CHEMOMETRICS - WHAT DO WE MEAN WITH IT, AND WHAT DO WE WANT FROM IT

What we mean with chemometrics is closely connected to what we want fr om it, our idealized view of chemistry, data, statistics, models, and what not. Personally, I have a fairly clear opinion of what I mean wit h, and what I want chemometrics to be. Of course, this view is based o n my experience in academic and industrial chemistry, and I shall here try to explain these views, and the chemical and practical reasons (r ationalizations) thereof. These views may seem somewhat provocative, b ut this is not the objective. I just want to make us reflect on what w e, as chemometricians, are doing. My views will be focussed on the rol e of chemometrics in chemistry, on how I see statistics as partly cons istent, and partly inconsistent with the framework of chemistry, and w here we should aim for the future (of chemometrics).