Post on 29-Oct-2019
The 2017 LCGC AwardsA decade of LCGC awards has seen some of chromatography’s modern icons and rising stars honoured. In this 10th year of the award, we are pleased to honour two superb separation scientists: Pat Sandra, the winner of the 2017 Lifetime Achievement in Chromatography Award, and Deirdre Cabooter, the 2017 Emerging Leader in Chromatography. For the third consecutive year, the LCGC awards will be presented at an oral symposium held at Pittcon 2017. This year’s session, which were held on Monday 6 March, featured talks by both award winners and Milos Novotny of Indiana University, Jim Jorgenson of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Gert Desmet of the Free University of Brussels (Vrije Universiteit Brussel).
Ph
oto
Cre
dit: B
an
an
a R
ep
ub
lic I
ma
ge
s/S
hu
tte
rsto
ck.c
om
Pat Sandra
Pat Sandra’s career has encompassed
a wide spectrum of analytical
techniques, blending the world of
academia and private enterprise, and
brought separation science into the
mainstream consciousness. But more
than anything, it has been dominated
by analytical excellence, innovation,
and a unique gift for problem solving.
Pat Sandra graduated from Ghent
University, Belgium, in 1967 with a
B.Sc. in chemistry and in 1969 with a
master’s degree in organic chemistry,
and was immediately invited to
join Professor Maurice Verzele’s
laboratory to begin a Ph.D. thesis on
the contribution of hops to the flavour
of beer, a topic that had become
controversial at the time in Belgium,
where beer is an integral part of the
culture. Unravelling the complexity of
a beer extract required high-resolution
techniques and this research led
directly to Sandra’s early career focus
in capillary gas chromatography (GC).
Six years later, Sandra successfully
defended his Ph.D. at Ghent University
and just one year later he joined
the Faculty of Sciences at Ghent
University as an Assistant Professor.
By 1985, however, Sandra
was growing frustrated with the
department’s reluctance to back him
in broadening Ghent’s research field
in separation sciences and to start
investigations in supercritical fluid
chromatography (SFC) and capillary
electrophoresis (CE). By 1st February
1986, Sandra quit the university.
Inspired by entrepreneurs such as
Rudolf Kaiser, Sandra started the
Research Institute for Chromatography
(RIC), surviving through teaching
courses on GC and GC coupled to
mass spectrometry (MS), as well as
sponsorships from Carlo Erba and
later from Hewlett-Packard. Two
years after quitting the university,
however, Sandra accepted an offer
by the head of the department to
return and become the new head
of the separation science group. A
fruitful collaboration on capillary GC
then began between Sandra’s own
RIC and Ghent’s separation science
group. Splitting his time between the
institute and his new responsibilities
at the university, Sandra decided to
focus the university department’s
research on high performance liquid
chromatography (HPLC), CE, SFC, and
hyphenated systems, and that work
led to a number of advances.
In 1991, Sandra accepted an
invitation to be a visiting professor at
Eindhoven University of Technology
in The Netherlands, teaching a
course in environmental analysis. A
further opportunity arrived in January
1998, when Sandra was appointed
Professor in Analytical Chemistry at
the University of Stellenbosch, South
Africa. There, he established a centre
of excellence in separation sciences
and received the A1 status. For seven
years he shuttled between Belgium
and South Africa to fulfill his duties at
the different universities and at
the RIC.
Sandra continued to make waves.
He co-founded the Pfizer Analytical
Research Centre at Ghent University
in 2003, and became its director. He
continued his links with South Africa
where he became Extraordinary
Professor at the University of
Stellenbosch from 2006 to 2013. In
2013 he was invited by President
Barroso of the European Community
to become member of the Research
Councel of the EU.
Meanwhile, he continued to develop
and expand his business. Following
the success of the RIC in Belgium,
Sandra founded a second facility
in Lille, France, in 2001 to focus on
method development, act as the
exclusive distributor of Gerstel GmbH,
as well as a value-added reseller
(VAR) of Agilent Technologies. In
— Lewis Botcherby
-$r($�&VSPQF March 2017126
Pat Sandra, 2017 Lifetime Achievement in Chromatography
Deirdre, 2017 Emerging Leader in Chromatography
2016, he cofounded with his sons
Tom and Koen anaRIC biologics, a
centre combining R&D and GMP for
biopharmaceuticals
We interviewed several of Pat’s
colleagues, friends, and former students
about his career, achievements, impact,
and relationships.
Expansive and GroundbreakingSandra is well known for his expansive
knowledge in all aspects of modern
separation techniques and this wide
range of knowledge has led to an
impressive list of publications and
patents. He is the author or coauthor
of more than 550 scientific papers
and has contributed to books covering
many different areas of separation
science. He is admired not just for
the breadth of his work, but for his
innovation.
“Pat Sandra is rightly considered a
‘guru’ of chromatography. This is clear
from a brief glance at his published
outputs, where by any metric—number
of papers, citations, h-index, and so
forth—he is clearly a world leader in
the field,” said André de Villiers, who is
an associate professor at Stellenbosch
University in South Africa.
“Pat is unique in his breadth of
understanding and experience in
analytical separation science,” said
Milton L. Lee, Emeritus Professor
of Chemistry at Brigham Young
University and last year’s winner
of the LCGC Lifetime Achievement
Award. “He has been an innovator in
every form of analytical separations,
including all the chromatographic and
electrically driven techniques, coupled
systems, detection, and sample
preparation. Few, if any, have such an
all-encompassing perspective of the
field.”
