Well, I'm officially on the job for a week. And, first of all, it's great to be back and to begin reconnecting with many of my old contamination control industry friends. There's also a lot to do and no time to waste.

There's no question that the economy is heating up across the board, and with it, the need to ramp up to meet the needs of the many industries served by the contamination control community—and there are a growing number of them.

Here at CleanRooms magazine, there's also a renewed sense of urgency and focus. As your industry's dedicated publication, we must assume a leadership position in not only reporting the latest advancements in contamination control technology, but in directing the community to new emerging business opportunities, challenges, and solutions.

The contamination control industry represents an invaluable repository of unique expertise and capabilities critical to the success of a host of industries. And, there has never been a greater need for sharing that expertise, cross-fertilization of ideas, and for innovative, forward-thinking approaches to problems.

While the semiconductor industry has always been in the forefront of the most demanding contamination control requirements, now other applications, such as biotech-based pharmaceuticals, are rapidly establishing their own set of unique and equally stringent requirements and standards. As nanoscience and the magic word, “yield” become as familiar and dominant in the biopharmaceutical sector as they have long been in electronics, the contamination control community must rise to meet this challenge as well —with new and innovative technology solutions and products.

It's true that the last few years have been difficult times for many of the industries served by the contamination control community, but it has also been a time of major technological progress and change. Today, as a result, we find ourselves in the midst of a technological transition phase in just about every application sector as companies work to bring new technologies out of the laboratory and into the marketplace.

This means, among other things, that the opportunity paradigm today is largely centered around the need for relatively small but rapidly scaleable solutions. It also means there's a lot of them. Our job is to connect the people- with-the-requirements to the people- with-the-solutions. And that, with your help, is exactly what we intend to do.

Looking forward to your suggestions and feedback,

John Haystead
Editor in Chief