SAS Election Winner Profiles 2021
Officers and Governing Board Delegates
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President-Elect Peter Larkin |
Biography
Peter Larkin's professional career has focused on industrial vibrational spectroscopy. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh in 1990 from Sanford Asher employing resonance Raman and vibrational circular dichroism to study heme proteins. He currently manages the spectroscopy, thermal analysis and chromatography analytical groups for Solvay Research & Innovation in Stamford, CT and has worked in analytical departments in both the specialty chemical and pharmaceutical industries for over thirty years.
Early in his professional career Peter received comprehensive training in IR interpretation of a wide variety of structural problems in organic and polymer chemistry from Dr. Norman B. Colthup. He has published and presented extensively on various aspects of infrared and Raman spectroscopy and his book, entitled IR and Raman Spectroscopy: Principles and Spectral Interpretation, second edition (Elsevier) was published in November 2017.
Peter has been a long time member of both the Society of Applied Spectroscopy (SAS) and the Coblentz Society. He has served on the Megger's Award committee (2012-2013, Chair 2013), Lester Strock Award committee (2016-2017, Chair 2017), the William Wright Award committee (2019-2021, Chair 2020), the Coblentz Society board of managers (2019-present), as a delegate at the SAS governing board (New England section representative 2019, 2020 and 2021) and as a secretary for the New England SAS section (2020-present).
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Brooke Kammrath |
Biography
Brooke is a Professor of Forensic Science at the University of New Haven (Connecticut, USA) and the Assistant Director of the Henry C. Lee Institute of Forensic Science which links scholars, researchers, students, forensic scientists, law enforcement, the legal community, and professional practitioners in many fields to address the scientific and social issues confronting forensic science and the criminal justice system throughout the world. In addition, she works as a consulting criminalist, where she is a qualified expert in both state and federal courts. She is a co-editor of the recently published two-volume book Portable Spectroscopy and Spectrometry and a co-author of the book Blood Traces. She has also co-authored 2 laboratory manuals, 7 book chapters, 20 journal articles, 1 encyclopedia article, and over 100 professional conference presentations. She is a past-president and on the board of managers of the New York Microscopical Society (NYMS) and on the Governing Board of the Eastern Analytical Symposium (EAS). For SAS, she is the membership chair, on the Ad Hoc Diversity and Inclusion Committee, and has chaired sessions on Chemometrics and Forensic Science at SciX.
When not working, Brooke spends as much time with her husband and two children, Riley (7) and Grayson (4), as possible. She is an avid sand collector who enjoys "exploring the world, grain by grain" as a member of the International Sand Collectors Society (ISCS), is a movie buff with a penchant for superhero and sci-fi films, and has been 'officially' sorted into Gryffindor house.
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Sharon Neal |
Biography
Sharon L. Neal is an analytical chemist in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Delaware (U of DE). Her current work focuses on the development of multichannel optical spectroscopy and multivariate data analysis methods for monitoring the reactive oxygen species produced during photosensitization of pollutants in water-borne microorganisms and pharmaceuticals in tissues. During her tenure at U of DE she has served as a rotating program officer in the Chemistry Division of the Mathematics and Physical Sciences (MPS) Directorate at the National Science Foundation (NSF) and spent a sabbatical leave as a visiting professor in the Biology Department at the University of New Mexico. Before moving to U of DE in 1998, she was an Assistant Professor at Spelman College and UC Riverside. She also worked as a staff chemist in Corporate Quality Assurance at The Coca-Cola Company prior to completing her graduate degree. Prof. Neal earned the B.S. in Chemistry at Spelman College and the Ph.D. in Chemistry at Emory University. She conducted post-graduate research at the University of Washington and Naval Research Laboratory. At the U of DE, she is co-chair of the African Heritage Caucus (of faculty and staff) and member of the ADVANCE Institute Internal Advisory Board. She is a member of several professional societies including the American Chemical Society, the Society for Applied Spectroscopy and the National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers (NOBCChE) in which she serves as the Northeast Regional Chairperson and U of DE Student Chapter faculty sponsor. She serves on the advisory board of the Committee on the Advancement of Women Chemists (COACh) and is a past advisory committee member of the MPS Directorate at NSF and the Open Chemistry Collaborative in Diversity Equity (OXIDE). She is also a past ACS Delaware Section Councilor and member of the A-Page Advisory Panel at Analytical Chemistry.rooke spends as much time with her husband and two children, Riley (7) and Grayson (4), as possible. She is an avid sand collector who enjoys "exploring the world, grain by grain" as a member of the International Sand Collectors Society (ISCS), is a movie buff with a penchant for superhero and sci-fi films, and has been 'officially' sorted into Gryffindor house.
