Report for Analytical Chemists
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ization does imply the measurement of all types of materials characteristics. However, I do not perceive in the word, characterization, the critical evaluation of the results of such measurements or an understanding of the dependence of these measurements on the sampling aspect of the material measured, that I feel in the term, analytical chemistry. Characterization of Analytical Chemist
Which brings us perhaps to the crux of the term, analytical chemistry. Today the analytical chemist is concerned about a wide spectrum of measurements. He is involved not only in determining what and how much is present (composition), but also what form (structure), how it is bound (valence), where it is spatially (location), and how uniformly it is distributed (homogeneity). These measurements are often required at both the macroand microlevel as well as for surfaces, and there are additional requirements for speed and adaptability to automation, as well as for accuracy and precision. In addition, the analytical chemist must bring to the task of measurement a firm appreciation for the importance of statistical selection of the sample, for possible perturbations caused by sample preparation and the measurement process itself, and for statistical evaluation of the data which have been obtained. It is this appreciation for the "sample" aspect of measurement which I feel characterizes the analytical chemist in contrast to the specialist in other branches of chemistry. It is certainly true that the organic chemist and the physical chemist can make meaningful analytical measurements, and similarly they can teach analytical principles in the colleges and universities. Whether they do indeed understand and carry out these analytical precepts is another story. Often they are more interested in the overall principles which they are trying to develop than in a solid understanding of the measurement system which they are using. The materials chemist or physi-
cist often carries this attitude even further. I remember several years ago attending a Gordon Research Conference on ceramics and being astonished to find that the materials that were being described in the papers and for which theorists were developing esoteric relationships were as much as a factor of a thousand poorer (more contaminated) than materials which metals scientists were then using. Yet here were many scientists who were investing years of their scientific careers in measurements on materials which were impure and neither representative nor reproducible. The early assistance of materials preparation specialists and analytical chemists would have greatly broadened the perspective of these studies. Each of you, I am sure, is aware of measurements made by chemists or physicists or biologists which were not reproducible, were made on materials that were not well characterized or analyzed, and for which, in reality, the scientist was measuring a property of some contaminant of the system, be it surface-absorbed gases, material leached out of a container, or solids added in sample processing and preparation. The analytical chemist understands these difficulties and should be brought in to advise on the measurement system at an early stage. Now as I look at the Analytical Chemistry Division at NBS, I do not see a fading discipline that is barely holding on to its charter and its customers. Instead, I see a dynamic organization which is very close to the heart of the Bureau's mission as recently stated by our new director—i.e., "to provide the quantitative base for the Nation's science and technology." Our organization of some 120 persons serves as a focal point for analytical measurements in many different areas. Last year we provided service analyses for almost two-thirds of the 100 technical sections of NBS, and thus had a definite impact on a large number of the Bureau's programs. A very important and unique function of the division is to develop and certify standard reference materials which provide the basis for
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ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY, VOL. 42, NO. 7, JUNE 1970
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