Milos V. Novotny, Distinguished
Professor Emeritus of Chemistry at
Indiana University, agrees.
“He has had an enormous impact
in the field of separation science,
from his seminal contributions to
column technology during the early
Table 1: Winners of the LCGC awards
Year Lifetime Achievement Emerging Leader
2008 Walt Jennings Gert Desmet
2009 Harold McNair Kevin Schug
2010 Georges Guiochon Jared Anderson
2011 James W. Jorgenson Dwight Stoll
2012 Lloyd Snyder Emily Hilder
2013 Peter W. Carr Davy Guillarme
2014 Fred E. Regnier Andre De Villiers
2015 Joseph Jack Kirkland Caroline West
2016 Milton L. Lee Debby Mangelings
2017 Pat Sandra Deirdre Cabooter
127www.chromatographyonline.com
The 2017 LCGC Awards
www.biotech.se
INNOVATIVE PRODUCTS FOR FLUIDIC SYSTEMS
HEADQUARTER ° BIOTECH AB ° SWEDEN ° TEL +46 (0)300-56 91 80 ° info@biotech.se�USA ° BIOTECH USA LLC ° TEL 612-703-5718 ° SALES@biotechusa.usJAPAN ° BIONIK INC. ° +81 545-38-9125 ° info@bionikinc.com
GO WITH A HIGH FLOWINTRODUCING THE ALL NEW
DEGASI PREP+
Biotech in co-operation with IDEX H&S are proud to announce
the world’s first in-line, membrane degasser ready to use with
aggressive media and organic solvents, while maintaining
flow-rates up to 150ml/min and above.* Available configura-
tions: Stand alone, OEM open frame and 1-4 channels.
The world’s first high flow rate, in-line
degasser, for organic solvents
* 150ml/min is only a guideline value, the degasser will in many
application work with flow rates well above this guideline. The
degasser comes with 2-channels, where each channels recom-
mended flow rate is 75 ml/min, connecting these chambers in a
series will allow for a combined flow rate of 150 ml/min.
HIGH
FLOW RATE
75 ml/min
Per channel
important period in capillary GC to
unique sampling techniques and GC
instrumentation, supercritical fluid
chromatography, and more recently,
to biomolecular separations,” Novotny
said. “He is clearly one of the most
influential scientists in our field.”
“Pat always had an excellent
feeling for the critical ‘pain-points’
in separation science,” added Frank
David, the R&D Director of Chemical
Analysis at the RIC.
In particular, Sandra’s ability to
take on new technologies has truly
impressed other scientists in the field.
“He has always been one of the first to
embrace new technological evolutions
and very often he is lying at the origin
of them,” said Gert Desmet, Professor
at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. “He
was doing separations no one else
could do.”
“Pat’s career can be defined
by the almost intuitive selection of
successful research topics before they
even exist or become mainstream,”
added Frederic Lynen, his successor
at Ghent University. “He was for
example performing GC–MS based
‘metabolomics’ long before the
terminology was coined. That is also
true for his lipodomics, chiral, capillary
electrochromatography (CEC), and
LC×LC work.”
Early ResearchSandra’s early research focus on
capillary gas chromatography
stemmed from the work he did during
his doctoral work under Maurice
Verzele, who laid down the gauntlet
for Sandra to continue the technique’s
development. Sandra obliged. In the
next 10 years, he pioneered numerous
developments that contributed to
state-of-the-art GC column technology.
Those contributions included surface
treatment by leaching, dendrite and
whisker formation, deactivation by
persilylation and with amino-alcohols,
immobilization of the stationary
phases, introduction of new stationary
phases (such as superoxes,
crosslinkable biscyanosilicone phases,
and silanol-terminated silicone
phases), and more (1).
Frank David remembers those days
when he worked under Sandra as a
master’s student in 1982 at Ghent.
“The themes we were working on at
the university in the 1980s included
capillary GC column technology,
injection, miniaturized sample
preparation, and multidimensional
GC,” David said. “The results of
that research have undoubtedly
contributed to the ‘mature’ state of GC
today.”
A story from that time illustrates a
common theme mentioned throughout
our interviews: Sandra’s flexibility and
creativity as well as his determination
to succeed.
Carlo Bicchi spent some time working
in Verzele’s laboratory in 1984, while
visiting from Turin University. During
that time, he collaborated with Sandra’s
group, working with the young Frank
David on direct capture of volatiles
emitted from living plants. Because of
an unusual story related to academic
jealousies, Bicchi said, Sandra was
suddenly left without instruments, so
he and David had to move their work to
Sandra’s own Siemens heartcut
GC–GC instrument. In their work
up to that point, the volatiles
were being captured on thick film
polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) column
traps by sorption, and the recovery of
-$r($�&VSPQF March 2017128
The 2017 LCGC Awards
Pat Sandra and Jean-Marie Dimandja prepare to present the John B. Phillips Award for Outstanding GC×GC publication at the 1st Dalian International Symposia and Exhibition on Chromatography held in Dalian, China (June 2007).
Ph
oto
Cre
dit: Ta
de
usz G
ore
cki
A young Pat Sandra relaxes with his wife Martina.
