History

Electrokinetics is one of the oldest branches of colloid science. It dates back to Reuss, who in 1809 published a paper on migration phenomena in suspensions of clay particles under the influence of an applied electric field. The paper was written in French and submitted to a Russian journal, located in Moscow, several years before Napoleon got there. This event is now almost two centuries ago, but the field of electrokinetics is still very much alive. Specialized conferences in the field of electrokinetics are more recent. The first zeta potential symposia took place in Germany and Austria in the seventies and eighties of the past century. At that time contacts across the Iron Curtain were difficult and only a few representatives from the East and West could be present, so the meetings remained rather local. The first international symposium with participants from many countries took place in Granada, Spain, 1993. At that occasion an International Advisory Board was established of which the main task was to promote the continuation of these conferences and control their quality. After Granada, ELKIN conferences have taken place in different countries inside and outside Europe. Since 1998 the conferences are held biannually.

Zeta-Potential-Symposium '74, Darmstadt, Germany, May 28 to 29, 1974.

Zeta-Potential-Symposium '75, Baden-Baden, Germany, 1975.

Zeta-Potential-Symposium '77, Graz, Austria, 1977.

Symposium Elektrokinetische Erscheinungen '79, Dresden, Germany, November, 8 to 9, 1979.

Symposium Elektrokinetische Erscheinungen '83, Graz, Austria, 1983.

Symposium Elektrokinetische Erscheinungen '85 - Messtechnik und Anwendungen, Dresden, Germany, April 15 to 16, 1985

Symposium Electrokinetic Phenomena '89, Dresden, Germany, November 6 to 8, 1989

Symposium on Electrokinetic Phenomena '93 (ELKIN 1), Granada, Spain, September, 13 to 17, 1993.

Symposium Electrokinetic Phenomena '96 (ELKIN 2), Rome, Italy, September, 30 to October, 4, 1996.

International Symposium on Electrokinetic Phenomena '98 (ELKIN 3), Salzburg, Austria, April 14 to 17, 1998.

International Symposium on Electrokinetic Phenomena 2000 (ELKIN 4), Dresden, Germany, October 3 to 6, 2000

International Symposium on Electrokinetic Phenomena 2002 (ELKIN 5), Crakow, Poland, August 18 to 22, 2002

International Symposium on Electrokinetic Phenomena 2004 (ELKIN 6), Pittsburgh, US, June 13 to 17, 2004

International Symposium on Electrokinetic Phenomena 2006 (ELKIN 7), Nancy, France, June 25 to 29, 2006

International Symposium on Electrokinetic Phenomena 2008 (ELKIN 8), Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA, May 18 to 23, 2008

International Symposium on Electrokinetic Phenomena 2010 (ELKIN 9), Turku (Abo), Finland, June 6 to 10, 2010