news
PEOPLE
NORM DOVICHI, UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON
Dovichi to replace Osteryoung as associate editor Norm Dovichi has been selected by Analytical Chemistry Editor Royce Murray to fill the associate editor position that will open up on May 1 with the retirement of Robert Osteryoung. A wellknown electrochemist and research professor at North Carolina State Uni-
YVONNE MARTINEZ, UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
Ralph N. Adams
al fellow at Los Alamos National Laboratory, he taught at the University of Wyoming from 1982–1986 and then relocated to the University of Alberta in 1986. In December 2000, he moved his research group to the University of Washington, where he currently holds the Endowed Professorship of Analytical Chemistry. He has also been appointed as an affiliated professor of the Institute for Systems Biology. Dovichi’s research interests include ultrasensitive chemical analysis and bioanalytical chemistry.
out research in electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) electrochemistry at Varian AG and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. Adams was one of the first to electrochemically generate free radicals directly in situ in the EPR cavity by placing a metal electrode in the cavity of the magnetic field—which most experts said at the time could not be done. In 1969, he began studying chemical neurotransmitters that controlled mood and behavior. Following a sabbatical at the University of California–Irvine to study neuroanatomy and neurophysiology, he spent 1972–1975 as an interdisciplinary scholar in the resident psychiatry program at the Menninger Foundation in Topeka, Kan., and learned about human brain chemistry and its relationship to behavior. His invention of electrochemical detection in LC provided a means to determine the concentration and location of neurotransmitters, such as dopamine and norepinephrine, in brain tissue; from this work, he was able to develop a chemical “map” of the brain that revealed the distribution of these compounds. In addition, Adams pioneered the use of implantable microsensors suitable for monitoring dynamic neurotransmitter events in the brain. He used this method to investigate the role of neurotransmit-
ters in the thalamus, especially as they related to schizophrenia. His honors and awards include the ACS Midwest Award (1979); the ACS Fisher Award in Analytical Chemistry (1982); the C. N. Reilley Award by the Society of Electroanalytical Chemistry (1985); the I. M. Kolthoff Gold Medal Award by the American Pharmaceutical Association (1985); the ACS Division of Analytical Chemistry Award in Electrochemistry (1989); and the Oesper Award by the Cincinnati Section of ACS (1996). He was a Jacob Javits neuroscience investigator sponsored by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke from 1985 to 1992 and was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1982. He served as the first chair of the Gordon Research Conference in Electrochemistry in 1964, and a 40th anniversary session named in his honor was held in January 2003. Adams was modest and self-effacing— never seeking awards or honors. He mentored his students by gentle persuasion and instilled in them an enthusiasm for science, always emphasizing integrity and personal values. He would say to his students, “If you love what you are doing, the rewards will take care of themselves.” a —Ted Kuwana
(1924–2002)
Ralph N. Adams, distinguished professor emeritus of chemistry at the University of Kansas, died on November 28, 2002. He was 78 years old. Adams was born in Atlantic City, N.J., and pursued his undergraduate degree at Rutgers University. After one semester in college, he interrupted his studies to serve four years as a pilot in the Army Air Corps. He finished his B.S. in chemistry in 1950 and then earned his Ph.D. in chemistry from Princeton University in 1953. He taught for two years at Princeton before joining the chemistry faculty at the University of Kansas in 1955, where he remained until his retirement in 1992. His early research interests centered on electro-oxidations at solid electrodes and the mechanisms of organic electrode reactions. He is considered a pioneer in the development of new electrodes for anodic oxidations—most notably, the carbon paste electrode, which is widely used today with catalysts and enzymes imbedded in the paste for electrochemical detection of biological substances. In 1964, as a J. S. Guggenheim fellow, he carried 96 A
versity, Osteryoung has been an associate editor for the Journal since 1987. Dovichi will oversee the review of manuscripts covering single-molecule spectroscopy, DNA sequencing, single-cell analysis of protein content, analytical spectroscopy, high-throughput analysis, and CE. Electroanalytical papers that were handled by Osteryoung will now go to Murray. Dovichi received his Ph.D. in physical/ analytical chemistry from the University of Utah. After two years as a postdoctor-
A N A LY T I C A L C H E M I S T R Y / M A R C H 1 , 2 0 0 3