Ph
oto
Cre
dit:
Fre
de
ric L
yn
en
the volatiles was planned to be carried out by a completely
different system based on conventional GC. But suddenly,
that conventional GC instrument was no longer available
to the team. So Bicchi and David had a long, two-day
discussion with Pat, and then designed a new system.
“After a lot of experiments, myself and Frank under Pat’s
supervision successfully assembled a primitive but effective
direct resistively heated system to desorb the trapped
analytes,” Bicchi relates. “To the best of my knowledge, it
was one of the first times where sorption was applied to
headspace sampling, after Kurt Grob’s introduction, and a
chromatographic column was directly heated.”
As referenced earlier, Sandra always had a unique
intuition for chromatography, right from the beginning. That
intuition extended to recognizing the crucial innovations of
others, and led, for example, to his early recognition of the
importance of flexible fused-silica GC columns introduced
by Dandeneau and Zerenner (2). This view contributed
heavily to the early direction of Sandra’s research and was
a view he maintained, despite some vocal opposition from
proponents of alternatives. History has since vindicated his
conclusion.
But for Sandra’s keen chromatographic intuition and
creativity to flourish, he needed to step outside the relative
safety of academia.
Separation EntrepreneurSince its foundation in 1986, Sandra’s company, the
Research Institute for Chromatography (RIC), has gone
from strength to strength. Frank David has been there to
witness its growth from the beginning. “It was of course
a challenge for him, and partly for me, to start a private
“PAT’S CAREER CAN BE DEFINED BY THE ALMOST INTUITIVE SELECTION OF SUCCESSFUL RESEARCH TOPICS BEFORE THEY EVEN EXIST OR BECOME MAINSTREAM”FREDERIC LYNEN
www.chromatographyonline.com
The 2017 LCGC Awards
Pat Sandra and Frederic Lynen at Pat’s retirement party in 2012.
Ph
oto
Cre
dit: Ta
de
usz G
ore
cki
Kromasil columns are available with small particles
to achieve the most selectivity and resolution
possible when running on an HPLC system. With
sizes down to 1.8 μm, you can also enable the full
column efficiency using UHPLC systems.
Small particles are available in many of the
Kromasil product lines:
- ���%%�� "$���'� %����� "��%�%
for RP chromatography and
ClassicShell columns with solid-
core silica particles.
- &�$ �&+�� �! ������ �!�'� %
for harsh conditions and their
&�$ �&+����� %!�����!$� "�$&����%
equivalent.
- �� �!�'� % �!$ �$��
technologies.
www.kromasil.com/small-particles
Beyond expectations
Small particles for
SFC, HPLC and
UHPLC
company independent from the safe
haven of the university,” David said.
“However, I believe it was a very
exciting experience for the both of us,
and we could enjoy a unique position
as a research institute in between
the academic world, industry, and
instrument manufacturers.”
But the challenges of setting up
a new company can be daunting
and none more so than the financial
element. Surviving from grants in
the early days came at a cost
of missed opportunities, as
Sandra referenced in the book
Chromatography—A Century of
Discovery 1900–2000: The Bridge
to the Sciences/Technology (1).
An example was the work Sandra
undertook in 1986 with resistant
heated capillaries. “Fused silica
tubing was enveloped in a
stainless-steel jacket, insulated like
an electrical wire, and the metal
column ends were connected to
a power supply,” he recounted.
“Retention time reproducibility was
not excellent, but nevertheless the
principle was patent pending for one
year.” Because of a lack of funds,
however, Sandra could not continue
the patent application. “A missed
opportunity—resistively heated
column GC, what we called at that
time flash GC,” said Sandra.
Setbacks weren’t going to stop
Sandra, however. “Pat’s work ethic
has always been impeccable,” notes
Lynen. “He is the kind of character
who is always polite and friendly to
everybody while never compromising
on his scientific no-nonsense attitude.”
That work ethic would imbue Sandra’s
achievements in the late 1980s and
1990s as he split his time between
his recently formed company, newly
acquired academic responsibilities in
his role as director of the separation
science group of the organic chemistry
department at Ghent University,
symposium organizing, and editorial
roles.
Patently InnovativeIn addition to his stellar work in
capillary GC, Sandra has also
contributed to a remarkably
broad span of research areas.
“He has a prominent spot in the
history books as one of the great
experimentalists in chromatography,”
said Desmet. Sandra’s work includes
both fundamental and applied
high-level research in all forms of
chromatography, including HPLC,
SFC, electrophoresis, and micellar
electrokinetic chromatography
(MEKC). Hyphenating these with
on-line sample preparation and
mass spectrometric detection, he
has applied these techniques across
multiple application fields, including
the chemical and petrochemical
industries, food science,
environmental analysis, forensic
analysis, pharmaceuticals, and the
life sciences. His publiactions in all
these different fields and techniques
are witnessing this.
“Certainly, Pat is always attacking
the cutting edges of the research in
the field of separation science,” said
Andrei Medvedovici, Professor and
Dean of the Faculty of Chemistry
at the University of Bucharest in
Romania. “He is always first or
among the first to develop new
frontiers.” Milton Lee echoed that
sentiment. “Few, if any, have such an
all-encompassing perspective of the
field,” he said.
