Sensors and their applications VIII

Like many sensor scientists and technologists, I regard the IOP's biennial `Sensors and their Applications' conference to be the pre-eminent event of its kind in the UK. I have a particular fondness for the series as I gave my first presentation at the inaugural event at UMIST in 1983. Having missed `Sensors and their Applications VIII' held at a new venue in Glasgow, I was delighted to be invited to review these latest proceedings which follow the now familiar format of a high quality, A5 hardback. This includes all 62 papers from last September's event which are arranged according to topic. Following a brief preface by the Editors, the papers appear under the following headings: Environmental and Biomedical Sensors; Sensor Modelling; Microsensors and Flow Measurement; Metrology and Applications; Gas and Chemical Sensors; and Optical and Fibre Optic Sensors. The volume concludes with an author index. As with previous conferences in this series, one is struck by the huge diversity of topics being studied by the sensor research community in the UK. As ever, optics feature very strongly, with papers appearing in all but one of the six sessions, covering such diverse topics as detecting algae, monitoring welds, interferometers and planar waveguide technology, to mention but a few. Other national strengths such as gas and chemical sensors are also well represented and these proceedings provide an insight into the changing face of this research. Gone are the papers on silicon GASFETs that featured at several of the earlier events but now, it seems, silicon technology is breathing a new lease of life into the extensively studied field of metal oxide gas sensors. Equally, we see a growing interest in various classes of miniature electrodes and optical techniques for monitoring chemical species: topics that have replaced the earlier work on silicon ISFETs. These proceedings illustrate well the UK's undoubted expertise in the overall field of sensor technology, a subject finally receiving due recognition by being identified by the government's Technology Foresight programme as being critical to this country's future well-being and economic development. For those, like this reviewer, who missed `Sensors and their applications VII', these proceedings will act as a valuable source of reference. Equally, they will also serve readers who, perhaps less familiar with the subject, are seeking an insight into the nature of this rapidly developing and exciting field.