Table of Contents

From the President's Desk

Becky Wittrig

Well, it is time for the Wittrig family to head for the hills - literally. I have accepted a position at Restek in State College, PA, as the Food and Flavors applications team leader. My completion date at Pillsbury is Jan. 5, with a start date in PA of Jan. 15. Who would have thought that this Minnesota girl would some day leave the frozen tundra for mountains and a more temperate climate!

I have really enjoyed working with all of you on the MCF board and various committees. The MCF is a truly unique and healthy local society, and I wish you all luck going forward. I would like to continue to be involved to whatever extent the board decides makes sense. You will, of course, still have to put up with me at events such as the spring symposium, where I will now be wearing a "vendor" hat. I'll let you all know if the box lunches are tasty!

I can still be reached after Jan. 15, through the Restek number at: (800) 356-1688 (e-mail address not yet known). Also, if you are at Pittcon this year, stop by the booth! I'll be the one trying to figure out what I am doing...

Take care,

Becky

GOOD BYE BECKY!

2001 Spring Symposium Update

One focus of the 2001 Spring Symposium will be Capillary Liquid Separations ( CE, CEC, CLC). Capillary columns have dominated "gas phase" separations for over a decade, however capillary columns are typically not the first choice for "liquid phase" separations. Why have capillary columns not excelled for liquid phase separations? There are several reasons: flow difficulties, injection difficulties, column packing difficulties, detection difficulties and user expectations. In recent years, the expectations for capillary separations have been defined more realistically. Unique technical challenges are being addressed with capillary separations. At the 2001 MCF Spring Symposium you will hear how capillary liquid separations are maturing into practical applications.

Tentative Program

May 15-16 Short Courses
May 16 pm Vendor Seminars & Exhibition
May 17 Technical Sessions & Equipment Exhibition

Invited Speakers ( as of Dec 18, 2000)

Keynote Speaker: Professor Csaba Horvath, Yale University
Focus Speaker: Dr. Stephen Naylor, Mayo Clinic
Focus Speaker:  Dr. Arthur Fitchett, Dionex
Focus Speaker: Dr. Frank Yang, Micro-Tech Scientific

For further information about the Symposium contact:
Symposium Chair: Roberta Taylor (rtaylor@madscientist.com)
Program Chair: Peter Johnson (prjohnson1@mmm.com)
Exhibits Chair: Charlie Jones (info@legend-group.com)

Call for Papers - Visit MCF Website at www.minnchrom.org

It seems like yesterday we were all worried about Y2K. Year 2000 has come and gone. No major changes or crises. Computers ran fine and all our work went uninterrupted. We had electricity and water. I forgot! We did have one crisis - at least in the eyes of the lawyers, press and political pundits! You know what I am thinking.

As you may have read from the President’s note, we have to choose a new President. Of course the framers of the MCF constitution have thought through all issues and have given us definitive guidelines. No reason to worry about a constitutional crisis. In January, the Board will elect a President who will lead us through the Spring Symposium and of course the MCF membership will be electing a new President-elect at the Symposium.

Becky! It is rather sad to see you leave the Twin Cities. Of course, we go where our career takes us. It is good to know that you may be coming back with a vendor hat. I hope that you will visit MCF on the web. Good luck in your new job! We will miss you.

I was hoping to include a Guest Column. The author had to get the article cleared through his employer and that has taken a little longer. I have not received the manuscript at the present time. Of course, by the time the next newsletter is out, I will have the manuscript. So you may see it in the next issue. Again, I request you to please consider writing a guest column or solicit guest columns from people you know on a subject related to separation science.

By the way, the next issue of Retention Times will be coming out early February. The deadline for receiving newsletter items for February issue is January 19, 2001.

"Practical Advice for Developing Better GC Methods"
Cameron George, Technical Support Engineer, Agilent
Daron Decker, Consumables and Accessories Technical Specialist, Agilent

"Basic LC/MS Techniques and Applications"
Matthew Dilts, Technical Sales Engineer, Micromass, Inc.
Dr. Roger Upham, Regional Sales Manager, Micromass, Inc.