As a result, detailing all the
contributions in Sandra’s later career
is a mammoth task. Certainly, a
well referenced development was
his work in sample preparation and
more specifically the development of
stir-bar sorptive extraction (SBSE),
which went on to be commercialized
with Gerstel as the “Twister”
technology. His early work with
SFC resulted in the development of
multicolumn chiral analysis and
improved lipid analysis by applying
silver ion chromatography and
coordination ion-spray mass
spectrometry. Furthermore, Sandra
introduced chiral CEC and various
novel approaches for chiral CE and
MEKC, as well as inventing “per
aqueous” liquid chromatography
(PALC). The 2000s saw Sandra’s
attention shift towards HPLC with
notable work in ultrahigh-pressure
LC (UHPLC), high temperature
LC, and multidimensional LC. In
more recent years, together with
his son Koen Sandra, his attention
has shifted towards the application
of chromatographic and mass
spectrometric techniques in life
sciences with a particularly emphasis
in biopharmaceuticals and omics.
He is an innovator, and the span of
his innovation has been enormous.
This work also led to many patents—
despite missed opportunities like that
for flash GC.
The Problem SolverOne of the most famous and
well referenced stories relating
to Sandra stems from his work to
solve the Belgian dioxin crisis in 1999,
which some consider his greatest
accomplishment. “By properly
managing expectations and quickly
developing and implementing rapid
analysis methods, Pat managed to
help defuse a crisis of truly great
proportions,” said
Tadeusz Górecki,
a professor at
the University
of Waterloo,
Canada. “In
the process,
he put
separation
science front
and centre
for the
Pat talking during his surprise “Farewell” party held after HTC 2012, Bruges, Belgium.
Ph
oto
Cre
dit:
An
dré
de V
illie
rs
-$r($�&VSPQF March 2017130
The 2017 LCGC Awards
general public to see and became a face for
chromatography, at least in Belgium.”
The crisis originated from chicken farmers’ observations
of premature death and nervous disorders among chicks,
combined with a high ratio of eggs failing to hatch. While
various theories were postulated, dioxin contamination was
the lead theory, championed by a laboratory specialized in the
analysis of such compounds. But with a four-week response
time for dioxin analysis, the crisis was spiralling. Four months
after the initial problems were reported, strong measures were
taken to protect the public from food contamination, including
the destruction of eggs, chickens, and all related products.
Yet the source of the contamination was still unknown.
“At the same time, the Belgian government released
some confusing information, including the statement that
these analyses were extremely complex and could take
several weeks,” said Frank David, who was working at the
RIC with Sandra when the crisis was unfolding. Sandra
and others at the RIC remained unconvinced that dioxins
only could contaminate food products at ppb levels without
the presence of other chlorine-containing contaminants
in much higher levels. They instead believed the high
dioxin (PCDF and PCDD) ratios seen in poultry samples
suggested polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) contamination,
a conclusion stemming from astute observations made
during animal feed analyses carried out over many years
at the RIC. The contamination was caused by uncontrolled
disposal of transformer (PCBs) oil mixed with edible
oils. The link between dioxins, PCBs, contaminated oils,
fat, animal feed, and chickens seemed only logical to
Sandra and his team. “We got our hands on an animal
feed sample and were able to confirm within 24 hours
this hypothesis by demonstrating the presence of high
levels of PCBs using state-of-the-art GC–MS technology,”
said David. The link between PCBs and dioxins was later
confirmed by other laboratories and accepted by the
European Commission. Tens of thousands of food samples
had to be analyzed before Belgian food could be released
and the analysis of PCBs compared to dioxins was much
faster and above all much cheaper. “This also led to a
national and European initiative of PCB monitoring that is
still performed today, and also contributes to the European
food safety programme,” added David.
The ability to think critically and logically brought Sandra
fame in the dioxin crisis, but he used those skills to solve
many other real-world problems, including a few others
that captured public attention. An example was his work to
defend two world champions in the motor world during the
mid-1990s.
The first involved Michael Schumacher. In 1995,
Schumacher won the Brazilian Grand Prix, but was
disqualified following a claim that his gasoline deviated
from the approved formulation. The RIC then performed a
detailed analysis on fuel samples taken from Schumacher’s
“LET’S BE HONEST. I WAS FORMED AS A RESEARCHER OF SEPARATION SCIENCES BY PROF. PAT SANDRA.”ANDRÉ DE VILLIERS
www.chromatographyonline.com
The 2017 LCGC Awards
It’s not only what we do, it’s how we do it. We have been
manufacturing Inorganic and Organic Certified Reference
Materials and Calibration Standards for the Analytical
Spectroscopy and Chromatography communities since
1954. Our passion for science and dedication to the
analytical community drives us to go above and beyond
for you. We want to provide you the customer experience
you deserve and can rely on. We do this by making sure
you are our priority in everything we do.
Visit spexcertiprep.com/lcgc for additional information.
At SPEX CertiPrep, we go above and
beyond to make you our priority!
