Keynote Speakers Revealed for First Annual Conference and Exhibition
SLAS2012 Plays Host to Forward-Thinking Industry Visionaries

CHICAGO – The Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening (SLAS), a non-profit scientific organization focused on improving the science and practice of laboratory automation and technology, is pleased to announce three inspiring keynote speakers for SLAS2012, the First Annual SLAS Conference and Exhibition, February 4-8, 2012, at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, CA, USA.

The following industry-leading professionals will present their insights at SLAS2012:

• Robert Ballard, Ph.D. is Professor at the University of Rhode Island (URI) Graduate School of Oceanography. Most famous for his discovery of the Titanic shipwreck in 1985, Dr. Ballard was part of the first team to view the deep-sea vents, exploring life at extreme conditions. Currently, Dr. Ballard is exploring the geological and human history of the Black and Aegean Seas with three sensor and camera-laden Remotely Operated Vehicles. Their journey will be documented live beginning on July 29. He has created the URI Inner Space Center to monitor, track and disseminate remote oceanographic exploration information in real time to researchers and educators around the world. Dr. Ballard will present on Wednesday, February 8.
• Jing Cheng, Ph.D. is the CEO of CapitalBio Corporation, director at the National Engineering Research Center for Beijing Biochip Technologies, and Cheung Kong Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the Tsinghua University School of Medicine in Beijing. His presentation, which is scheduled for Tuesday, February 7, is titled Biochips and Translational Medicine.
• Peter G. Schultz, Ph.D. is a Scripps Family Chair Professor in the Department of Chemistry at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, CA. An award-winning scientist, Dr. Schultz is the founder of several biopharmaceutical companies, and his thesis work with Peter Dervan at the California Institute of Technology resulted in the first synthetic molecules that sequence-selectively cleave DNA. Dr. Schultz will present on Monday, February 6.

“We are thrilled to present such influential and accomplished keynote speakers for our first annual conference as a united organization,” says Michelle Palmer, SLAS President. “We are committed to providing SLAS2012 participants with an unmatched conference experience, and the knowledge these three scientists will bring will help SLAS offer an exceptional forum to explore new innovations and discuss the future of the laboratory science and technology field.”

For more information about SLAS2012 and the keynote lineup, visit http://www.SLAS2012.org.

The Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening (SLAS) is an international community of more than 10,000 individual scientists, engineers, researchers, technologists and others from academic, government and commercial laboratories. The SLAS mission is to be the preeminent global organization providing forums for education and information exchange and to encourage the study of, and improve the science and practice of, laboratory automation and technology. For more information, visit http://www.SLAS.org.

SLAS2012, February 4-8, 2012, San Diego Convention Center, San Diego, CA, USA is a five-day event bringing together laboratory automation and screening technology scientists, academicians, business leaders and students from around the globe.