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Call for Palmer Award Nominations

Luke Charpentier

The Minnesota Chromatography Forum (MCF) is seeking nominations for the Palmer Award to be presented at the 2002 Spring Symposium. The Palmer Award has been given out by the MCF for the past 22 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. The Past President of the MCF heads the Palmer Awards committee which reads and discusses all individuals nominated for the award, and then selects a winner. The nomination form can be found on the MCF web site at www.minnchrom.org.

2002 MCF Undergraduate Research Award

The MCF Undergraduate Research Award is awarded annually (this year in March!) and presented at the Spring Symposium of the Minnesota Chromatography Forum. It is designed to encourage undergraduate students to become involved in scientific research. Proposals are submitted by undergraduate students for short research projects (e.g. a 6-week project) in which chromatography or some other separation technique plays an important role. A panel of judges reviews the 'proposals and the student submitting the best proposal is awarded the sum of $3500. The winner commits to present his or her research work at the 2003 MCF Spring Symposium.

Any undergraduate student who has the support of an advisor in the designing and the implementation of the project can submit the proposal. The proposed work may be done as part of a course such as an Introduction to Research course or it may be done as a separate project. The major requirement for the proposal is that it should be written by the student and the work must be done under the guidance of a faculty member, who agrees to act as sponsor. Faculty guidance in suggesting a research problem and formulating the proposal is of course, allowed. Neither the student nor the faculty sponsor, need to be members of the Minnesota Chromatography Forum in order to qualify. The award will be presented to the student to use as a stipend and for the purchase of equipment.

The Minnesota Chromatography Forum urges you to make this grant known to students and faculty members, encouraging them to submit proposals. The proposals need not be long (a few pages) and the research itself should be simple enough to be completed in from three to eight weeks of full time laboratory research. Please forward this information to other advisors who have candidates for this award.

Proposal Submission Deadline March I, 2002. Grant Awarded March 15, 2002.

All proposals should be sent to the following address:
MCF Undergraduate Research Grant
Attn: DeWayne Townsend, Ph.D.
1200 Mendelssohn Ave, Suite 50
MINNEAPOLIS, MN 55427-4360

Please contact Dr. DeWayne Townsend for further inquiries about this research grant by phone (952) 929-1996 during the daytime or via e-mail at d-town@maroon.tc.umn.edu.

Education Corner

Michelle Iverson

About this time last year Kim Grandprey asked me to consider becoming the next chair of the education committee. I accepted, realizing this would be a good opportunity to become more involved in the MCF. The transition is going well, especially since Kim was very organized and remains on the education committee.

I am pleased to announce the upcoming courses (please refer to www.minnchrom.org for more details): 

"Use of designed Experhnents (DOE) in Chromatographic applications" taught by Lars Pekay, General Mills, Feb 5-7th, 2002

"Topics in Advanced GC" taught by your favorite Agilent instructors, Spring Symposium 2002

"Troubleshooting HPLC Systems" taught by John Dolan of LC Resources, Spring Symposium 2002

"Introduction to HPLC" back by popular demand, David Johnson and Larry Felice, October 22-24, 2002

Please keep in mind that the Education Committee welcomes course suggestions and instructor suggestions from MCF Members. We always welcome new committee members! I can be reached at 952/431-6000 or michelle@chromtech.com.

MCF Course Reviews

"Introduction to High Performance Liquid Chromatography"

Kate Graham

On November 6-8th, the MCF offered a Beginning HPLC course taught by David Johnson (3M) and Larry Felice (MEDTOX Laboratories). The course provided an introduction to theory and practical method development in HPLC. In addition to the lecture content, students spent an entire day working with vendors exploring "hands-on" use of the equipment.

The first day of class began with basic chromatography theory and then discussed specific topics involved with HPLC including solid supports, bonded phases, solvent systems, tubing, fittings and detectors. The second day was devoted to lab problems. The students were divided into 6 groups of four students to work with the instruments in lab. Six vendors, Agilent, Beckman, ChromTech, Perkin-Elmer, Shimadzu and Waters, donated their time and instrument usage. In the morning session, the vendors explained the practical use of the instruments and worked with the students to optimize the HPLC separation of a variety of aromatic compounds. In the afternoon, the students were given a laboratory assignment to separate the components of either three anti-inflammatory drugs or the drugs commonly found in cold medications. On the final day of class, the students reviewed the concepts of method development covered in the laboratory exercises and then went on to learn more about data analysis, sample preparation and troubleshooting.