US ADDRESS
����/PSDSPTT�"WFOVF�t�.FUVDIFO �/+�������t�5FM��������-"#�41&9
'BY���������������t�$3.4BMFT!TQFY�DPN�t�XXX�TQFYDFSUJQSFQ�DPN
UK ADDRESS
��%BMTUPO�(BSEFOT�t�4UBONPSF �.JEEMFTFY�t�)"���#2�t�6,�t��5FM��������������������
'BY���������������������t41&9&VSPQF!TQFY�DPN�t�XXX�41&9&VSPQF�DPN
Inorganic and Organic Certified Reference Materials
41&9�$FSUJ1SFQ�(SPVQ�JT�BDDSFEJUFE�CZ�"�-"�UP�*40�*&$�����������
BOE�*40�(VJEF�����������2VBMJUZ�TZTUFN�DPNQMJFT�XJUI
*40�����������SFHJTUFSFE�XJUI�6-�%24
Making You Feel Like You’re
On Top Of The World
Making You Feel Like You’re
On Top Of The World
car. “Based on the analysis results
and Pat’s expertise and presentation
at the French FIA court, Schumacher’s
disqualification was lifted and he
became World Champion,” explained
Frank David. The following year
Sandra repeated the feat for Belgian
motocross rider Eric Geboers, who
thanks to Sandra’s analysis was
crowned world champion based on
the points he recovered after being
cleared of wrongdoing.
Tadeusz Górecki cites another
example of Sandra’s ability to solve
real-world problems. While Górecki
was visiting the RIC in the early 1990s,
Sandra invited Górecki to join him on
an appointment at a nearby brewery
that had run into a problem. A recent
batch of beer had a distinct and quite
unpleasant chemical flavour to it,
and no one could identify the cause.
“We got to taste the beer and it was
truly awful!” Górecki recalls. Sandra
collected a number of samples and
got to work. He managed to identify a
bromochlorophenol as the chemical
responsible for the bad taste and
smell. “This proved to be more difficult
than one would think, as the mass
spectrum was not included in the NIST
MS library back then,” said Górecki.
“So Pat had to use the ‘classical’
approach to MS data interpretation
based on fragmentation rules.” It
turned out that the brewery had
decided to save some money in their
water treatment system by replacing
high purity hydrochloric acid (HCl)
suitable for contact with food with
technical HCl, which turned out to be
contaminated. Finding this solution
was “classical Pat in action”, said
Górecki. “What drives him most is the
sheer curiosity and the challenge of
solving a problem that others cannot,”
he said. “To me, this was the prelude
to the Belgian dioxin crisis. A different
problem on a different scale, but the
same motivation and approach.”
AwardsGiven Sandra’s accomplishments,
it is not surprising that Sandra has
had numerous accolades bestowed
upon him from across the world.
Highlights include the 1989 Tswett
Award; the 1994 Dal Nogare Award;
the 1994 Martin Gold Medal; the
1995 Golay Award; the 1996 Colacro
Medal; the 2004 ISEO Award;
the American Chemical Society
Chromatography Award 2005; the
2008 EAS Chomatography Award; the
2008 CASSS Award; the 2009 John
Knox Award; the 2013 Csaba Horvath
Award; and the Fritz Pregl Medal
in 2014. He also received a doctor
honoris causa title in pharmacy from
the University of Turin, Italy, in 2004,
in food chemistry and safety from the
University of Messina, Italy, in 2007,
and in chemistry from the University of
Bucharest, Romania, in 2012. He was
appointed honorary professor at the
Dalian Institute for Chemical Physics,
Chinese Academy of Sciences, in
June 2007.
Collaborations, Journals, and SymposiaAll along, Sandra has shared his
knowledge and expertise with a
wide array of institutes, programmes,
governments, companies, and people.
His will to collaborate and work with
others is a consistent motif throughout
his life and career. And in every
instance, Sandra leaves an indelible
impact upon people, forming lifelong
collaborations and quite often lifelong
friendships, some of which can start in
unusual places.
“I first met Pat in a McDonald’s
restaurant on the Boardwalk in
Atlantic City, I believe in 1980, during
a Pittcon meeting,” explained Milton
L. Lee. Recognizing Sandra from
attending his presentation earlier,
Lee approached him and introduced
himself. “An enjoyable discussion
then led to a lifetime association and
friendship,” said Lee. Sandra and
Lee went on to start the Journal of
Microcolumn Separations together
in 1989, serving as coeditors
together for 12 years until it was
purchased by Wiley and combined
with the Journal of High Resolution
Chromatography and Chromatography
Communication to form a new journal,
Separation Science. Interestingly,
Sandra had been the editor-in-chief
for the Journal of High Resolution
Chromatography and Chromatography
Communication until 1990, just one
of many publications to which Sandra
contributed in an editorial role,
including but not limited to LCGC,
the Journal of Separation Sciences,
Chromatographia, and the Journal of
Chromatography A.
Sandra and Lee also collaborated
on and alternated as the chair of
the hugely popular International
Symposium on Capillary
Chromatography. Sandra originally took
over the series from Rudolf Kaiser in
1981 and together with Jacques Rijks
and Sorin Trestianu, started the “Riva
Meetings”, which some consider his
most important contribution to capillary
chromatography. “These meetings
were really something very special,”
enthused Ana Maria Costa Freitas of
the University of Évora, Portugal. “The
scientific merit of most of the talks or
even the posters were enormous. They
Ph
oto
Cre
dit:
Fre
de
ric L
yn
en
-$r($�&VSPQF March 2017132
The 2017 LCGC Awards
Pat Sandra, Deirdre Cabooter, and Gert Desmet.
made the breakthrough of capillary
chromatography.” Sandra was the
chairman of the biannually organized
Riva meeting from 1983 to 2012. In
2012 he invited Prof. Luigi Mondello
from the University of Messina, to
take over the chairmanship. “That
is one thing I would have never
imagined to happen, when I gave my
first contribution at this symposium,”
said Mondello. “I have always
looked up to Pat, and watched very
closely his stellar achievements in
the field of separation science. The
ground-breaking contributions he
made to the field of separation science
have always been inspiring to me,
and I especially appreciated his talent
and willingness to face new analytical
challenges.”
