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Palmer Award Winner

Luke Charpentier

MCF is proud present the 2002 Palmer Award to Dr. John Dolan, LC Resources.

Dr. Dolan received his MS from Purdue University and his Ph.D. from the University of California. His graduate work focused on detector development for both GC and LC. John has worked for Technicon Instruments, IBM Instruments, and Linfield College. He is currently the President of LC Resources and an editor for LC/GC Magazine writing the popular column "Trouble Shooting in HPLC". Dr. Dolan has made a number of very significant contributions to LC and is a major player in the team that developed the most widely used software for computerized HPLC and GC method development. He also was the co-developer with Snyder of a general approach to gradient elution in HPLC.

Lastly, found within the nomination for the award was the following: "In my own interactions with John over the past 25 years, I have found him to be a person of the highest integrity, with an absolute minimum of self promotion. I have enjoyed working with John more than any person I know, not only for these traits but because of his innovative thinking, constant expanding interests, and dedication to simple hard work."

The Palmer Award is given each year to an individual at the Minnesota Chromatography Forum Spring Symposium to recognize outstanding contributions to the art and science of chromatography as it relates to the MCF. Please visit www.minnchrom.org for a list of the previous Palmer award winners.

2002 Election Results

Brian Leafblad

First of all, I need to say a big thank-you to all the candidates who ran for office this year. The variety of candidates has provided a good mix of new people to balance the wily veterans. Please join me in congratulating and welcoming the new board members. Brenda Tjelta, from Ecolab, is our new President-Elect.  Brenda joined Ecolab in 2001 as a Principal Chemist in the analytical group. Her current responsibilities include the development of new analytical methods applied to surfactant systems and related materials. Prior to this Brenda was an Assistant Professor teaching environmental, instrumental methods, and physical chemistry. During this time she also served on the Education Committee for the Northeast Section of the ACS. Brenda has a B.A degree in chemistry from Gustavus Adolphus College, and a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from the University of Utah. Julie Stolis has been elected 1st year Director, and works at Flint Hills Resources. Julie received her B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Superior in 1988. She has worked as an analytical chemist for over 19 years in the areas of environmental chemistry and wastewater analysis. Julie has experience with GC, GC-MS, HPLC and ion chromatography. She currently manages the Environmental Laboratory at Flint Hills Resources.

And, returning to serve again as Secretary is Amy Hietala, from the MN Department of Health. Amy graduated from Bemidji State University in 1987 with a Bachelors degree in chemistry. She spent twelve years as a chemist and supervisor in a personal care products manufacturing and aerosol company. She earned her Master's degree in environmental health at the University of Minnesota in 1999. Amy currently works as an environmental chemist and project manager with Legend Technical Services, Inc. She will soon be moving into a new position as a research scientist in the Newborn Screening Laboratory at the MN Department of Health.

Spring Symposium 2002 Course Reviews

"Troubleshooting HPLC Systems"

John Freeburg

We were again fortunate to have John Dolan, Ph.D. of LC Resources conduct his "Troubleshooting HPLC Systems" course at the 23rd annual Spring Symposium. John is also the author of the "LC troubleshooting" column in LC/GC Magazine.

The course was advertised in the various MCF publications and on the website. Response was tremendous; to quote our registrar Janice Jopke "we could have filled this course twice over". This presentation followed our standard one and a half day format with the first day devoted to classroom. The instructor followed the agenda and skillfully answered all student questions. Sessions started on time and student attention was at a high level. The half day session involved the participation of six vendors (Agilent, Beckman, Lakeview Assoc., Perkin Elmer, Shimadzu and Waters) who provided instruments for a hands on troubleshooting session. Students went around to each vendor station where the vendor gave a unique troubleshooting procedure and an instrument specific feature. Dr. Dolan mentioned that this is the only location where vendor participation occurs. This is a testament to the spirit of cooperation within the MCF which seems to be unique in the country.

Nearly every student filled out a course evaluation form and the vast majority of those were very positive. To quote one "'the presenter was well organized, knowledgeable and made it interesting. The mini review at the beginning was helpful". Another said "John Dolan- hats off to the committee for bringing in one of the best authorities in the field". There were several comments from students concerning the course description and general applicability to their every day activities. The Education Committee will be meeting soon to discuss these inputs. Overall the course is being viewed as very successful and well worth the time and effort to sponsor and/or attend it.

"Topics in Advanced GC"

Gibbes Bailie

Eighteen students attended the "Topics in Advanced GC" course taught by Daron Decker and Jason Ellis of Agilent Technologies. The course was divided into several sections with the earlier sections covering mainly instrumentation and the later sections covering columns. In general, each section included a review of the basics and then expanded to include ways of getting a more efficient analysis through optimization techniques. The column sections included information on newer GC columns for specific applications such as gasses or high temperature work.

Throughout the course, the instructors pointed out that today's instrumentation allows analysts to use conditions such as programming for carrier gas flow, oven temperature, or injector temperature that were not possible in the past and that analysts should "embrace and exploit' these and other features to optimize their chromatography, rather than just continuing to "do things the same way they have been done for years".

The course also included an introduction to the Agilent "Method Translation" software which allows the chromatographer to "dry lab" changes to their GC conditions and determine fairly quickly whether those proposed changes might produce a more desirable chromatogram or might require unrealistic conditions to accomplish. The parameters that can be "changed" by the software include column dimensions, carrier gas (both type and flow rate), and temperature programs. The Method Translation software can be accessed at http://www.chem.agilent.com/cag/servsup/usersoft/main.html. That site also includes other useful, FREE, software, so check it out!

The course was well received by the students who felt that it was worthwhile and that we should offer it again.

Future Courses

Michelle Iverson
Education Chairperson

I am pleased to announce the upcoming courses (please visit www.minnchrom.org for more details):
"Introduction to HPLC" back by popular demand, (this course tends to fill early)
David Johnson and Larry Felice, October 22-24, 2002

"Beginning GC" back by popular demand,
Dr. Gary Reineccius and John Freeburg, January 7-9, 2003

Please keep in mind that the Education Comniittee welcomes MCF Member Comments on course suggestions, instructor suggestions, and we always welcome new committee members! I can be reached at 952/431-6000 or michelle@chromtech.com.

An Appeal From the President

Brian Leafblad

Have you considered getting involved with MCF? Now would be a great time to start. We are working on next year's event/activity schedule, and would welcome anyone interested in joining the fun. We have a great list of activities, from classes to quarterly meetings as well as website maintenance and newsletter production. If you have an interest in working on any of these, or other interests as well, talk to one of the board members or committee chairpersons. You can find contact information on our website at www.minnchrom.org