Special Issues-05-01-2007

Editor Dave Walsh suggested that current columnists for LCGC might enjoy writing about their experiences in writing their columns and relate how they got into such writings and where it has taken them.

While most chromatographers would agree that development of effective, short, and stable chromatographic methods requires elements of personal intuition and systematic screening, some might argue that it is in fact more art than science.

CDS Analytical, Inc. has been a leader in the design and manufacture of laboratory instruments for sample preparation and analysis for over 35 years.

Today, the ESA name is synonymous with innovation in HPLC detection. But our roots in this market go back 25 years, when we launched a groundbreaking electrochemical detector (ECD) in a brand new magazine: LCGC North America.

When Peak Scientific started manufacturing gas generators in 1997, we knew that there was a huge potential for our gas generation products, which include nitrogen generators for LC–MS as well as hydrogen, ultra high purity nitrogen, and zero air generators for GCs. 10 years later, we are still amazed by the rapid growth of the market not only for gas generator products but also for those instruments that require gas to analyze samples, such as LC–MS and GC.

I was first acquainted with LCGC in the mid 1980s. Known then as just LC Magazine, it appealed to any graduate student working in the field of chromatography because it was delivered each month free of charge.

Tosoh Corporation, the parent company of Tosoh Bioscience, was established in Japan in 1935 as a domestic producer of caustic soda and soda ash.

Millipore Corporation is a leader in sample preparation technology, including filtration, chromatographic preparation, and ultrapure water for chemical and biochemical analysis. Although scientists have placed emphasis on the results of analysis, there has been a recent shift of focus to include the preparation stage. Research done through chromatography, mass spectrometry, elemental spectrometry, microscopy, and particle analysis are reliant on sample quality.

We are pleased indeed to have been partnering with LCGC for North America many years in briefing scientists worldwide about our numerous LC–MS product announcements and extensive LC–MS applications news.

Pickering Laboratories began in September 1980.

Designed for purification and engineered for science, Gilson, Inc. provides high quality, dependable purification solutions for your demanding liquid chromatography, solid phase extraction, liquid handling and gel permeation chromatography clean-up requirements.

Shimadzu congratulates LCGC on their 25th anniversary and we offer sincere wishes for many more years of service to the LC–GC community.

Daiso Co. was founded in 1915 for the electrolytic production of caustic soda from seawater.

Quadrex Corporation was founded in 1976 by Dr. S.R. Lipsky who recognized the need for commercially available reproducible GC capillary columns at a time when most columns were individually made by scientists in their own labs.

I firmly believe that the most significant development in mass spectrometry in this decade - or perhaps even the history of mass spectrometry - will turn out to be the ability to measure samples directly in open air under ambient conditions. In my experience of using mass spectrometry for the past thirty-plus years, the biggest limitation has always been the need to insert samples into a high-vacuum chamber, or to dissolve the samples and inject them or deposit them onto a prepared surface. The ability to analyze samples immediately by using open-air analysis without these restrictions has been very liberating, and it has made it possible to analyze a much wider variety of materials. I no longer hesitate to try an analysis because I am not sure about extraction, solubility, volatility, likelihood of contaminating the mass spectrometer, or whether the sample will go through a GC or LC column.

Thermo Fisher Scientific is the world leader in serving science. The company is the largest provider of analytical instruments, equipment, reagents and consumables, software and services for research, analysis discovery, and diagnostics.

As a family business, GERSTEL has always enjoyed freedom from short-or medium-term interests of investors, allowing us to pursue promising long-term strategies and projects.

Born from the garages of entrepreneurs, the analytical instrumentation industry's first 25 years were marked by invention and the establishment of core technologies. Invention continues, but the past 25 years are better characterized as a time of perfecting and reengineering, pushing limits, and consolidation - of the technologies and the industry. The specifications arms race continues as the players try to stay on technology's leading edge, but new technology introductions have been rare. Instead, the industry debuts faster, smaller, and more economical products that are customer-focused and user friendly. Hybridization is becoming common. An industry once driven by inward facing R&D departments is now driven by market demands.

Alltech Associates Inc. has been an expert in HPLC column chemistry since 1971.

Congratulations to LCGC North America for 25 years of providing insightful resources to the scientific instrumentation community. As the leader in laboratory gas generation, Parker has relied upon LCGC as an important business partner in reaching our users. We see that partnership continuing.

Since its inception, LC Magazine and LCGC North America has supported MicroSolv Technology Corporation's evolution from an "idea" by the sales and marketing team of the former, ACE Scientific Supply Co., Inc., to the present international company which it is today.

Around the time Edward Aster identified the need for a publication dedicated to chromatography, HI Scientific Services Inc. was founded, but the evolution of the company began long before that time.

Metrohm has established itself in the competitive analytical instruments sector and has continually extended its position. We are the market leader in the fields of titration and voltammetry, in the ion chromatography sector we are a very strong number two. The company is owned by the Metrohm foundation, whose purpose is to keep the company independent, to provide employment to local people and to support causes of public interest in our area.

In 1983, the brainchild of Ed Aster, President of Aster Publishing, and Tom Hager, an editor, a publication called LC-Liquid Chromatography and HPLC Magazine was christened.

Smiths Detection is part of the global business Smiths Group, a leading developer and manufacturer of advanced technology solutions for civil and military markets worldwide.

Congratulations to LCGC North America on 25 illustrious years covering the fields of separation science and analytical instrumentation.

Congratulations LCGC on 25 Years of Great Publishing!

In 1982 when the first issue of LCGC entered the chromatography laboratories, BISCHOFF Chromatography was already 2 years old.

Congratulations on your 25th anniversary, to one of the most recognized journals in the field of analytical science.

I have to cede my seniority as an LCGC columnist to Ron Majors - he started several months before I did.