There is an old saying that “all things must pass.” One of the things that unfortunately seems to have passed is the rapid methods workshop. 

For 30 years, ending in 2010, Dr. Purnendu Vasavada organized and hosted a rapid methods workshop at the University of Wisconsin, River Falls. Dr. Dan Fong conducted a similar workshop at Kansas State. These programs allowed people in the field and other interested parties to remain up-to-date as to what was old, new and on the horizon in microbiology and its applications in the food industry. It was truly one-stop shopping, augmented by demonstrations of the different technologies by the vendors of these different technologies. So, one must dig a little more today to find that information.