News
proval to fund the currently structured program with fees for services, according to Blake-Coleman. However, elections that year brought Congressional control to Republicans intent on shrinking the size of the federal government. "It hasn't seemed like the political time to do it," says Blake-Coleman. Nevertheless, all the options being considered would also lead to fees being charged to the private and public laboratories that use PE samples. EPA officials were still gathering data on costs and could not estimate fees for the various options. That, however, would be one consideration in choosingfromthe options, according to the agency. Moreover, EPA expects that meeting demands will require several suppliers of PE study kits, and that raises questions about the quality of those samples. Thus, EPA has proposed requirements for national consistency among PE study providers and has suggested that the National Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Conference (see previous story) set standards and handle PE supplier accreditation. However, don't look for immediate changes in the PE program. According to Blake-Coleman, full implementation will probably take at least two years, no matter which option is chosen.
New NIST SRMs An improved version of human serum SRM 909b now contains certified values for triglycerides and "elevated" concentrations of compounds found in the old SRM. Certified values are provided in the SRM for 13 organic and inorganic blood constituents; noncertified values are also provided for seven other constituents. The SRM contains sik bottles of freeze-dried serum, three with normal levels and three with the elevated levels, and six bottles of high-purity water. NIST, in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is also offering a standard reference for fatty acids and cholesterol measurements in food. The SRM consists of four 15-g bottles of frozen, blended foods and also provides data for proximates, including protein, moisture, total fat, ash, carbohydrate, and calories. For more information, contact the NIST Standard Reference Materials Program, 204 Engineering Mechanics Bldg., Gaithersburg, MD 20899-0001 (301-9756776; e-mail
[email protected]). 530 A
BUSINESS
Varian acquires Dynatech Precision Sampling Varian Associates has announced that it has acquired the assets of Dynatech Precision Sampling, a subsidiary of Dynatech Corporation that manufactures autosampling products for gas and liquid chromatographic applications. The new group will be integrated into Varian's chromatography systems business in Walnut Creek, CA The purchase price was not disclosed.
PerSeptive appoints president PerSeptive Biosystems has appointed John F. Smith to the position of president. Smith has served on the board of directors for PerSeptive for two years and will continue as a director. Prior to that, he was senior vice president and chief operating officer at Digital Equipment Corporation until his retirement in 1993. Noubar Afeyan will continue to serve as chairman and CEO.
PE buys Zoogen Perkin Elmer Applied Biosystems has entered the genetic testing services market with the acquisition of Zoogen, Inc., a California-based company that performs parentage and avian sex testing, genetic screening, and breeding consultation to owners and breeders of domestic, exotic, and farm animals. The company will be called PE Zoogen and will be operated as a business unit within PE Applied Biosystems. Joy Halverson, Zoogen's founder and head of research and development, will continue in that role and Mike Miille chief executive, will continue to run dayto-day operations.
Wiley acquires VCH
Web s i g h t i n g s Bel-Art—http://www.bel-art.com; features product profiles, an electronic product index, a monthly word game, and links to distributors' Internet sites. Bioanalytical Systems—http:// www.bioanalytical.com; features product information and ordering instructions, a company profile, employment opportunities, and links to other chemistry-related Internet sites. ChemFinder—http://chemfinder. camsoft.com; searches chemical information by name, formula, molecular weight, CAS registry number, and molecular structure and provides basic physical property information along with links to other Internet sites that have more information about each particular compound. Richardson Grating Laboratory—http://gratinglab.com; includes a description of the properties and uses of diffraction gratings, a catalog of products and services, and a list of technical publications. Supelco—http://www.supelco.sial. com/supelco.html; contains product and technical information. Whatman—http://www.whatman. com; includes a company history and contact information; details on new products and promotions; BCC68S to references archives and newsletters; and links to product guides distributors sales representatives and the laboratory sales site
PEOPLE
Brown to receive chemometrics award
John Wiley & Sons (New York) anSteven D. Brown, associate professor of nounced in June that it has purchased a chemistry at the 90% interest in the VCH Publlshing Group University of Dela(Weinheim, Germany), a publisher of sciware, will receive entific and technical material, from the thefirstEAS Award Pallas Investment Group and the Society for Achievements in of German Chemists (GDCh). The GDCh Chemometrics, will continue to oversee the content of the which recognizes VCH chemistry publishing program, individuals who which includes Angewandtt Chemie, Che- have made significant contributions to the mische Berichte, and Liebigs Annalen. development or application of chemometrics.
