Continuous flow chemistry is a hot topic these days for academia, pharma and CROs / CMOs. Continuous operations are selected for reasons of safety, quality, yield, and economics. Safety is a primary reason to develop continuous operations for making large quantities of materials; for instance, 60% of the ASAP articles on continuous operations on the Organic Process Research & Development web page state that those conditions were developed for reasons of safety.

• My review “Using Continuous Processes to Increase Production” is available on-line: Org. Process Res. Dev. 2012, 16, XXX (dx.doi.org/10.1021/op200347k).

• The 6th International Current Process Chemistry Conference (13 – 14 June, Princeton) will feature some excellent presentations on industrial process R&D, including continuous flow chemistry. A half-day short course on continuous processing is offered on June 12. Instructors are Nicholas Leadbeater (University of Connecticut), Bryan Li (Pfizer), and Timothy Braden (Lilly). http://www.healthtech.com/processchemistry/

• Flow Chemistry Congress meets 23 – 24 April in Boston, with an impressive line-up of speakers. Paul Watts (The University of Hull) will present a short course on 25 April. http://selectbiosciences.com/conferences/index.aspx?conf=FCC2012

• The April issue of Organic Process Research & Development will include a special feature section on continuous processing, with at least 20 contributions.

• The Journal of Flow Chemistry is available on-line: http://www.akademiai.com/content/122156/?p=4d774b8a62434f08a980e2cb10bc4dfc&pi=1