"An Introduction to Ion Chromatography"
Dr. Arthur Fitchett, Ion Chromatography Evangelist, Dionex Corp.

For further information about the above courses contact Education Committee Chair, Kim Grandprey at kimg29@idt.net

"Introduction to High Performance Liquid Chromatography"
February 13^th - 15^th, 2001

Deadline for Registration: January 30, 2001
Note:  Class size is limited to 24 students

PLEASE NOTE:

Jan Jopke has been experiencing difficulty at times with phone and fax lines. She is close to the 952 / 763 dividing line which is proving to be a less than flawless transition. For now, email(prairie66@qwest.net) may be the most dependable. She will make every attempt to acknowledge the faxes and voicemails. She guarantees that she will send the confirmation if an email address is given. IF COURSE CONFIRMATION IS NOT RECEIVED WITHIN 5 BUSINESS DAYS, CONTACT JAN JOPKE AT (952) 949-2518.

22nd Annual Spring Symposium - Call For Papers

Education Corner

This month’s spotlight is on a MCF member who has participated in more than one area of the MCF…

Usha Mishra has been a very active volunteer in the MCF community over the last several years. She has been a member of the MCF Education Committee for the last four years as well as serving on the Symposium Committee for the last ten years.

Usha received her undergraduate degree from the University of Minnesota-Duluth and her Master’s degree from Mankato State University. She has worked in the analytical chemistry area for fifteen years, including seven years performing drug tests using GC/MS for Canterbury Downs at the University of Minnesota.. Currently, she is working at Part Three Corporation focusing on a pharmaceutically oriented combinatorial chemistry project.

Usha’s other activities have included serving on the board of Graduate Women in Science, participating in judging regional science fairs and reviewing papers for the Minnesota Academy of Science. She has been married for eighteen years and has four children, who she claims as her "greatest inspiration and joy in life".

Call for Palmer Award Nominations

The Minnesota Chromatography Forum (MCF) is seeking nominations for the Palmer Award to be presented at the 2001 Spring Symposium. The Palmer Award has been given out by the MCF for the past 21 years The award recognizes individuals for their contributions to the art and science of chromatography. The award can also be given to an individual for his or her service to the MCF or the chromatography community. Past recipients have included internationally recognized chromatographers as well as long-term MCF volunteers. For listing of the past recipients of the Palmer Award please visit the MCF web site at www.minnchrom.org. A committee chaired by the MCF Past Prseident reads and discusses all individuals nominated for the award, and then selects a winner. The Past President of the MCF heads the committee. The nomination form can be found on the MCF web site at www.minnchrom.org

Minutes of the 7 December 2000 MCF Board Meeting

Present: G Bailey, S Cherney, P Jackson, J Jopke, R Ravichandran, P Sackett, W Swanson, R Taylor, B Wittrig

Credit Card: Jan is continuing to determine the exact financial implications of acquiring credit card processing capabilities, and will report to the Board for their e-mail vote.

Treasurer’s Report: With the impending increase of postage this January, it’s time to revisit fees. The Undergraduate Award has just been raised to be more in keeping with other stipends, but membership fees and honoraria for speakers have been static for quite a while. Because exact figures were not available during the discussion, it was tabled until the January meeting.

Education Committee: Three courses have been lined up for the Symposium (ion chromatography, LC/MS, and advanced GC method development), and we have 4 registrations for the LC course in February. The first call for UGA submissions has gone out.

Symposium Committee: The number of vendor booths will be increased by 4, and the lounge area will remain because of its great popularity. The Publicity subcommittee has been formed and begun working. The pricing of vendor booths is being revisited, with inclusion of MCF memberships and/or box lunches as part of the package.

Program: The winter quarterly meeting is without a fixed date but has a speaker, Ulrich Bernier of the USDA in Gainesville, FL, speaking on attraction and repulsion of mosquitoes with analysis using GC/MS. Suggestions for topics and speakers for the spring quarterly meeting will be willingly accepted; contact Paul Jackson.

Website: A secure website would be required before we could offer membership or symposium payments online, and David is looking into the issues involved.