Joseph Caruso, 1994 Awardee, Bio from 1994 Joseph Caruso received his Bachelor's degree in Chemistry from Eastern Michigan University followed by a Master's degree in Analytical Chemistry from Wayne State University. Following that he received his Ph.D. from Michigan State University under the direction of Alexander Popov. After a one-year postdoctoral fellowship with J. J. Lagowski at The University of Texas - Austin, Dr. Caruso joined the faculty of the University of Cincinnati as Assistant Professor of Analytical Chemistry. He has been promoted to Associate Professor with tenure, Full Professor, Department Head of the Department of Chemistry, and he presently holds the position as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. During this time he has authored or co-authored over 150 scientific publications and presented over 125 invited lectures at scientific meetings. Dr. Caruso's research interests are in the area of trace element analyses by atomic spectrometric methods. The principal focus is with plasma source spectrometry. His interests in this area are wide ranging, from sample introduction methods to improving instrumentation. Both plasma optical emission and mass spectrometric detection are utilized to provide trace to ultra-trace methods of detection. Joseph Caruso is a member of the American Chemical Society, Sigma Xi and the Society for Applied Spectroscopy. He has been honored by Eastern Michigan University with their 1990 Distinguished Alumni Award, by the American Chemical Society with the 1992 Cincinnati Chemist of the Year Award, and by the Engineers and Scientists of Cincinnati with the 1994 Professional Accomplishments - Academic Award. Back to About Anachem           Back to Home Page     Return to Anachem Awardees   James Jorgenson, 1996 Awardee, Bio from 1996 Combinations of chromatography with mass spectrometry have long been recognized as having the requisite selectivity to permit effective complex mixture analysis. We are exploring the possibilities of combining two separation columns to provide much greater peak capacity. Combinations such as LC-CE and LC-LC are being developed for this purpose. These combinations of two separation techniques are done in what we refer to as a "comprehensive" manner; all components of the sample are subjected to full two- dimensional analysis. Comprehensive LC-CE has generated peak capacities in excess of 20,000 peaks. Such systems permit effective analysis of mixtures containing thousands of detectable compounds. We are also initiating work on LC-LC-MS and LC-CE-MS as systems of extraordinary power for analysis of complex mixtures. The combination of these two-dimensional separation systems with mass spectrometry should permit the further resolution of compounds, and aid greatly in the identification of compounds Flow-counterbalanced capillary electrophoresis is a technique that takes advantage of a unique property of electric field driven separations; that the migration of species of interest may be balanced against a counterflow of solvent, thus allowing the separation to continue to develop and improve for an unlimited time period. In general, the resolution of a particular compound from its neighbors improves in proportion to the square root of the time the compound has undergone separation; i.e., to double the resolution requires a four-fold greater amount of time. With the flow counterbalanced approach we can subject the compound of interest to electric field driven separation for an indefinitely long period of time. We have demonstrated separations with tens of millions of theoretical plates. If conventional CE had been used, it would have required a capillary 30 meters in length, and a driving potential of over 3 million volts. Back to About Anachem           Back to Home    Return to Anachem Awardees     Steve Stein 1999 Awardee Bio from 1999 Dr. Stein is employed at the National Institute of Standards and Technology as a NIST Fellow, where he has been in charge of the NIST Mass Spectrometry Data Center since 1988. He was born on the lower east side of Manhattan, New York City on December 13, 1948 and grew up in mostly in the Bronx. He graduated from the University of Rochester in 1969 with a degree in Chemistry and earned a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from the University of Washington, Seattle in 1974, in the area of Gas Phase Kinetics. He spent two years in the Thermochemisty and Chemical Kinetics Division of SRI International in Menlo Park, California as a Research Associate/Staff Scientist and five years in the Chemistry Department of West Virginia University as an Assistant/Associate Professor, working mostly in the area of high temperature kinetics, especially in its application to coal chemistry. He came to NIST (then NBS) in 1980 where he continued work in kinetics for several years before becoming involved in computer applications of chemical reference data, assuming