The annual James L. Waters Symposium is a unique component of Pittcon’s Technical Program. Mr. Waters, founder of Waters Associates, Inc. and President of Waters Business Systems, Inc. proposed in 1987 that the Society for Analytical Chemists of Pittsburgh (SACP) offer an annual symposium exploring the origin, development, implementation, and commercialization of scientific instrumentation of established and major significance. The objective of the symposium is to recognize researchers and the development and application of instrumentation by preserving the early, and in some cases, more mature history of the important contributions as well as the cooperation between inventors, scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, and marketing organizations.