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Luisa Profeta |
Biography
Luisa became a SAS Student member in 2004 while attending the University of South Carolina to work on her Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry. Through her time in school, her involvement with SAS as an active member continued; and once she started her postdoc at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), she was elected to the Board of Managers for the Coblentz Society, a technical section of SAS.
Luisa's subsequent moves to MRIGlobal (formerly Midwest Research Institute), Alakai Defense Systems, Field Forensics, Inc., Madico and most recently Rigaku Analytical Devices, have allowed her to remain active in researching and using IR, Raman, GC-MS, XRF and other spectroscopic applications for different clientele. Subsequently, she's also remained active in the SAS, Coblentz and FACSS communities. She has previously served as a board member for SAS and Coblentz, was the SciX 2014 General Chair in Reno, NV, and is currently the Editor of the SAS Newsletter since 2020 and is on her second term as Coblentz Secretary. She has also been promoting applied spectroscopy at the SPIE.DCS meeting as a co-Conference Chair for the Next Generation Spectroscopic Technologies along with other SAS colleagues.
When Luisa is not traveling for work, assisting FACSS, Coblentz and SAS, or making sure that her three children (ages 9, 7 and 5) are not burning down her house, Luisa dabbles in a variety of activities, including, but not limited to: powerlifting, running, cycling, swimming, reading, gardening, playing Settlers of Catan, cooking, crochet and traveling for leisure.
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Gloria Story |
Biography
Gloria Story received her A.S. in Science Technology from the University of Cincinnati - Blue Ash (1981) and worked towards a B.S. in Chemistry from UC and the University of Utah. She is currently a Senior Scientist with the Corporate R&D Innovation Center Organization of the Procter & Gamble Company as Operations Manager of their Global Technology Export Compliance Program. She has over 36 years of service in spectroscopy applications, including NIR and MIR imaging.
With over 20 years of membership in the Society for Applied Spectroscopy, Gloria is currently serving as an elected Governing Board delegate and acting-President for the Cincinnati local section. She served as Section Affairs Coordinator, Secretary, Membership Coordinator, Tour Speaker Coordinator, and workshop instructor at PittCon and SciX. She's been an active member of the Coblentz Society for over 30 years, currently serving as a mentee in the Speed Mentoring program. She served on their board, as a booth chairman, and as a liaison for PittCon. An ACS member since 1994, she is currently serving as coordinator for membership, Education Grants, undergraduate travel awards, and museum NCW programming. She served the Cincinnati ACS section as 2nd Vice Chair, NCW and Earth Day Coordinator, and Auditor.
Gloria Story has co-authored 28 research publications (16 peer-reviewed) and presented over 25 oral presentations. She has received numerous awards including the 2015 SAS Distinguished Service Award, Research Associate of the Year, Outstanding Service, and Outreach Volunteer of the Year Awards from the ACS Cincinnati Section, the Global Analytical Community of Practice Recognition and Pete Rodriquez Analytical Excellence Awards from the Procter & Gamble Company, and the America Service to Youth Award from the Dan Beard Council of the Boy Scouts of America.
In her spare time, Gloria sings in her church choir, serves scout troop 956, and provides STEM community programs.
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Karin WielandBiography
I recently joined the Competence Center CHASE GmbH in Vienna, Austria after being a postdoctoral researcher at the Chair of Analytical Chemistry, TU Munich (Germany). The focus of my research is the application and optimization of vibrational spectroscopic methods along with chemometric data analysis.
I received my M.Sc. degree with specialization in biotechnology and bioanalytics from TU Wien (TUW) in 2014 and my PhD in Technical Chemistry (TUW) in 2019. During my time in Bernhard Lendl's group at TUW, I applied Raman and infrared spectroscopy for imaging and characterization of biological samples at the micro- and nanoscale. Besides of nanoscale imaging of drug-containing nanocarriers by means of photothermal induced resonance (PTIR) spectroscopy, I was working on the combination of Raman spectroscopy with ultrasonic particle manipulation for increased in-line sensing sensitivity and selectivity in process analytical technology (PAT) applications. At TUM, I focused on different applications of vibrations spectroscopy such as the development of an antibiotic susceptibility platform based on Raman spectroscopy, or PAT applications in flow reactors. As part of the Competence Center CHASE GmbH, I am again focusing on vibrational spectroscopy as valuable PAT tool to work towards the European Green Deal, circular process streams, and the development of digital twins.
Having been a SAS member for 5 years, the community has accompanied me since my earliest days as a researcher and has certainly helped advancing my academic career and professional network to what it is today.
loria Story received her A.S.