SCIENTIFIC PROGRAM 21st GC×GC

Significance of the topic

Comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography (GC×GC) and its hyphenated variants (GC×GC–MS, GC×GC–TOFMS, GC×GC–HRMS, etc.) represent a transformative set of separation and detection tools for resolving complex chemical mixtures encountered across environmental, food, petrochemical, forensic and biological domains. The 21st GC×GC program highlights how advances in modulation, detectors, data workflows and miniaturization are expanding the method from specialized research labs into applied industry, regulatory and diagnostic contexts. These developments enable deeper chemical specificity, improved sensitivity and richer non-target screening, which are critical for contaminant identification, product characterization and discovery-driven analytics across many sectors.

Objectives and overview of the program

The two-day scientific program (18–19 May 2026) assembled invited award lectures, focused thematic sessions and Young Scientist talks to: present state-of-the-art methodological advances in GC×GC; showcase cross-disciplinary applications (food, environment, petrochemical, industry, VOCs, bio-analytical/AI); discuss instrumentation and data workflows; and promote technology translation and harmonization (e.g., MOAH/MOSH guidance). The program emphasized both fundamentals (modulation, miniaturization, hyperfast GC×GC) and applied studies (oil spills, forensic arson, PFAS screening, mineral oil contamination in food, volatilomics and disease diagnosis, plastic pyrolysis products, sustainable aviation fuels), together with emerging enablers such as artificial intelligence, extended reality visualization and novel detectors.