Over 14,200 people attended Pittcon 2015 in New Orleans, taking in the latest instrument releases and networking with their peers. As always, only three of those new releases were selected for 2015 Editor's Awards.

Shimadzu was the big winner this year, claiming gold for its Nexera UC (unified chromatography) system, a fully automated supercritical fluidic chromatography-based instrument. The unit can sequentially analyze up to 48 samples utilizing automatic extraction and chromatographic separation combined with high-sensitivity detection of targets by mass spectrometry.

Waters took silver for its Full Spectrum Molecular Imaging technology which will allow scientists to more easily see the difference between healthy and diseased tissue, among other applications. However, the company said at its press conference that it will likely be some time before the technology is commonly used in pathology labs. Once in place, it will give scientists a strong weapon to pinpoint the cause and progression of many diseases, said Jeff Mazzeo, senior director of Waters' health sciences business.

Coming in at third was Grenova, which won bronze for its TipNovus automated pipette tip washer which allows users to sanitize their pipette tips in large quantities for reuse. Grenova says this environmentally-friendly option can help labs cut their consumables costs by up to 90 percent.

It will be interesting to see what manufacturers have in store when Pittcon takes over Atlanta in 2016.