VIII Italian Symposium on Near Infrared Spectroscopy – NIRItalia 2018

The VIII Italian Symposium on Near Infrared Spectroscopy, NIRItalia2018, organized by the Italian Society of NIR Spectroscopy (SISNIR), was held in Genoa on 30–31 May 2018, at the ‘Acquario di Genova’ (Aquarium of Genoa) who collaborated in organizing the event. This Special Issue of the Journal of Near Infrared Spectroscopy brings together some of the key presentations at the meeting and offers the opportunity to present some of the activities of the Italian Society to the global NIR community. The main goals of the SISNIR are to: (i) promote the scientific knowledge of NIR Spectroscopy in Italy and its application through training of its members and (ii) to assist young researchers to actively participate in international conferences. Through these activities the society aims to promote the contribution of Italian NIR research to the global community. The SISNIR organizes several scientific events and workshops, but the most important one is the wellsupported Symposium NIRItalia, which takes place every two years, with the aim of gathering the scientific NIR community and stimulating the debate on current issues and future challenges. The scientific contributions for Symposium NIRItalia 2018 were arranged into four scientific sessions: (1) Imaging and Chemometrics, (2) Cultural Heritage and Environment, (3) PharmaceuticalProcess Monitoring and Industry 4.0, and (4) AgroFood. Several initiatives have been undertaken to encourage contact between the academic world and industry, including the presence of three high-profile invited speakers and the introduction of dedicated sessions for sponsors’ presentations. The ‘Imaging and Chemometrics’ session was opened with a keynote address by Professor Aoife Gowen, from the UCD School of Biosystems and Food Engineering in Dublin, Ireland. Esteemed researcher and Marie Curie and ERC grantee, Dr Gowen has been working for years in the field of hyperspectral imaging and chemometrics applied to biological systems, including food, microorganisms and biomaterials. In her keynote, three case studies were proposed in which the use of near infrared hyperspectral imaging (NIR-HSI), associated with appropriate chemometric approaches, proved to be effective for the characterization of biomaterials including hydrogels and sodium caseinate. The session was then enriched by five oral presentations reporting hyperspectral imaging applications in various fields, covering forensic science (identification of particular biological traces on the crime scene), shelflife and storage studies of different fresh products, and proposals of great actual interest in the ecology and the environmental field. For the first time in the history of the NIRItalia Symposium, a session dedicated to Cultural Heritage and Environment was introduced. The session was opened with a keynote of Dr Giorgia Sciutto, researcher at the Department of Chemistry ‘G. Ciamician’ of the University of Bologna, Italy. She is engaged in the research and development of advanced analytical methods for the characterization of samples of artistic interest, with particular reference to hyperspectral imaging techniques in the mid and near infrared regions. Although the interest for NIR spectroscopy in the field of cultural heritage in Italy is recent, the case studies reported by Dr Sciutto have highlighted the considerable and numerous advantages given by the use of spectroscopic techniques in this sector. The contributions that characterized this session showed that NIR spectroscopy is suitable for the analysis of ancient artefacts such as archaeological ceramics and illuminated manuscripts in order to identify the crucial phases of the production process and to establish the level of technological knowledge of a certain population. The presentation by Dr Biancolillo et al. evaluated the possibility to differentiate, by means of NIR spectroscopy and thermogravimetric analysis coupled with chemometrics, samples of human bone from four different necropolises, two in Italy and two in Sudan. The bones were not only different from a geographical point of view, but also with respect to the age and the funeral rite undertaken. A multi-block approach provided interesting results allowing discrimination according to the funeral rite and their age.