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Table of Contents 1999 Spring Symposium Review Jianwei Li The 1999 MCF Spring Symposium was held again at the Earle Brown Heritage Center, from May 18-20. This year’s symposium marked the 20th anniversary of the MCF Spring Symposium. It was another very successful event, which attracted the participation of about 40 vendors and 300 attendees. The three-day symposium included one short course, 13 vendor presentations, an afternoon reception in the vendor exhibition, 9 posters, and 28 technical presentations. In addition, Palmer award and Undergraduate Award were presented to the recipients chosen by the respective committees. Details of the awardees can be found elsewhere in this issue of MCF Retention Times. The president of MCF, Luke Charpentier, opened the symposium with welcoming remarks. He then described the history of the MCF, and particularly the tremendous achievements of MCF in the past twenty years. Jianwei Li, the chair of symposium committee, also made an introduction remark. He explained the goal, scope, operation, and activities plus the future development of MCF. Both Luke and Jianwei sincerely expressed their appreciation to the committee members, volunteers, governing board of MCF who made the significant event possible. Professor Daniel W. Armstrong from the University of Missouri at Rolla gave the keynote address on the aggregation effects on chiral recognition. This talk discussed several examples of solute aggregation and its effect on LC and CE separations. The significance of the presentation revealed the aggregation issue that may not have been known in many separations. There were 28 technical presentations, including four focus speakers who addressed the following topics: (1) capillary electrophoresis, (2) capillary electrochromatography, (3) miniaturization in hyphenated liquid chromatography, and (4) environmental GC/mass spec analyses. The technical presentations were grouped into eight categories: hyphenated LC, CE/CEC, HPLC applications, selectivity for HPLC phases, GC techniques, environmental GC applications, sample prep to preparative HPLC, and a presentation by the 1998 Undergraduate Research awardee. In addition, 9 poster presentations were presented on Wednesday and Thursday. On the first two days of the symposium, one short course was offered. The topic was "Troubleshooting HPLC Systems" by John Dolan from LC Resources. The vendors participated enthusiastically and were extremely pleased with the opportunity to show their latest product developments. On Wednesday, they had the opportunity to present seminars related to the latest developments in instrumental and column technologies. Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank the support from the MCF board and all committees. In particular, I want to express my genuine appreciation to the following people from the education and symposium committees.
Steve Pierson Wins 1999 Palmer Award! David Whitman The Palmer Award was created to recognize and encourage the art and science of chromatography. It is given to those individuals whose professional as well as scientific accomplishments have fostered progress in chromatography. Each year this prestigious award is presented at the Spring Symposium. Steve Pierson was recognized with the 1999 MCF Palmer Award. Steve has been very active in the MCF. He served on the board for several years and was the 1986-1987 president. Steve is the founder of ChromTech, a company which has been an influential resource to chromatographers through the region. Steve has also served as a direct resource for many MCF members, helping out with tough chromatographic problems. The MCF congratulates Steve on this well deserved honor! 1999 Undergraduate Award Winner The 1999 Undergraduate Award winner is Kevin Peterson from the College of St. Benedict/St. John's University. The topic of his research is: "Determination of the Genetic Variation in Goldenrod Antifeedant Natural Products." The Symposium Short Course Report... Kim Grandprey While only one course was held at this year's annual spring symposium, it turned our to be very successful! "Trouble shooting HPLC Systems" was a mixture of lecture and laboratory demonstrations. John Dolan of LC Resources Inc. taught the course. Dr. Dolan spent the first day "breaking down" HPLC systems and offering tips and schedules for maintaining and repairing various components. He stressed the importance of preventive maintenance and outlined ways to avoid problems while also covering strategies for diagnosing problems or discovering that a problem exists. There was active participation throughout the class by students who presented "real" problems for the class to consider. Day two consisted of demonstrations by 5 participating MCF vendors. Chromatographic problems and validation issues were presented. Demonstrations, including ways to check instrumental performance were also given. This year’s participating vendors were Coulter Beckman, Hewlett-Packard, Perkin-Elmer, Shimadzu, and Waters. Ravi Ravichandran I became officially the President on the afternoon of May 20, 1999 when Luke Charpentier handed me the virtual gavel at the annual business meeting. I am looking forward to a very productive year with the help of all the board members and the various committees such as Symposium Committee and Education Committee. I am positive that the dedication and the interest of these committee members will make my job as the MCF president very easy. As the President Elect during 1998-1999, it is my pleasure to inform the MCF members the results of the election that was held on May 20, 1999. Thanks to all the MCF members who took the time to vote during the Spring Symposium. The results of the election are: Becky Wittrig – President-Elect - Pillsbury Pat Sackett – Secretary-Elect – 3M Company Gibbes Bailie - Director – 3M Company I want to take this opportunity to thank all of the members who agreed to run for the offices. It is the spirit of such dedicated individuals brings success to organizations such as MCF. Many of you may be wondering about how much time one is expected to spend in MCF activities. I have been involved for the past two years. I cannot recall spending more than two-three hours a month in MCF activities. This probably the average time. The benefits of getting involved in MCF activities are:
Organizing the spring symposium each year is one of the most challenging and exciting task. Ward Swanson of Barr Engineering has agreed to Chair the Symposium Committee for the Spring Symposium in the new millennium. If any of you are interested in helping Ward out with the various symposium related activities, please contact him directly at 612-832-2660. Another useful piece of information: David Eikens has taken over the task of updating the website periodically. He has been offcially appointed as the MCF Webmaster! Please send him any updates you may have. Also, take a few minutes out of your schedule to visit MCF website at www.minnchrom.org. Please send your comments and questions using the Send Comments section of the website. A comprehensive review of the Spring Symposium written by Jianwei Li, the Chairperson of the Symposium Committee appears in this issue of MCF Retention Times. My sincere thanks to the Symposium Committee and the Education committee for making 20th Symposium another successful one. My hearty congratulations to both the committees for a great job in spite of some of the difficulties which seemed insurmountable! I encourage all of you to contact the board members ( names and phone numbers can be found in the MCF website) and get involved in MCF. One of the Focus Speakers, Dr. Mark Schure commented that MCF is one of the two very active and viable chromatography forums in the entire USA. That was a very gratifying statement to hear from the speaker as he is one of the active members involved in organizing the annual HPLC conference. I am counting on your active support and interest in MCF. I sincerely hope that in due course MCF will become a model for other chromatography forums all around the globe. After all with the advent of the internet and our presence in world wide web this wish of mine is easily achievable. Have a great summer. Final Reminder ... Sign upToday!!! "Beginning Gas Chromatography" July 13th - 15th, 1999 A three day workshop in beginning gas chromatography! Taught by two of our most popular instructors, this workshop is offered to provide introductory training in the applications of GC to practical industry and laboratory analytical problems. "Hands On" training with instrumentation by local vendors is included each afternoon! Instructors:
Date/Time:
Location:
For more information, including a tentative agenda and registration form, follow this link to course information. Otherwise, contact Jan Jopke, CCS, at (612) 949-2518. To register, send a completed registration form a check for $600, payable to the Minnesota Chromatography Forum. |
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