responsibility for theNIST/EPA/NIH Mass Spectral Library in 1988. Since then he has led the comprehensive evaluation of the library and been involved in the development of algorithms and software for evaluating data and extracting chemical information from this resource. Dr.Stein has also been involved in a number of other reference data projects, including the NIST Chemistry WebBook and several chemical thermodynamics data programs. He has received the Department of Commerce Gold Medal, the ACS Storch Award in Fuel Science, the ACS Patterson-Crane Award and NIST Applied Research and Schlichter Awards. He has published over 75 research papers and been a principal developer of several data products including the NIST Mass Spectral Search Program, the AMDIS GC/MS Deconvolution Program, the NIST Structures and Properties Program and the NIST/EPA Gas Phase Infrared Library. Back to About Anachem           Back to Home    Return to Anachem Awardees   Robert S. Houk 2000 Awardee,   Bio from 2000 The year 2000 Anachem Award winner is Dr. Robert S. Houk of Iowa State University. Dr. Houk received his undergraduate training at Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania receiving a B.S. in 1974 and his Ph.D. from Iowa State University in 1980. He also performed postdoctoral work at Ames Labs. He joined the Iowa State faculty in 1981. His awards include the Lester W. Strock Award in 1986, the Maurice F. Hasler Award in 1993, the ACS Award in Chemical Instrumentation, in 1993 and the Wilkinson Teaching Award in 1993. Dr. Houk serves on the Editorial Board of Spectrochimica Acta Part B and the Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry. His research involves the fundamental study and applications of new ionization techniques for mass spectrometry (MS). The general objective is to devise new methodology for important analytical problems based on the sensitivity and selectivity of MS when combined with an appropriate ionization source. His research group was the first to extract ions from an inductively coupled plasma (ICP) for analysis and detection by MS. The ICP-MS approach is a considerable improvement on existing techniques for elemental and isotopic analysis of solutions. It is now being widely used in numerous scientific disciplines including biomedicine, geochemistry, mining, materials science and nuclear industry. This information was obtained from the Chemistry page of the Iowa State University website which has much more information about Dr. Houk's research and publications. Back to About Anachem           Back to Home     Return to Anachem Awardees   Charles C. Sweeley, 2001 Awardee,  Bio from  2001 Professor Charles C. Sweeley was born and raised in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. He received a B. S. degree in Chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania in 1952 and the Ph.D. degree in Biochemistry from the University of Illinois in 1955. Following five years of postdoctoral work of the National Heart Institute in Bethesda, He joined the  Department of Biochemistry and Nutrituon at the University of Pittsburgh and was appointed Professor in 1966. He moved to Michigan State University in 1968 with an appointment as Professor of Biochemistry and remained there until retirement in 1992. During his academic career, Dr. Sweeley enjoyed two sabbatical leaves, one at Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden and one in the Cancer Center at MIT. Among several awards were a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1971, an honorary Doctora Honoris Causa in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Ghent in 1982, Dreyfus Lectures at Bucknell University in 1983, and University Distinguished Professor at Michigan State in 1990. His career has been primarily devoted to two areas of research, the development of bioanalytical methods in gas chromatography and mass spectrometry and studies on the biosysthesis, metabolism and function of sphingo lipids

Walter Jennings,  2004 Awardee.   Bio from 2004 Emeritus Professor Walter Jennings completed a thirty-five year career on the Davis Campus of the University of California, where he constructed his first gas chromatograph in 1954, authored a number of books on gas chromatography, served as Editor for several multi-author books, and published some 300 scientific papers. His laboratory at the University served as a chromatographic Mecca, attracting graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, and other research collaborators from over twenty-five different countries. Their foci included characterization and elucidation of the biosynthetic pathways of volatiles isolated from natural products, techniques of sample preparation, the design and modification of instruments and accessories, studies on fundamental chromatographic relationships, and developments in column deactivation and manufacture. Efforts in window diagramming, combined with research