Landmark Literature As we launch ourselves into 2017, our expert panel selects and reflects on six standout papers that truly advanced the field of analytical science in 2016. Hans-Gerd Janssen, Pat Sandra, Apryll Stalcup, Gary Hieftje, Davy Guillarme, Frank Bright | 01/26/2017











Sensing the Future of Chromatography By Hans-Gerd Janssen, Science Leader, Unilever Research and Development; and Professor, van ’t Hoff Institute for Molecular Sciences, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. For me, chromatography is always just a temporary solution. Separation of a sample is not the goal, but the means to answer an important question. For instance: does this pill contain enough of the active pharmaceutical ingredient? Is this food product safe? One day, we will no longer separate mixtures at all, but use a sensor to answer our questions. In fact, the question is no longer if, but rather when sensors will take over from chromatography and mass spectrometry. A massive number of articles have been published on sensors. Some sensors perform very well but, overall, the performance is inferior to that of chromatography. However, as chromatographers, we should not wait until we are overtaken by sensor scientists. We must use what they already have to improve our methods.

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About the Authors

Hans-Gerd Janssen

Hans-Gerd Janssen is Science Leader of Analytical Chemistry at Unilever Research Vlaardingen, and Professor of Biomacromolecular Separations at the van’t Hoff Institute for Molecular Sciences at the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands.



Pat Sandra

Pat Sandra is Emeritus Professor of Organic Chemistry at Ghent University, and Founder and President of the Research Institute for Chromatography (RIC), Kortrijk, Belgium. “Through the activities of RIC, I got in touch with the real analytical needs of the industry and found we could help in providing solutions that are economically relevant. Moreover, it allowed me to keep my best PhD students around me, which resulted in high scientific output in a non-academic environment,” he says.

Apryll Stalcup

Director of the Irish Separation Science Cluster, Dublin City University, Ireland.

Gary Hieftje

Gary Hieftje is distinguished professor and Robert & Marjorie Mann chair at the Department of Chemistry, School of Public and Environmental Affairs, and School of Informatics, Indiana University Bloomington, USA. Gary’s research interests include the investigation of basic mechanisms in atomic emission, absorption, fluorescence and mass spectrometric analysis, the development of instrumentation and techniques for atomic methods of analysis, on-line computer control, the use of time-resolved luminescence processes, and the use of stochastic processes to extract basic and kinetic chemical information.

Davy Guillarme

Davy Guillarme is Senior Lecturer in the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Geneva/University of Lausanne, Geneva, Switzerland.

Frank Bright

Henry M. Woodburn Chair and SUNY Distinguished Professor, Department of Chemistry, University at Buffalo, New York.