Sandra also spent six years as chair
of the Symposium of Hyphenated
Techniques in Chromatography (HTC),
and those meetings were also the
pivot points for fruitful collaborations.
Gert Desmet recalls how he felt when
Sandra called him on stage to present
him with the HTC award in 2004. “At
the time he was an unreachable hero
for me, but this rapidly changed when
we started working together and I was
able to send some of my students to
his famous Pfizer Analytical Research
Centre in Ghent—first Deirdre
Cabooter and later Ken Broeckhoven,”
said Desmet. This was a very prolific
cooperation, leading to a long string
of co-publications and requiring little
consultation. “One brief meeting every
4 or 5 months, typically ending with Pat
wrapping up the meeting by defining
in a stroke of genius the experimental
details, and we were ready for another
paper,” Desmet recalls, adding that
theory and experiment came together
seamlessly in the work. “Being
novices in the field, we learned the
art of chromatography through this
collaboration,” said Desmet.
Sandra has also served as the
chair of the International Organization
for the Promotion of Microcolumn
Separations; been the chair of the
Cercle de Sciences Analytiques:
Méthodes Séparatives; organized
the highly successful HPLC 2007
in Ghent; been a member of
the committee for Promotion of
Chromatography in Latin-America
(COLACRO); and coordinated the
Tempus programme, which aimed to
modernize the higher education sector
in Central and Eastern European
Countries following the fall of the Berlin
Wall—the programme through which
he met Tadeusz Górecki as well as
Andrei Medvedovici.
Through collaboration, symposium
organization, and his contributions
to journals, Sandra has influenced
the direction of modern separation
science. But perhaps his true legacy
can only be fully understood through
the words of those he has influenced.
Mentor, Friend, ColleagueThrough his career—teaching at
multiple institutions, supporting
conferences, and working in direct
scientific collaborations—Sandra has
created a vast legacy, inspiring and
nurturing others.
Indeed, his penchant for making
himself approachable and sharing
his knowledge unselfishly is an
undeniably admirable trait and one
which has seen him leave an indefinite
impression in fellow scientists.
“Pat and I have enjoyed a strong
mutual trust for each other over
the years. I cannot recall even one
incident when he did not quickly and
wholeheartedly respond to even the
simplest request I made of him,” said
Lee.
“I know we can always count on him.
We can talk whenever we need and he
is always available,” echoed Ana Maria
Costa Freitas, who met Sandra at her
first “Riva Meeting” in 1985.
“It is a privilege to be considered
a friend and it is always a privilege to
know him and to chat with him about
science or in fact anything.”
“Let’s be honest. I was formed as a
researcher of Separation Sciences by
Prof. Pat Sandra. Certainly, we became
friends, but he always remains my
teacher, in the largest sense of the
word,” said Andrei Medvedovici.
He recalls how he felt when leaving
Belgium after his first stay there,
when Sandra gave him a copy of
his book on micellar electrokinetic
chromatography. Sandra signed it for
him, saying, “To my excellent coworker
and friend, always welcome in my
group.” “I kept this book, and sincerely
speaking, I consider these few words
as my true graduation diploma in
chemical research,” said Medvedovici.
“Whereas many people that do not
know Pat see him as the accomplished
scientist and successful entrepreneur,
those that have the fortune to get
personally in touch with him also know
he is a very kind friend and a real
family man,” added Desmet. “One of
my dearest memories is a trip back
from Germany in his stylish Mercedes,
where in the evening hours he was
called, one after the other, by his
two sons and wife, and where I was
privileged to witness how caring and
loving they are with each other,” he
recalled.
Throughout Sandra’s long and
distinguished career he has inspired
and innovated, challenged and
advised, and done so with rare
sincerity and scientific honesty.
His willingness to help those who
-$r($�&VSPQF March 2017134
The 2017 LCGC Awards
Ph
oto
Cre
dit:
Fre
de
ric L
yn
en
Gert Desmet, Deirdre Cabooter, and Frederic Lynen at HPLC 2014 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
needed it and his passion for his work
culminated in a lifetime of friends,
colleagues, associates, and admirers.
“No assessment of Pat Sandra’s
contribution would be complete
without mentioning the large number
of students and collaborators who
have, under his tutelage, in their own
right become important contributors to
the field,” said de Villiers. “These are
too many to list here, but each of them
I am sure will be as delighted as I was
to hear of the awarding of the LCGC
Lifetime Achievement Award to Pat”
His surprise party in January
2012, when he retired from the
university, provides evidence of
the affection he engendered. “The
party attracted more than a hundred
scientists from all over the world,
despite the impossible snow that day
blocking all traffic in Belgium and the
Netherlands,” remembers Frederic
Lynen. “From the many tributes from
many colleagues during that evening,
it was clear that Pat was and is an
extremely appreciated scientist
worldwide.”