into stationary phase chemistry, led to the first WCOT columns containing a bonded, crosslinked stationary phase designed to maximize the resolution of all solutes in a given mixture. Walt was also the first to demonstrate computer-generated van Deemter plots and their use in evaluating the effects of column and operational parameters. Many scientists who worked with Dr. Jennings during this period are now well known academicians, others occupy responsible positions in instrument companies, and some direct research efforts in areas as diverse as flavor, forensic, petrochemical, pharmaceutical, and environmental analysis. He was awarded sabbatical leaves in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland, and spent considerable time working in Bulgaria and Poland under the auspices of the International Atomic Energy Agency. He was one of the first to be awarded the prestigious “Humboldt-Preis” from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, consisting of a substantial endowment (then tax-free in both Germany and the U.S.) and a one-year appointment as a Senior American Scientist in Germany. In 1974, collaborating with one of his completing doctoral students, he founded J&W Scientific, Inc., which became the world's largest supplier of fused silica columns. The company was sold to Fisons in 1986, resold to Saratoga Partners in 1996, and to Agilent Technologies in 2000. Through all of these changes, Professor Jennings continued as a Consultant. Professor Jennings has received the Founders Award in Gas Chromatography administered by the Beckman Corporation, the M.J.E. Golay Award, the Keene Dimick Award, the A.J.P. Martin Gold Medal, and the Silver Jubilee Award at the 19th International Symposium on Capillary Chromatography at Riva del Garde, Italy. In 1999, Professor Jennings was honored by his alma mater by the bestowal of their highest award to individuals, the Award of Distinction. At the 2002 Pittsburgh Conference in New Orleans, he received the Dal Nogare Award for his contributions to Separation Science. His other awards include the L.S. Palmer Award of the Minnesota Chromatography Forum, the Award of Merit from the Chicago Chromatography Discussion Group, the National Chromatography Award of the Northeast Regional Chromatography Discussion Group, and others from the French Association of Analytical Chemists, the University of Bologna, the Taiwanese Food Chemists Society, and the Society of Flavor Chemists. Professor Jennings is a Past Chairman of the American Chemical Society's Subdivisions of Flavor Chemistry, and of Chromatography and Separation Science, and has always been an active supporter of chromatography discussion groups. In each year since the early 1970s, he has instructed an average of thirty extra-curricular courses in gas chromatography at points all over the world, and is still very active on the world-wide seminar circuit. At eighty-two years of age, he continues these latter activities. He presently resides in El Dorado Hills, California, and functions as a Consultant for Agilent Technologies and for AirToxics, both in Folsom, California. MARY J. WIRTH  2005 AWARDEE,  (Bio from 2005) Dr. Wirth received her BS  in Chemistry from Northern Illinois University, in1974, and her PhD from Purdue in 1978. She joined the Staff at the University of Wisconsin where she was an Assistant Professor from 1978 -1984 and then spent two years (1984-1986) as a Research Scientist at lawrence- Livermore National Lab. Dr. Wirth went to the University of Delaware in 1986 as Assiociate Professor(1986 -90), Full Professor (1990-92) and then the Eugene Benett Professor (2002-04). She is a member of the American Chemical Society (Analytical & Physical Divisions), the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Society for Applied Spectroscopy She write about her research interests as follows. "We study surfaces that are interesting and important. Virtually every modern technology relies on surface properties, so our research is widely applicable from life sciences to electronics. Our primary application is bioanalytical chemistry, specifically surfaces used for chromatography, electrophoresis and biochips. The need for new surfaces in bioanalytical chemistry is huge and growing. The scientific question we ask is how adsorbates, such as proteins or DNA, interact with engineered surfaces. Surfaces can be as thin as one atom because it is the outermost atoms on a surface that touch the outside world. We design and study surfaces to achieve a molecular scale control and understanding of how they work. We employ state-of-the-art spectroscopic measurement tools to learn how molecules adsorb, and these tools include single-molecule fluorescence spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy, solid state NMR spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and bioseparations." Back to About Anachem           Back to home    Return to Anachem Awardees