Computer applications in fermentation technology

In September 1988, 243 researchers and practitioners working on computer use in fermentation met at Robinson College, Cambridge, bringing together delegates from 30 countries. This volume records that gathering, the fourth meeting in a conference series on computer applications in fermentation technology. The series began in Dijon in 1973 under Henri Blanchere and later moved to Philadelphia and Manchester. The Cambridge event also drew on the work of the International Federation of Automatic Control, whose members had concentrated on biotechnology at a meeting in Noordwijkerhout, the Netherlands, in December 1985. The chairman's opening remarks look ahead to a follow-up meeting in the United States in 1991.

The organisers deliberately kept the conference compact. Every attendee was housed within Robinson College, and no parallel sessions were scheduled, so everyone could attend the same talks. Because specialists from different fields often struggled with one another's terminology, Bruce Beck gave a breakfast tutorial on modern control and modelling techniques. Informal panel discussions were held after dinner on two evenings. Neville Fish chaired a forum on the microbiological principles that underlie fermentation models, and Derek Linkens and Ron Leigh led a discussion on expert systems in control.