That appreciation of Sandra has
been incredibly evident from the
testimony of those who have engaged
with him professionally and socially
across many decades. To weave his
lifetime of accomplishments into one
final paragraph would not do justice to
Sandra’s achievements. So instead, we
leave you with a final quote from Ana
Maria Costa Freitas: “Chromatography
owes a lot to Pat Sandra.”
Deirdre Cabooter
LCGC ’s 2017 Emerging Leader in
Chromatography, Deirdre Cabooter,
obtained her undergraduate degree
in bioengineering in 2002 from the
University of Antwerp, Belgium.
She then moved to the Free
University of Brussels, in Belgium.
There, she received a master’s
degree in bioengineering, cell, and
gene biotechnology in 2005 and
a Ph.D. in chemical engineering in
2009, both under the supervision
of Gert Desmet. During this time
Cabooter would explore the
possibilities and limitations of the
kinetic plot method for comparing
the kinetic performance of
chromatographic separation methods
and columns.
Desmet clearly remembers when
Cabooter shifted from her master’s
studies to her Ph.D. “From that moment
on, Deirdre went like a whirlwind
through her career, relentless in the
lab, producing and analyzing data
at every moment of the day and the
week,” said Desmet. “She always had
one aim: trying to understand the deep
fundamentals of chromatography.”
After completing her Ph.D.,
Cabooter took up a postdoctoral
position in Desmet’s lab for a year
and a half before working for a year
in the Department of Chemistry and
Polymer Science at Stellenbosch
University in South Africa under the
supervision of André de Villiers. She
has also spent a considerable amount
of time working at the Pfizer Analytical
Research Centre in Ghent. In October
2011, Cabooter took an assistant
professor role in the Department of
Pharmaceutical and Pharmacological
Sciences at the University of Leuven,
Belgium. In October 2016, she was
appointed associate professor in the
same department.
135www.chromatographyonline.com
The 2017 LCGC Awards
We’re making hybrid pump design elementary.
The Bal Seal® spring-energized seal
That’s because our Bal Seal® spring-
energized seal, which combines proven
canted coil spring energizer technology with
advanced polymer formulations and profiles,
provides unparalleled performance and
flexibility for a new generation of
equipment designed to handle both
SFC and UHPLC processes.
For pressures starting at
aspiration to 15 kpsi and above,
at temperatures up to 80 °C, it seals
consistently for millions of cycles, making
more accurate sample resolution and faster
throughput a reality.
Call or click today, and start designing
for tomorrow.
+31 20 638 6523
www.balseal.com
Since she started working at the
University of Leuven, Cabooter has
taken on several Ph.D. students and
continues to collaborate regularly
with her previous laboratory and
specifically with Gert Desmet. “Deirdre
has become a close friend with whom
it is a privilege to collaborate and
discuss new ideas, and dig deeper
into the secrets of chromatographic
theory,” said Desmet. “The sparkle in
her eyes when she shows me another
pile of unique data collected by one of
her students is maybe one of the most
invaluable souvenirs I will retain from
my career.”
Kinetic StudyCabooter’s research has
encompassed a wide range of
studies, but her work in the kinetic
aspects of chromatographic
performance is particularly
noteworthy. “One of Deirdre’s
greatest contributions in our field
is related to the understanding of
band broadening in chromatography,
and the characterization of column
band spreading using the kinetic
plot methodology,” said Davy
Guillarme, a senior lecturer at the
University of Geneva, Switzerland.
“She was part of Gert’s (Desmet)
group when there was a significant
amount of interest in kinetic plots for
comparing the kinetic performance
of core–shell technology, columns
packed with sub-2-μm particles,
and high-temperature liquid
chromatography. She has done a lot
of work in this field and she is still
involved in this field now.” The work
Cabooter contributed to kinetic plot
theory, the primary focus of Desmet’s
group at that time, was significant.
“Deirdre helped me put the kinetic
plot theory on the map,” Desmet
enthused.
An important aspect of
Cabooter’s research stems
from her approach that adopts
elements of engineering. “Contrary
to the bulk of chromatographic
method development, which has
been, for most of its history, a
trial-and-error process based on
the chromatographer’s experience
and background, Deirdre and her
mentor Gert Desmet have put a lot
of effort, and had many successes,
in the further rationalization of
chromatography and in the true
merging of engineering with
chromatography,” said Frederic
Lynen. “Deirdre has been particularly
instrumental in the development of
predictive tools allowing improved
UHPLC and HPLC data to be obtained
in less analysis time and enabling
higher separations efficiencies to be
reached.” Cabooter’s research not
only calculates the potential of kinetic
plots, but also makes their practical
implementation for genuine analyses
much more accessible to the user.
“A particularly interesting publication
of Deirdre’s is her demonstration of
the use of the kinetic plot method to
reach 100,000 plates in HPLC in an
easily reachable way by, for example,
working at higher temperatures
compared to conventional HPLC,”
added Lynen.
As Cabooter has started up her
research group at the University
of Leuven, she has broadened
her research focus to include
studies related to pharmaceutical
analysis, environmental analysis,
bioanalysis, hydrophilic interaction
liquid chromatography (HILIC), and
reversed-phase LC. In her work, she
has made major breakthroughs by
developing the total pore blocking
method, a technique that allows the
decoupling of extra-particle from
intra-particle contributions. The
technique went on to be strongly
embraced by Fabrice Gritti and
Georges Guiochon. Furthermore,
Cabooter has done a substantial
amount of research into the automatic
coupling of columns. “This offers
many new possibilities in terms
of analysis time gain and method
development,” said Desmet.
