The Marcel Golay award was instituted in honor of Marcel Jules Eduard Golay, the inventor of capillary columns. Dr. Golay, one of the pioneers of gas chromatography, introduced the theory of dispersion in open tubular columns (capillary columns) and demonstrated their efficacy at the second International Symposium on Gas Chromatography in 1958. Dr. Golay joined PerkinElmer in 1962 as a senior scientist, and invented the Golay infrared sensor, which, at the time was the most sensitive infrared sensor available. Golay's invention helped establish PerkinElmer as a major source of infrared technology. He also extended the theory of preparative columns and examined the properties of various chromatography sampling systems. The open tubular gas chromatography column is the most popular analytical gas chromatography column in use today. Dr. Golay worked as was a senior scientist at PerkinElmer up until his death in 1989. The Marcel Golay award is presented to a scientist in recognition of a lifetime of achievement in capillary chromatography.
The 2011 Marcel Golay Award was presented to Professor Paul Haddad of the University of Tasmania. This award recognizes the contributions he has made to separation science over his career. Currently, the primary focus of his research is on the separation of small molecules, with particular emphasis on inorganic ions, metal complexes and low molecular weight organic species. The tools of separation science he uses includes; ion chromatography, capillary zone electrophoresis, capillary electrochromatography, microfluidic separations, and high-performance liquid chromatography. Particular interests lie in the theory and modeling of retention and migration processes, methods for control of separation selectivity, design of new detection methods (e.g. indirect spectrophotometry and potentiometry), sample handling methods, and specific applications. Studies also include the development of computer optimization methods and software for the selection of separation conditions. Haddad is an Australian Research Council Federation Fellow and a University of Tasmania Distinguished Professor. He is a fellow of both the Australian Academy of Science and the Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, he is Director of the Australian Centre for Research on Separation Science (ACROSS) and Director of the Pfizer Analytical Research Centre (PARC).
The Leslie Ettre Award was established in 2008 in honor of the late Leslie S. Ettre who worked at PerkinElmer for 32 years and made major contributions to gas chromatography (GC) including writing and editing over 40 books and almost 400 articles and papers. Ettre retired from PerkinElmer as Senior Scientist in 1990 but remained active in the science community as a professor and research fellow with the Chemical Engineering Department at Yale University for 16 years. He was a member of a number of editorial boards and continued to publish papers up until his death in June 2010.
The Leslie Ettre award is presented to a scientist 35 years old or younger who presented the most interesting original research in capillary gas chromatography with an emphasis on environmental and food safety. The winner of this award receives a research grant of $2,500, a $1,000 travel contribution to attend the next ISCC meeting and free registration at the next meeting. The winner is also invited to give an oral presentation at the next ISCC meeting. The jury for the award is chaired by William Goodman, Chromatography Applications Manager for PerkinElmer, and includes 6 to 8 prominent scientists.
The 2011 Leslie Ettre Award was presented to Ms. Dan Li, who is a senior graduate student at Brigham Young University, completing her PhD in Analytical Chemistry under the direction of Professor Milton L. Lee. The award was presented to Ms. Li for her work on the application of hand-portable gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) techniques for detection of bacteria and bacterial endospores. In her research, Ms. Li developed a simple one-step thermochemolysis (TCM) method to convert the microorganisms into characteristic volatile chemical markers that can be analyzed by GC-MS to provide characteristic chemical fingerprint profiles for detection and differentiation of the microorganisms from their near-neighbor genetic relatives and other biological material. The TCM method involves treating the bacteria or endospores in methanolic sulfuric acid solution at 140ºC for 5 minutes before sampling and introducing the sample into the GC-MS system using solid phase microextraction. To date, specific fatty acids, sugars, and unique biomarkers such as dipicolinic acid, have been used to construct a chemical fingerprint of the notorious anthrax bio-weapon that is robust under different growth conditions (i.e., temperature and growth media).
Ms. Li is currently working on extending the method to other potential bio-weapons, including two Category A pathogens (Francisella tularensis and Yersinia pestis) and one Category B pathogen (Burkholderia mallei). To date, she has coauthored 2 peer-reviewed papers and presented the results of this research in 5 national and international conferences.
Previous Winners
The 2010 Marcel Golay Award was presented to Professor Janusz Pawliszyn of the University of Waterloo for a lifetime of achievement in capillary chromatography, most notably his development of Solid Phase Microextraction. Currently, the primary focus of his research is the design of highly automated and integrated instrumentation for the isolation of analytes from complex matrices and the subsequent separation, identification and determination of these species. The primary separation tools used by his group are Gas Chromatography, Liquid Chromatography and Capillary Electrophoresis coupled to a variety of detection systems, including a range of mass spectrometry techniques. The focus of this research is the elimination of organic solvents from the sample preparation step to facilitate on-site monitoring and in-viro analysis. Dr. Pawliszyn is the author of over 400 scientific publications and a book on Solid Phase Microextraction. Dr. Pawliszyn holds the University Professor title, the Canada Research Chair and NSERC industrial Research Chair in New Analytical Methods and Technologies.
The 2010 Leslie Ettre Award was presented to Dr. Giorgia Pucaro of the University of Messina for her work in the qualification and quantification in comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography (GC) to quadruple mass spectrometry. Her research is focused on the employment of a recently developed fast-scanning quadruple mass spectrometry in GC x GC experiments. This generated a sufficient number of data points for correct peak reconstruction. A series of GC x GC-qMS experiments were carried out on pesticide-containing samples; the MS identification process was achieved by using a recently-constructed pesticide library and a novel comprehensive chromatography software.
Currently, Dr. Pucaro is developing comprehensive chromatography methods (GC x GC, LC x GC), with different interface and detection systems for the investigation of natural complex food matrices. Her research interests include food contaminants (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, mineral oil, and phthalates and development of conventional chromatography techniques (HRGC-FID, HRGC-MS, HPLC-UV, HPLC-FLD). She has been the co-author of 18 articles, two book chapters published by international editors and the co-author of two contributions on Chromedia (Chromatography Knowledge Base), on-line edition.
The 2009 Marcel Golay Award was presented to Professor Barry L. Karger of Northeastern University for his work in narrow diameter liquid chromatography (LC). The Golay Award was presented to Mr. Karger for a lifetime of achievement in capillary chromatography including 315 reviewed publications and 39 patents. Mr. Karger is the director of the Barnett Institute and professor of Analytical Chemistry at Northeastern University. Most recently, he broke new ground by using 10m inside diameter (ID) porous layer open tubular (PLOT) columns to analyze samples with less than 10,000 cells. Compared to the traditional 75 mm (µm) ID column, the PLOT platform delivers high sensitivity using less than one-fifth of the sample amount. The small sample requirement enables multiple injections into the column for increased protein identification.
The 2009 Leslie Ettre Award was presented to W. Christopher Siegler of the University of Washington for his work in three-dimensional gas chromatography (GC). Mr. Siegler, a graduate student at the University of Washington, is the second winner of the award. While two-dimensional GC separations have become common, Mr. Siegler's award-winning paper focused on the addition of a third dimension to separate overlapped analytes. The instrument developed by Mr. Siegler and other University of Washington researchers, is simple and requires only minor modifications to a conventional 1D gas chromatograph. It provides unique chemical selectivity by utilizing 3 columns with different chemical selectivity to better distinguish analytes from complex samples.