Foreword for Special Issue Devoted to the 14th Winter Symposium on Chemometrics (2024)

The 14th Winter Symposium on Chemometrics (WSC14) was held in Tsaghkadzor (Armenia) from 26 February to 1 March 2024. The WSC is a biannual international meeting series started in Russia in 2002. Since that time WSC became an important event that is well known among other chemometric meetings for its friendly and relaxed atmosphere, rich social program and consistently high quality of scientific presentations. The scope of WSC meetings covers all relevant topics in modern chemometrics, both in theoretical developments and practical applications. In 2024, the conference was held under the auspices of the Armenian Academy of Sciences. Thirty-six participants from eight countries took part in the meeting, and the scientific program contained six lectures, 16 talks and 17 poster presentations. The invited lectures were delivered by Prof. Douglas N. Rutledge (France), Prof. Stefan Tsakovski (Bulgaria), Prof. Hadi Parastar (Iran) and Prof. Xihui Bian (China). Key lectures were presented by Dr. Alexey Pomerantsev and Dr. Oxana Rodionova. The variety of presentation topics included applications of near infrared spectrometry, hyperspectral imaging, QSPR, aquaphotomics, multiblock data analysis, machine learning, and deep learning.

The conference venue was located in a spectacular place near the Tsakhkadzor ski resort and as a part of the sportive program the participants were able to enjoy skiing in beautiful Armenian mountains. Traditional evening gatherings, so called “scores and loadings,” were conducted every conference evening with guitar playing, signing and informal discussions on all possible topics, either highly scientific or deeply prosaic. The last day of the conference was devoted to the guided tours to Sevan Lake with ancient Sevanavank monastery and to Yerevan city—the capital of hospitable Armenia.

The WSC meetings are always very friendly to young scientists, offering Best young scientist award—this year the prize was the registration for CAC-2024 (Chemometrics in Analytical Chemistry) in Argentina. The respected jury of senior chemometricians decided to award Dr. Ekaterina Boichenko for her talk “Near-infrared spectroscopy and chemometrics: a promising combination for real-time and nondestructive classification of urinary stones.” Three best poster prizes were awarded to Anastasia Sholokhova, Dr. Maria Khaydukova, and Dr. Larisa Lvova. If the feedback from participants is to be believed, all in all it was an enjoyable event. The place and the time for WSC15 will be announced soon.

Organizing committee of the 14th WSC.