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Division awards Six analytical chemists win receive a ards from the ACS Division of Analytical cnemistry. Most of the awards win be presented ox s p e c i a l s y i l i p o s i a at 111C JIV^S f a l l l l a u u i l a l
meeting in isew uneans. tne Award in Spectrochemical Analysis win be given at FACco in October in Vancouver (Canada), dllU L11C F lilUClo I l W A l d Villl UC g l V v l l OX LJ±\\S
in 1'iovember in Somerset, INJ. D. Bruce Chase, a senior research fellow atE.I.DuPontde Nemour, will receive the Award which Spectrochemical Analysis sponsored by PerkinElmer. Chase's research interests include vibrational, FTIR, and Raman spectroscopies and applying these techniques to industrial problems. David E. Clemmer, an assistant professor at Indiana University, will receive the Arthur J. Findeis Award for Achievements by a Young Analytical Scientist sponsored by the Philip Morris Companies. His research interests include studying conformation and structural changes of large gas-phase molecules. Wilbur D. "Dub" Shults, a retired director of Oak Ridge National Laboratory's analytical chemistry division, will receive the Award for Distinguished Service in the Advancement of Analytical Chemistry sponsored by Waters. Shults's research interests have included electrochemistry, spectroscopy, and chromatography. Joseph Wang, a professor at New Mexico State University, will receive the Award in Chemical Instrumentation sponsored by the Dow Chemical Co. His research interests include electro520 A
GOVERNMENT AND SOCIETY
Bringing QA/QC to the fore However mundane the topics might seem, quality assurance and quality control should be important to all analytical chemists. In that spirit, the topic of quality management in European analytical research and development—both academic and industrial—was discussed at a workshop held May 30-June 1 in Miinster (Germany). The workshop's goal was to promote the development of a system to guarantee accurate, reproducible, and repeatable analyses in research laboratories. The 30 participants included Wolfhard Wegscheider of the University of Leoben (Austria), who is the new president of CITAC (Cooperation on International Traceability in Analytical Chemistry) and Ed W. B. De Leer of NMi Van Swinden Laboratorium (The Netherlands) the vice-chair of EURACHEM (a European network of organizations promoting good quality practices in analytical chemistry) "Existing guides like the EURACHEM/CITAC Guide 2 are not tufficient for a number of purposes, especially for the industry," says Wolfgang Kleibohmer of the Institute of Chemoand Biosensors at the University of Miinster, the organizer of the workshop. Guide 2, Quality Assurance for Researcchnd Development end NonRoutine Analysisi was jointly prepared by EURACHEM and CITAC. According to Kleibohmer, the participants recognized a lack of practical ex-
chemical sensing devices for environmental and clinical monitoring, new surfaces and interfaces, sensor coatings, and solgel derived materials. Michael J. Weaver, a professor at Purdue University, will receive the Award in Electrochemistry sponsored by EG&G Princeton Applied Research. Weaver's research includes electrochemical applications of surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy, applying FT-IR spectros-
Analytical Chemistry News & Features, August 1, 1999
amples. A universal standard should give more practical instructions for new researchers in the field, including new students and recent graduates, who make up the majority of the workers in R&D. Examples of possible errors, uncertainties, and quality management in special areas are planned to be published on the Internet. "It became obvious that the interests of industrial and public research have to be combined better," says Kleibohmer. "For this purpose, a network led by Unilever Research in The Netherlands will be put up." Whether the network would be managed by Unilever, EURACHEM, or as a project of the European Union was not decided. To help identify the gaps in the knowledge of individual researchers, a common terminology and a checklist for R&D audits will be developed. Also, tools for self-assessments and for teaching technology quality terms will be prepared. Because the quality of an R&D department depends strongly on the qualifications of its personnel, more attention should be focused on the education and training of employees in the future, says Kleibohmer. Nonetheless, the EURACHEM/ CLTAC Guide e 2as beee called an important step for helping R&D laboratories. According to Kleibohmer, national accreditation bodies should use this guide as a basis for the evaluation of laboratories, and implement their evaluation guidelines as soon as possible. Hanns-J. Neubert
copy to surface electrochemistry, scanning tunneling microscopy, and electrode kinetics. Thomas J. Wenzel, a professor at Bates College, will receive the J. Calvin Giddings Award for Excellence in Education sponsored by the Dekker Foundation. His research interests include chiral NMR shift reagents, selective sorbents for GC, and lanthanide luminescence detection in LC.
