President-Elect:  Ward Swanson

Secretary-Elect:  Sarah Cherney

Director:  Paul Jackson

The 21st Spring Symposium was a great success. Everything was near perfect.  We had over 300 attendees.  The vendors were very satisfied!

"The attendance was great!" "The facilities were great!"  "Food was fantastic!"  "The technical program was excellent."

I heard the above "comments" during and after the symposium.  Some people even congratulated me for the successful event as the President of MCF!  I cannot take credit for this!  The credit goes to the Symposium Committee under the leadership of the Chair Ward Swanson.

While one course was cancelled due to reasons that were beyond MCF's control, the other two courses had record attendance!  Thanks and congratulations to the Education Committee that worked hard under the enthusiastic leadership of Kim Grandprey!

I want to personally congratulate Peter Johnson for being the recipient of the Palmer Award!  Peter has been associated with MCF through out its existence in some capacity of another.  Peter deserved the award!  His enthusiasm for MCF is contagious.  I hope he will continue to be a part of MCF for years to come.

I want to personally thank David Eikens for his hard work in ensuring that the website is current and very professional!  I have heard very positive comments from the symposium attendees as well as the vendors about the website.

I want to apologize to those who came on May 18th to hear the Vendor Seminars.  The incorrect date was submitted to the newsletter. We will make every effort to ensure that this does not happen in the future.

Finally, I invite all the members to sent their comments about MCF and its activities to me either by email to rravichandran@mmm.com or by snail mail addressed to Ravi Ravichandran, 3M Pharmaceuticals, 3M Center 260-4S-13, St. Paul, MN 55144.  Positive comments serve as a booster to MCF's volunteers and constructive criticisms help us improve!

I wish Becky Wittrig success in her endeavor as the President of MCF during the year 2000-2001.

Election for MCF Board positions were held at the May 18th Spring Symposium.  All of the election races were extremely close.  One was even decided by one vote!  We would like to thank all of the candidates who ran and all the members who voted.

Below are brief biographies of the new board members:

Ward Swanson received his B.A. from Gustavus Adolphus College, and has worked in the environmental laboratory setting since 1991.  He currently performs Quality Assurance/Quality Control and environmental chemistry at Barr Engineering Company.  He has been a member of the MCF Symposium Committee for the last two years, and was the 2000 Symposium Committee Chair.

Paul T. Jackson is an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota and a MCF member since 1993.  He earned a B.A. in Chemistry from St. Olaf College and a Ph.D. in Analytical/Organic Chemistry from the University of Minnesota.  Paul's professional interests center on analytical and environmental chemistry.  Recent undergraduate research projects include chemical cycling in aging wetlands and the development of stationary phases for liquid chromatography.

Sarah Cherney joined PACE Incorporated in January 1991, and subsequently joined Pace Analytical Services when it was formed in 1995.  She is currently serving as Quality Assurance Officer.  Prior to joining Pace Analytical, she worked for an environmental testing laboratory.  Sarah has a B.S. in Chemistry with a minor in Biology from the University of Minnesota Institute of Technology (1990).

We would like to thank the newly elected members for their willingness to serve on the MCF board!

GC Troubleshooting

"Getting the Best Results from your Gas Chromatograph" was instructed by Dr. John Hinshaw of ChromSource, editor of the "GC Connections" in LC/GC Magazine.

Twenty three students representing twelve companies attended.  The course covered the potential causes of erratic results from the gas tank to integrator.  Topics included:  injector, column and detectors.

There was a hands-on laboratory session.  Students and coordinators learned a lot about setting up Gas Chromatographs and even had an extra bonus on "nursing" results from a Flame Ionization Detector running on pure oxygen rather than air.

Mass Spectral Interpretation

Dr. Robin Pachuta and Dr. Phil Lyon presented a short course titled "Mass Spectral Interpretation".

Forty-one students with various levels of expertise, representing sixteen different companies were treated to a course that moved quickly from the fundamentals of mass spectroscopy to prediction and interpretation of mass spectra.

Problem sets were used throughout the course to apply the material that had been covered and move information from the abstract to 'real' spectra.

This class is a MCF staple and we look forward to offering it again in two to three years.

The education committee welcomes MCF Member Comments on how courses should be structured.

Examples of helpful suggestions would address:

• Should classes be broken up into individual components of the gas chromatograph or would specific situations which cover only a few of the individual GC components be preferred?

• Should more "hands-on" courses be offered?

Course content, time constraints and MCF's ability to take expensive instruments out of operation are basic course planning considerations, but your input will help us better serve membership needs!

Let us know what you think!