The class was full with 25 students (original limit was 24) and there was a long waiting list. This is clearly a needed service for the community. MCF is offering this course again in October of 2002. Overall, the class and lab were received very well and the students were eager to implement the, method development techniques in their own work. Many felt that the laboratory sessions were particularly helpful. We appreciate the effort and time invested by David Johnson, Larry Felice, and the vendors to make this course a success. The MCF would also like to thank VWR and Pall Gelman for donating supplies for the lab.

"Advanced HPLC Methods Development" 

Kim Grandprey

On November 27th, 19 students and one California instructor braved the first major snowstorm of the season to partake in the Advanced HPLC Methods Development Course. While the course started a little late, the instruction was intense and profitable. The day began with a review of the basics and the importance of understanding the basics in applying them to successful method development.

The instructor demonstrated that no matter the mode of separation (isocratic, gradient, ion-pair, etc.), the same basic logical approach could be applied. First, He stressed the need to evaluate a given column for its ability to retain the compound(s) of interest, also known as k. Second, was the need to evaluate the same column for its separation ability if two or more compounds are analyzed, also known as alpha (a). Then lastly was to optimize N (efficiency) or the "physical parameters" of the separation. All too often the first thing a chromatographer will do is look for a column with a "high" plate count, when this will not have the greatest effect on the overall separation.

In addition to the lecture, the instructor provided software used in class for modeling method development parameter changes such as mobile phase and column types. Although the time for actual use of the software was limited, the students were informed that the demo software is available on-line for downloading to their computers. The same applications studied in class are available as working examples (and reminders!) of what the course covered.

A special thanks to Derek Southern for coming to Minnesota to teach the course during the winter!

John Freeburg Retires

After a career of nearly thirty years at HP/Agilent, John Freeburg, Field Engineer in St. Paul, NM has elected to retire from Agilent Technologies.

John received his electronics and computer training from the US Navy and served in the submarine service. He left the US Navy in 1966 and joined the staff of the University of Minnesota as an in-house Customer Engineer. He performed many tasks involving scientific instruments, such as purchasing, installation, repair and providing operating instructions to faculty and graduate students. He made his first injection on a GC in December of 1966, which was a baby blue built like a battleship, a Barber-Coleman model 5000.

In November 1972, John joined the HP St. Paul Office as a Customer Engineer. He worked for Analytical, as well as Medical, with some bench repair thrown-in as well. Labor rates for on-site service at the time were $19.50/hr. In 1977 John was promoted to Field Engineer in the St. Paul office, covering all or part of six midwest states.

During fiscal year 1979, John was the top dollar Field Engineer in the country. In the years between 1978 and 1985, John was a frequent top regional and/ or US Field Engineer for various product lines, but especially BPLC'S. John frequently lead the nation in sales of the 1080 Series HPLC'S, the Protein Sequencer, the Bio-Analyzer and is now world sales champion for the API - LC/MS source.

John has been associated with MCF since its inception. In 1995, John received the L.S. Palmer award from the Minnesota Chromatography Forum (MCF) in recognition of his contributions to the MCF. This includes helping teach a basic GC course for the MCF for the last 25 years. As John often likes to point out to visitors to Minnesota, L.S. Pahner was our nation's first chromatographer and did his work at the University of Minnesota in 1916.

Besides his professional activities, John has been a member of the Masonic lodge for 35 years, serving as master of his lodge in

1975 and is currently the Lodge Education Officer. He is also an active member of the Minneapolis Scottish Rite of Freemansony and the Minneapolis Shriners. He is also a member of several other Masonic Organizations and societies.

John has been married to his wife Sharon for 38 years and they have 2 sons, Ragnar and Eric and a grandson Luke. John & Sharon make their home on the shores of the Mississippi River in Ramsey, MN where they spend their time gardening, landscaping, fishing and boating. They both enjoy reading and travel and helping to raise their grandson, Luke.

Editor's Note:
This column was submitted by Professor Pete Carr. On behalf of the MCF Board, I really thank Dr. Carr for taking his time to write this. As an MCF member and volunteer I got to know John from 1997 John served MCF in various capacities including the President. He has been the photographer for the MCF Spring Symposium as long as I have been involved with the MCF. I am not sure if he will be back at the Spring Symposium. Of course it is quite understandable if he does not.

John, keep in touch!

Happy retirement!

Use of Designed Experiments (DOE)
 in Chromatographic Applications
February 5-7, 2001...

Registration Deadline Jan 24, 2002.