This meeting was the first symposium held under the auspices of the
International Carotenoid Society [www.carotenoid.uconn.edu],
and also the first time the symposium has been held in the Southern
Hemisphere. Nevertheless, it is the latest in a long and distinguished
series of meetings on carotenoids that began under IUPAC sponsorship
with a small symposium held in Trondheim, Norway, in 1966. As interest
in this fascinating family of molecules has increased over the years,
so has attendance at the symposia. At the 11th symposium, held in
Leiden, The Netherlands, in 1996, it was realized that the field of
carotenoid science was broad and diverse enough to justify an international
society devoted to its promulgation. The International Carotenoid
Society was inaugurated at that meeting. The Society exists to promote
all areas of carotenoid science, pure and applied, and one of its
main responsibilities is the organization of future symposia.
The program of the Cairns symposium covered all of the major areas
of carotenoid research, including chemistry and analysis, biosynthesis,
biotechnology, bioavailability and metabolism, biological functions,
photosynthesis, medicine and nutrition, and commercial applications.
The symposium featured 11 invited lectures, 68 presentations in special
interest sessions, and 71 poster contributions. The total registration
was 233.
On behalf of all participants, we would like to thank the Local Organizing
Committee, Chair Lance Schlipalius, Roger Hiller, Tom Bruynel, and
Ron Tume, and their helpers, whose dedicated work ensured a memorable
symposium.
The participants and the International Carotenoid Society Committee
are also most grateful to IUPAC for their sponsorship and support,
and for allowing publication of the plenary lectures in Pure and
Applied Chemistry (see PAC,
Vol. 71, No. 12, 1999). They also thank the following companies
and institutions, without whose support the symposium would not have
been possible: F. Hoffman-La Roche, Ltd.; Betatene Pty., Ltd.; LycoRed
Natural Products Industries, Ltd.; Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories, Inc.;
Rehnborg Center of Nutrition & Wellness; F. H. Faulding & Co., Ltd.;
Nutrilite Division of Amway Corp.; Nikken Sohonsha Co.; Far North
Queensland Promotional Bureau; Henkel Corp.; University of Connecticut;
Kraft Foods, Inc.; Suntory Co., Ltd.; Thomas J. Lipton Co.; Chr. Hansen
A/S.
The symposium editors wish to thank all of the invited speakers who
provided manuscripts of high quality, and met the deadlines necessary
to publish their work in PAC, which we hope will be a useful
record of the symposium for those who attended, and for those who
could not. As one can see from the papers published in PAC,
it is becoming increasingly clear that carotenoids are a unique class
of molecules that not only pique scientific curiosity, but also perform
a variety of fundamentally important biological and nonbiological
functions.
Prof. Thomas A. Moore, Ana L. Moore,
and Devens Gust
Symposium Editors of
the 12th International Symposium on Carotenoids
Cairns, Australia