Editorial Advisory Boards of Spectrochimica Acta Parts A and B, with representatives from the Pontifical Academy, the Vatican Observatory and Pergamon Press.
The Symposium provided both a retrospective and a prospective view of the exciting and evolving field of spectroscopy, whose applications span so many areas of science, from the cosmos to the environment to detailed studies of life processes.