Table of Contents

From the President's Desk

Ward Swanson

The Christmas trees are disassembled (or chipped), the lights have been taken down, and all the confetti has been swept up. The groundhog has seen its shadow and although it doesn’t seem like it, winter is nearing its end.

Now is the time of year that all good chromatographers turn their attention to the MCF.

OK, I admit that is a bit over the top, but believe it or not, now is the time to think about what role you as a member will have in next year’s MCF. As you saw in last months Retention Times, the call has gone out for volunteers to be on the ballot at the next Symposium. I believe that as members, all of you are qualified to help direct the MCF’s activities, and you would find it a rewarding pursuit.

If the Board of Directors is not to your liking, how about exploring a spot on a Committee for next year? I think if you examined the individual Committees and their purpose (at www.minchrom.org) you might find an assignment that is right for you. This is the place to change something you don’t like, or to just help support MCF activities.

If you have ruled out both of those options, there are a number of other ways to get more involved. How about submitting a paper for the Symposium, or nominating a worthy individual (colleague, mentor, professor, etc.) for the Palmer Award? Also, you could sign-up for some continuing education classes (they fill fast), and for sure plan on attending the Spring Quarterly Meeting and the 2003 Symposium.

So, as your thoughts turn away from the snow and ice and towards green grass, I would encourage you to take a minute and decide how you will participate in the MCF in 2003. As all of you know, we are member owned and operated and so the more you are willing to take part, the better the Organization will be.

Coming Soon

Grant Paul

The last of the MCF quarterly presentations will be held on Monday April 22, 2002 (site to be determined). The speaker will be Mr. John C. Hudson of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Forensic Laboratory in Regina, Saskatchewan Canada. The presentation will cover applications of Capillary Zone Electrophoresis in Forensics and Toxicology.

Watch your mail for a special announcement!

2002 MCF Spring Symposium Update

Abstracts are now being accepted for Poster and Oral Presentations at the 2002 MCF Spring Symposium

FREE LASER POINTER !!!

The presenting author of Poster and Oral Presentations at the 2002 MCF Spring Symposium will receive a complimentary MCF laser pointer.

Abstract Deadline April 15, 2002

The deadline for Abstract submission is March 31, 2002. Abstracts may be submitted on-line, by email, by FAX or by paper mail. Instructions for Abstract submission are available at the MCF website - www.minnchrom.org

The following are the confirmed speakers and their topics for 2002 Symposium:

Prof. Edward Yeung, Iowa State University
" High Throughput Chemical and Biochemical Measurements "

Kurt R. Sedo, Pharmaceutical Development
Pharmacia Corp. Skokie, IL
"Development and Validation of CE and HPLC Screening Methods for Early Stage Drug Development Projects"

David R. Goodlett
The Inst. for Systems Biology, Seattle, WA
"Proteomics without Polyacrylamide: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches to Proteomics via Mass Spectrometry"

Kerry D. Nugent
Michrom BioResources
"Automated Multidimensional HPLC for Proteomic Sample Preparation Prior to Nanoscale LC-MS/MS Protein Identification"

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 a 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

Board Member Nominations Sought

Brian Leafblad

Calling all MCF members!

We need you!

It’s not about what MCF can do for you, but what you can do for MCF.

Okay, okay. Enough propaganda. Seriously, we as a group do need you to step up and get involved. As a volunteer run organization we can not just go out and hire someone to sit on our board and make the decisions that effect how MCF runs. We have to pull from within – we need you to fill the vacancies from past board members whose terms are complete.

I’m sure we can all think of at least one colleague that would be a great person to fill one of the board positions. Tell me who they are! More people will serve if nominated, than will volunteer themselves. We have three positions to fill – who do you want in those positions?

We will be electing a 1st year Director, President-elect and Secretary-elect. If you would like to find out what people in these positions actually do, feel free to contact us. You can find out who and how at www.minnchrom.org/board_members.htm. (Or, if you would like to get involved with one of the committees, contact the chairperson.) All of the contact names and numbers can be found on the MCF website.

You can volunteer or forward nominations to me at brian.leafblad@ecolab.com or at (651)306-4147. If possible, please include contact information for the people you are nominating. It will be very nice to get several nominations for each of the positions. I am very optimistic that each of you will consider doing your part to the best volunteer run chromatography forum in the upper Midwest.

From the Editor's Desk

Ravi Ravichandran

We just had the second warmest February in Minnesota ever since we started keeping record of temperature and we are heading into the traditionally snowiest month of the year. Of course it remains to be seen if the tradition continues.

One tradition that will definitely not change is Pittcon. This year is the first time as far as I know that Pittcon has been pushed past the middle of March. This year is the first year for the Pittcon Heritage Award. The recipient is Dave Nelson, the founder of Nelson Analytical which was acquired by Perkin Elmer in 1989. In times of economic recession, I am not sure how many of you are able to go. If you do, can you please come back and send me a short write-up of your reaction to the conference.

You may recall in the past, there have been columns written about the conferences. The editors of Retention Times would love to hear from you about any conference you may have attended. For that matter, if you attend any local professional meeting such as MCF Quarterly meetings, feel free to write a critical review. Perhaps you can use MCF Retention Times as a medium to communicate your thoughts.

The Editors of MCF Retention Times invite you to consider writing a column for a future newsletter. Some of the past articles have been in the areas of LC-ICP, LC-FTIR and Large Volume Injection Techniques in GC, You can visit the MCF website to see these articles in the archived newsletters. It can be a review of a conference you attended recently. The only requirement is that it should be related to the area of Separation Science. If you have article to publish, we have the space!! Please send your articles, letters or write-ups to rravichandran@mmm.com.

Quiz on History of Chromatography

(All the answers are years)

1. The first chromatography experiment was carried out ----
2. Separation of Carotenoids from butter fat ------
3. First Reversed-phase chromatography was done in ----
4. First GC was introduced in the US in ------
5. Glass Capillary was used for GC was introduced in ------

Answers

1. 1906 Tswett - Father of Chromatography
2. 1922 L.S. Palmer - in whose honor MCF gives out Palmer Award
3. 1948 Boldingh – used vulcanized rubber column with benzene on it!
4. 1955 Burrell Corp., Perkin Elmer, and Podbielniak
5. 1960 Desty – petroleum analysis