History

In 1996, informal meetings took place in Paris, on Rue Saint Jacques, at the headquarters of the SFC (Société Française de Chimie, which would later become the SCF - Société Chimique de France). These gatherings, initiated by the Analytical Chemistry Division, brought together individuals interested in experimental design, statistical methods, and spectroscopy, hailing from both academic and industrial backgrounds. Some participants were also members of the SCI (Société de Chimie Industrielle), located at the Maison de la Chimie. Although the term "Chemometrics" (proposed by S. Wold and B. Kowalski in 1971) was known to some, the discipline was not yet fully established in France.

On March 21, 1997, driven by Jacques Goupy, Roger Verwaerde, and Claude Mordini (all members of the SCI), a significant meeting was organized at the SFC headquarters. A large number of participants, keen to address the challenges of what would become chemometrics, attended. These included Jacques Chrétien, Alain Delacroix, Frédéric Despagne (representing Professor Luc D. Massart), Christian Ducauze, Max Feinberg, Jacques Goupy, Pierre Lantéri, Rémi Longeray, Claude Mordini, Roger Phan Tan Luu, Claude Pelletier, Catherine Porte, Claude-Alain Saby, and Roger Verwaerde.

Given the absence of a French structure to centralize information and facilitate exchanges in this domain, despite the international recognition of some scientists, several key observations were made:

• Chemistry or statistics journals showed little interest in chemometrics, often redirecting articles they deemed outside their scope. While some attendees had already initiated actions to change this attitude, a more effective solution would be a coordinated, collective effort. The desire to create a commission to address this issue emerged, with Alain Delacroix proposing to lead it, assisted by Jacques Chrétien (from Analusis) and Max Feinberg.

• The necessity for regular contact with associations interested in chemometrics, such as chemistry societies, statistics societies, and other chemometrics societies, was evident. These various societies organized conferences and workshops and published journals, making it impossible for a single person to track all their activities. Pierre Lantéri then offered to coordinate a commission to collect and disseminate this information, joined by Roger Phan Tan Luu, Max Feinberg, Frédéric Despagne, and Claude-Alain Saby.

• The need to inventory chemometrics education was pressing. No one precisely knew all the initiatives taken in this field or all the training programs offered. Max Feinberg proposed conducting a survey on this topic and disseminating his findings.

Regarding information dissemination, Claude Mordini suggested making the SCF server available to the newly created commissions.

The participants approved the creation of a Chemometrics Group, with a board composed of Jacques Goupy, Roger Verwaerde, and Claude Mordini, assisted by the new commission leaders: Alain Delacroix, Max Feinberg, and Pierre Lantéri. This marked the birth of the French Chemometrics Group (GFC), which set several key priorities: (i) bringing the French community together, (ii) developing contacts and collaborations with other national and European scientific societies in chemometrics, (iii) ensuring technological watch, especially in the field of applications, (iv) identifying and promoting existing training programs, (v) raising awareness and fostering the application of chemometrics in technical and scientific fields, and (vi) regularly organizing and supporting events initiated by other groups.

This is how the idea of organizing a French-speaking conference focused on chemometrics and its applications emerged. The first congress was held in Lyon from December 3 to 5, hosted by the CPE School (affiliated with P. Lantéri). It was organized with logistical support (secretariat, treasury) from the SCI (then directed by Mattioda of Hoechst) and utilized the address databases of both learned societies (SFC and SCI) for mailings, complementing those provided by participating laboratories. A Scientific Committee for reviewing communications and posters, and a local organizing committee (with the support of the SFC), were also established.

Following the inaugural edition, the organization of the second edition, planned for Marseille, was canceled in 1998 due to organizational issues and disagreements with the SCI.

From 1999 onwards, the SCI continued the organization, with congresses held in Paris, at the CNAM, from 1999 to 2004, with an aim to alternate between academic and industrial presidencies. From 2005, the idea of holding congresses outside of Paris re-emerged, with Lille inaugurating this new cycle. After organizing the tenth edition in Lyon in 2007, and notably the inability to organize the subsequent conference in Nantes in 2008, the French Chemometrics Group finally joined the Société Française de Statistique (SFdS).