Separation science, especially chromatography and electrophoresis, is a vital analytical chemistry discipline. Chemists in pharmaceutical companies use chromatographic and electrophoretic separation techniques to isolate a product from a reaction mixture, to isolate active components from natural products, to identify possible breakdown products of drugs, and to carry on chiral separation to isolate the active enantiomeric drug from inactive one. Environmental chemists use chromatographic and electrophoretic separation techniques to quantify the amount of an analyte present in a sample and to assess the fate and transport of a compound in the environment. In, addition bioanalytical chemists use chromatographic and electrophoretic separation techniques to isolate, analyze, and quantify biological molecules from complex biological mixtures.
Separation science is a skill that takes time and experience to master.
My goal in this area is to teach students fundamental principles of general and analytical chemistry both theoretically and practically with emphasis on traditional techniques such as HPLC, GC, ion exchange, thin layer chromatography, and new emerging separation techniques such as capillary electrophoresis and lab on a chip technology, and to train and mentor them through research.
