Luis A. Colón awarded the 2016 EAS Award for Outstanding Achievement in Separation Science

Luis A. Colón has been awarded the 2016 EAS Award for Outstanding Achievement in Separation Science. The award was presented to him at the Eastern Analytical Symposium conference in Somerset, New Jersey, on November 15, 2016.

Colón is currently a professor in the Department of Chemistry at The State University of New York at Buffalo (UB). His research interests are in the field of micro/nano chemistry, with particular focus on separation science, including the development of chromatographic media and column technology for chemical separations (HPLC, CE, CEC, solid phase extraction), detection schemes for monitoring mass-limited samples, the use of nanomaterials in separations, and the development of new separation strategies to analyze complex chemical or biochemical sample mixtures such as biofluids, antiviral drugs in cells, protein digests. Colón and his team have provided pioneering contributions to the development of CEC, the synthesis of silica-hybrid chromatographic materials, the use of submicron particulates in CEC and HPLC, and more recently to the study and use of nanotechnological advances in separations science. Colón is authored of over ninety research publications including seven US patents.

He earned his B.Sc. degree in chemistry from the University of Puerto Rico (UPR) at Cayey, going on to work in the pharmaceutical industry as Senior Chemist for a few years before starting graduate school in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell in 1987. He completed his Ph.D. degree in 1991 under the direction of Professor Eugene F. Barry.

From 1991 to 1993, Colón undertook postdoctoral studies at Stanford University under the direction of Prof. Richard N. Zare. His work in the Zare’s laboratory focused on the development of electrochemical and chemiluminescent detection schemes coupled to capillary electrophoresis (CE) for the detection of carbohydrates and amino acids. Following this position Colón took a position at his current residence the department of chemistry, at The State University of New York at Buffalo (UB).

Colón has been awarded the NSF Award for Special Creativity, RSC Fellow, the ACS Stanley C. Israel Regional Award, The 82nd Jacob F. Schoellkopf Medal by the ACS-WNY, Geoffrey Marshall Mentor Award by the Northeastern Association of Graduate Schools, the A.A. Benedetti-Pichler Award by the American Microchemical Society, AAAS Fellow, ACS Award for Encouraging Disadvantaged Students into Careers in the Chemical Sciences, and the U.S.A. Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring (PAESMEM).