Printable Meeting FlierSeptember Meeting Notice
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
50 Years of Chromatography
Dr. Harold McNair
Department of Chemistry
Virginia Tech
Blacksburg, VA
Abstract:
About two months ago, while working in the lab, I realized that I had been making injections into Gas Chromatographs for over 50 years. This seminar is that story; three summer jobs as a graduate student; a Ph.D. thesis from Purdue (possibly the first GC thesis in the USA); a Fulbright Fellowship in Holland where I worked with A.J.P. Martin, Marcel Golay and Karl Cramers, all in the lab of A.I.M. Keulemans; one year at Esso’s Bayway refinery, Linden New Jersey; 3 years with F&M Scientific in Amsterdam; 4 years with Varian in Walnut Creek and Palo Alto; and finally 39 years at Virginia Tech. There are some good stories to tell. Karl Cramers summarized our experiences as “In the right place at the right time”.
About the Speaker:
Harold Mc Nair was born and raised in Miami, AZ (a small but nice spot in the road!). He attended the Univ. of Arizona on both a scholastic and tennis scholarship. He graduated Magna Cum Laude in Chemistry/Physics in 1955. He obtained an MS in Analytical Chemistry (electrochemistry) in 1957 form Purdue U. He attended a symposium on GC in 1957 in Cincinnati where J.J. van Deemter (Royal Dutch Shell) became one of his mentors and encouraged him to study GC for his Ph.D. thesis. The Dutch group provided schematics and he built his own GC and published one of the first Ph.D. theses on this topic in the USA. He had already spent two summers working on GC, 1957 at the Amoco refinery, Whiting, Indiana and 1958 with Steve Dal Nogare, E.I. du Pont, Wilmington, Delaware. His Fulbright was spent in Eindhoven, The Netherlands with Prof .A. I.M. Keulemans, who had just left Royal Dutch Shell to join a new technical university. Keulemans also had written one of the early books on GC, based on the efforts of the Shell Research group in Amsterdam.
He has spent the rest of his career in Chromatography, working at Esso R&D Bayway Refinery, Linden, N.J.; F&M Scientific (later H.P.) in Amsterdam; Varian Aerograph in Walnut Creek and Palo Alto, CA; joining Va Tech in 1968. He helped teach the first ACS short course on GC in 1967 under Steve Dal Nogare. He has benefited greatly both by the numerous “experts” with whom he has worked, but also by a great group of students. He is officially retired, but still runs a research group of two postdoctoral fellows and two undergraduates.
Details:
| Location: | D'ignazio's Towne House |
| Times: | 5:00 PM Executive Committee Meeting 5:45 PM Social "Hour" 6:30 PM Dinner 7:30 PM Presentation |
| Cost: | $30 |
| Dinner Choices: | Chicken Breast with Wild Rice Stuffing Baked Salmon Eggplant Parmesan with Marinara Sauce |
NOTICE TO STUDENTS AND FACULTY: Full-time students with valid ID may attend dinner meetings at half-price. Faculty members at colleges and universities are urged to bring one or more students to the meeting. If they do, they also can attend at half-price.