Analytical Chemistry News & Features, September 1, 1996
The award, which will be presented for the first time this year, consists of $500, a plaque, and travel expenses to the Eastern Analytical Symposium in November in Somerset, NJ, where Brown will receive the award at a sympo sium in his honor. Brown's research interests include digital filters, multivariat* methods for multicomponent analysis, calibration transfer, neural networks, and multivariate nonlinear methods for modeling nonlinear chemical systems.
Karger to receive CE award Barry Karger, professor of chemistry at the Barnett Institute, Northeastern University, will receive the Frederick Conference on Capillary Electrophoresis Award for his contributions to the field of CE. Karger pioneered the use of gel-filled capillaries to separate biomolecules. The award will be presented at the 7th Annual Frederick Conference on Capillary Electrophoresis in October at Hood College in Frederick, MD.
Peter Gavin of The Pennsylvania State University (Andrew Ewing). Gavin has developed an individually addressable electrochemical array detection scheme for continuous separations by electrophoresis in narrow channels which is used to monitor chemical transmitters released from single cells in response to pharmacological stimuli. His fellowship is sponsored by DuPont Neil Kelleher of Cornell University (Fred McLafferty and Tadhg Begley). Kelleher uses electrospray ionization FT-MS to develop novel schemes for DNAderived sequence refinement and active site location for large proteins. From fragmentation of 42-kDa molecular ions, he has pinpointed microheterogeneity, a reading frame sequence error and the active site without prior proteolytic degradation. His fellowship is sponsored by Perkin Elmer.
Robert Lascola of the University of Wisconsin-Madison (John C. Wright). Lascola is developing new Ten analytical chemistry graduate stumethods for meadents have been selected by the ACS Divisuring the nonlinsion of Analytical Chemistry to receive ear optical suscepfellowships for either the academic year tibilities oo fharged ($14,000 paid over nine months) or for the fullerenes and for examining specific elecsummer ($4650 paid over three months). tronic-state contributions to these suscepThe program encourages basic research tibilities. His fellowship is sponsored by in analytical chemistry and recognizes its Eastman Chemical. future leaders.
Ten students to receive graduate fellowships
Full-year fellowships
Paul Edmiston of the University of Arizona (Scott Saavedra). Edmiston uses the combination of waveguideattenuated totalreflection linear dichroism and total internal-reflection fluorescence anisotropy measurements to characterize protein films in situ at the solid-liquid interface. His fellowship is sponsored by Procter & Gamble.
Scott T. Quarmby of fhe University of Florida (Richard A. Yost). Quarmby is studying the fundamental process in which ions injected from an electrospray ion source into a quadrupole ion-trap mass spectrometer are trapped. He expects to optimize injection conditions to improve detection limits, prevent mass discrimination, and limit fragmentation. His fellowship is sponsored by Eli Lilly
Summer fellowships
Richard W. Hammond oo the University of Michigan (Michael D. Morris). Hammond is using high-framerate video fluorescence microscopy to study the mechanism of fast DC and pulsed-field CE DNA separations in a new dilute polymer solution media. His fellowship is sponsored by the Society for Analytical Chemists of Pittsburgh (SACP). Richard L. Hansen of the University of Utah Ooel M. Harris). Hansen is exploring laserbased methodologies designed to probe molecular and colloidal dynamics at the liquid-solid interface, lateral transport at the interface, and adsorption-desorption kinetics near the single-molecule limit. His fellowship is sponsored by SACP. Paul T. Jackson of fhe University of Minnesota (Peter W.Carr). Jackson is investigating alternative HPLC supports based on porous microparticulate zirconia. His fellowship is sponsored by The Dow Chemical Co. Stephen T. Sum of the University of Delaware (Steven D.Brown). Sum is working on transferring multivariate calibrations between analytical instruments. His fellowship is sponsored by SACP. Bogdan Szostek of Southern Illinois University Qohn A Koropchak). Szostek is modeling signal generation and response for condensation nucleation light-scattering detection and interfacing it to CE for separating and detecting underivatized amino acids, pep-
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