“Her current work on selectivity,
where she merges HILIC and
reversed-phase LC into one
conventional HPLC system, with one
pump, is also very interesting” added
Lynen. “It has a lot of potential.”
Underlying her achievements
is Cabooter’s focus and drive to
satisfy her intellectual curiosity. Her
character is best illustrated, Desmet
says, by her three-week stay in the
laboratories of Dionex Amsterdam,
in 2009. “She slept in the guest
apartment situated on the same
floor as the lab, allowing her to work
from 6 am to 11 pm,” he said. “And
obviously, it would not have been
Deirdre if she had not returned from
her mission with a radiant smile and
enough data for yet another paper.”
That drive has also resulted in
a remarkable publication record.
To date, she has 61 peer-reviewed
publications in major scientific
journals and her h-index stands at
an impressive 19. “In terms of
citations, considerable interest has
been shown in her publications,”
said David McCalley, a professor
in bioanalytical science at the
University of the West of England.
Cabooter also became a member of
the editorial board of the Journal of
Chromatography A in 2015.
McCalley also noted her many
talks and excellent presentation
skills. “Professor Cabooter is also
increasingly popular as an invited
speaker at major international
conferences,” he added. “I have
recently heard her presentations
at the HPLC conference in San
Francisco and at the Nordic
Separation Science Society in
Helsinki. Both were presented in a
clear and concise fashion, which
is vital when speaking to diverse
international audiences.”
In addition to her research
credentials, Cabooter has also
taken on responsibilities as an
organizer for the International
Symposium on Hyphenated
Techniques in Chromatography
and Separation Technology (HTC).
Her fellow organizers know her as
-$r($�&VSPQF March 2017136
The 2017 LCGC Awards
Deirdre Cabooter working in her laboratory at the University of Leuven.
Ph
oto
Cre
dit: K
isly
uk S
tan
isla
v
highly energetic and an incredibly
meticulous person. But to Frederic
Lynen, she is a true problem solver.
He cites one particular evening at the
HTC-13 conference as an example,
when the symposium dinner lasted
much longer than anticipated, leading
to significant problems with the
drivers of the hired bus company.
“Deirdre, being the type of person
that she is, then personally made sure
that the buses remained available to
bring all the delegates home safely,”
recounts Lynen. “What makes it even
more impressive is that this took
place in the middle of the dark forests
surrounding Bruges at 2 am on a
January morning,” said Lynen. “She
has since been solving many many
issues regarding the organization of
these conferences,” he added.
The intensity that Cabooter applies
to her work also shows up in her free
time, such as when she makes the
most of her opportunities to travel.
David McCalley recalls how she
took advantage of her trip to the
HPLC conference in San Francisco
last year. “In little over a week’s
stay, she managed to cycle over the
Golden Gate bridge the morning after
her arrival, and then completed a
whirlwind tour of Yosemite National
Park, driving for half the night to reach
the park after the last lectures on the
final day.”
The future is very bright for
Cabooter, and all our interviewees
believe that her influence within
chromatography will continue
to increase. “Deirdre has been
recognized as one of the most
influential people in analytical
sciences in both 2014 and 2016, and
she now has obtained this Emerging
Leader in Chromatography Award,”
said Guillarme. “These recognitions
are very well deserved and I’m sure
they will help to boost her career even
further.”
“I believe Deirdre’s research will
contribute a lot to the development of
in silico controlled chromatographic
methods in the future,” added Lynen.
“Deirdre’s work is going to be a very
important contribution to resolving
the increasingly complex separation
problems of the future,” commented
Monika Dittmann, Principal Scientist
Research and Development, Agilent
Technologies.
As for her mentor, Gert Desmet
predicts a similarly bright future for
Cabooter. “Combining her great
scientific skills with an enormous
range of social skills, there is no
doubt Deirdre will become one of
the leading figures in the field of
chromatography,” he concluded.
References(1) C. Gehrke, R. Wixom, and E. Bayer,
in Chromatography—A Century of
Discovery 1900–2000: The Bridge
to the Sciences/Technology, vol. 64
— Prominent Chromatographers and
Their Research (Elsevier, 2001), pp.
477–495.
(2) R. Dandeneau and E. Zerenner,
HRC&CC 2, 351 (1979).
nominations for future AwardsFor information about how to
nominate a candidate for future LCGC
Lifetime Achievement or Emerging
Leader Awards, please contact
Editorial Director Laura Bush at
laura.bush@ubm.com
137www.chromatographyonline.com
The 2017 LCGC Awards
www.restek.com/raptorPure Chromatography
SPP speed. USLC® resolution.A new species of column.• Drastically faster analysis times.
• Substantially improved resolution.
• Increased sample throughput with existing instrumentation.
• Dependable reproducibility.
Choose Raptor™ SPP LC columns for all of
your valued assays to experience
Selectivity Accelerated.
www.restek.com/raptor
ES899834_LCE0317_137.pgs 03.06.2017 18:26 ADV blackyellowmagentacyan