NEWS
Kolthoff Commemorative Research Papers
New Director for Gordon Conferences
The field of analytical chemistry recently suffered the loss of its greatest teacher and mentor, I. M. Kolthoff. To pay tribute to his scholarly legacy, ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY will publish commemorative research manuscripts written by Kolthoff's scientific progeny. Approximately 50 peer-reviewed papers will appear over the next year in the research section with an iden tifying headline and a footnote or acknowledgment trac ing the lineage of the authors back to Kolthoff. The first two of these papers, "Characterization of the Thiol/Di sulfide Chemistry of Neurohypophyseal Peptide Hor mones by High-Performance Liquid Chromatography" by Pauline L. Yeo and Dallas Rabenstein (p. 3061) and "Characterization of Quasi-Reversible Surface Processes by Square Wave Voltammetry" by John J. O'Dea and Janet G. Osteryoung (p. 3090), appear in this issue.
Antique Instruments for Pittcon The 1994 Pittsburgh Conference & Exposition has been gathering early analytical and spectroscopic instru ments for an antiquities museum display at next year's meeting (Chicago, Feb. 28—March 4). The committee still needs a Varian A-60 NMR spectrometer as well as early microscopes and polarography equipment. If you have these particular items available for display, con tact Richard Obrycki, Pittsburgh Conference, 300 Penn Center Blvd., Suite 332, Pittsburgh, PA 15235-5503 (412-325-5272; fax 412-325-5105).
Amirav Receives Merck Award Aviv Amirav of Tel Aviv University (Israel) is the winner of the third Heinrich Emanuel Merck Award for Analytical Chemistry. The award, presented on Sept. 6 at the opening ceremony of Euroanalysis VIII in Edinburgh, Scotland, consists of a medal, a commendation, and 25,000 DM (- $15,000). This year, the focus of the award was the "analysis of organic compounds in the environ ment for the ultimate improvement of human life condi tions." Amirav won the award for work that is described in "The Pulsed Flame Photometer—A Novel Gas Chro matography Detector" {Anal. Chem. 1993, 65, 539-55). The minimum detection limits are 2 χ 1 0 - 1 5 g/s for sul fur, 10~ 14 g/s for phosphorus, 5 χ 10~ 12 g/s for nitrogen, and 6 χ 1 0 - 1 1 g/s for carbon. The detector can be used with any environmental monitoring system t h a t uses GrC; specific applications include pesticide and fire resi due analysis.
The Board of Trustees for the Gor don Research Conferences has se lected Carlyle B. Storm to replace Alexander M. Cruickshank, who is retiring. Cruickshank became direc tor in 1968, and under his direction the number of conferences h a s dou bled from - 70 to - 145. Storm received his B.A. and M.A. degrees and his Ph.D. from The Johns Hopkins University. Storm was a National Insti tutes of Health research fellow at Stanford University and a staff fellow at the National Institute of Mental Health. In 1968 he joined the faculty of Howard University (Washington, DC), where his research efforts focused on biochemistry, porphyrins, metalloproteins, and enzymes. He joined the staff of Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1985; his most recent position was chief scientist and program manager for technical development.
NCAR Updates Fleet The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) has recently acquired a four-engine, Lockheed C-130 Hercules turboprop plane, donated by the U.S. Navy. In addition to the C-130, NCAR's fleet contains a Lock heed Electra, a North American Sabreliner twin-engine jet, and a Beechcraft King Air 200. The C-130 can carry 240% more equipment, fly 170% farther (more than 3000 miles), and climb 10-30% higher t h a n the Electra and will allow NCAR to conduct extended-range re search missions, such as studying remote oceanic sys tems. Particle probes, spectral radiometers, mmwavelength radar, Doppler LIDAR, and air motion sen sors installed on the C-130 will give researchers the data they need to study and understand global climatic change.
PerSeptive Biosystems To Acquire Vestec PerSeptive Biosystems, Inc. (Cambridge, MA), h a s signed a letter of intent to acquire Vestec Corp. (Hous ton, TX). If approved, Vestec's shareholders will receive $4 million of PerSeptive stock. Earlier this year, Vestec discontinued merger discussions with OI Analytical, Inc. Because MS techniques are a natural way to solve the problems encountered in biotechnology, the acquisition of Vestec, a leader in MS instruments, is viewed as a further bolstering of PerSeptive Biosystems' secure niche in the biotechnology market. PerSeptive Biosys tems believes that because of its reputation and unique position, the company can successfully market Vestec's products to the biology community, which generally is not well acquainted with major suppliers of MS systems.
ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY, VOL. 65, NO. 21, NOVEMBER 1, 1993 · 925 A
