Susan Olesik of The Ohio State University Wins the Chromatography Forum of the Delaware Valley Dal Nogare Award

Each year at Pittcon, the Chromatography Forum of the Delaware Valley gives out a highly recognized international award, the Dal Nogare Award. This award recognizes the work of an outstanding scientist in the field of chromatography. The awardee is selected based on their contributions to the fundamental understanding of the chromatographic process.

This year’s awardee is Susan Olesik, distinguished professor and dean of Natural and Mathematical Sciences of The Ohio State University. Olesik's research focuses on nano-structure based materials, ordered carbon materials, and nanofibrous substrates for laser desorption mass spectrometry.

During her award's lecture in San Diego, California on February 26, Olesik spoke about developing a deeper understanding of separation science. Olesik highlighted the work of her graduate students as they fortify our fundamental understanding of separation science and the mechanisms of specific detection methods for these separation devices. She highlighted some of the most innovative and impactful discoveries made by the team.

Following Olesik's talk, Jared Anderson of Iowa State University presented “Selective Olefin Separations Using Silver(I) and Copper(I) Ions." This presentation provided a guide for developing selective and sustainable olefin separation systems utilizing silver(I) ion and copper(I)-containing ILs, highlighting approaches that can be employed to coordinate ligands to silver(I) ions in an effort to modulate olefin retention through olefin-ligand and silver(I) ion-olefin interations.

Next James Grinias of Rowan University discussed “Greener Approaches to Chemical Separations." The use of portable and compact instrumentation has expanded the possibilities of integrating capillary-scale LC techniques into realms typically dominated by analytical-scale methodology. Grinias spoke about rogress in the use of this technology to solve challenges that exist using typical benchtop instrumentation in pharmaceutical and clinical laboratories.

Lisa Holland of West Virginia University presented “Capillary Nanogel Separations for Biomolecular Separations Under Native Conditions,” a discussion of biomolecular separations using capillary nanogels, where the separation system will occur under the native conditions of these biomolecules. The technology outlined in this presentation provides new strategies to evaluate native protein structure and activity.

Rounding out the biological separation theme was Robert Kennedy, the Willard Professor of Chemistry and Professor of Pharmacology at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. His topic, “Exploring Brain Chemistry In Vivo Using LC-MS,” focused on improving compound identification in metabolomics and applications to the brain using chromatography-centric strategies.