Professor Carr receives 2013 LCGC Lifetime Achievement Award

Chemistry Professor Peter Carr has been honored with the 2013 LCGC Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions to the field of liquid chromatography and surface chemistry. LCGC stands for liquid chromatography, gas chromatography. He will receive the award at the Federation of Analytical Chemistry and Spectroscopy Societies' annual Great Scientific Exchange, which will be conducted in Milwaukee, September 29, through October 4.

Carr has been a professor and researcher in the Department of Chemistry since 1977. He earned his bachelor's degree in chemistry from the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, and his doctorate in analytical chemistry from the Pennsylvania State University.

Carr's contributions to the field of chromatography are many. His research interests, scientific contributions to, and promotion of separation science have resulted in many new pivotal approaches to liquid chromatography. In addition to his work on the fundamental theory of high-performance liquid chromatography, his research has focused on understanding the nature of solute-solvent interactions as they pertain to the prediction of retention, selectivity and optimization in chromatography; the theory of nonlinear chromatography; the development of stable chromatographic column media such as zirconia and hyper-crosslinked silica phases to replace the standard silica packing materials; and two-dimensional liquid chromatographic separations of biomolecules as a novel approach that achieves chemical separation of complex mixtures in a fraction of the time of conventional liquid chromatography.

He also is known for his teaching, mentoring, publications, and patents. He has mentored more than 50 graduate students and postdoctoral researchers; published more than 400 papers on a variety of analytical chemistry areas such as electrochemistry, ion selective electrodes, thermochemistry, and chromatography; shared his research at numerous professional workshops and seminars; and holds more than 18 patents in chemical analysis and chromatography areas. Periodically, he organizes with the help of colleagues Tom and Becky Hoye, and Larry Potts workshops for graduate students and post doctorates on How to Get an Academic Job. This workshop has been done a number of times since 1990.

He has been very active in the scientific community, serving on the editorial advisory boards of Analytical Chemistry, Talanta, The Microchemical Journal, LC/GC, Journal of Chromatography, Chromatographia and SeparationScience and Technology. He has been president of the symposium on Analytical Chemistry in the Environment, founder and first president of the Minnesota Chromatography Forum, and chairman of the Subdivision of Chromatography and Separation Science of the Analytical Chemistry Division of the American Chemical Society. In addition he has served as a consultant to many companies, and founded his own company, ZirChrom Separations Inc.

Carr has received numerous accolades throughout his distinguished career, including, most recently, the Csaba Horvath Award of the Connecticut Separation Science Council and the Hungarian Chromatography Society, and the Chromatographic Society Martin Gold Medal. Other honors include the Leroy Sheldon Palmer Award of the Minnesota Chromatography Forum; Merit Award of the Chicago Chromatography Discussion Group; Benedetti-Pichler Award from the American Microchemical Society; Eastern Analytical Symposium, Inc., Award in Separation Science; Stephen Dal Nogare Award of the Delaware Chromatography Forum; American Chemical Society Award in Chromatography; Award in Separation Science of the Eastern Analytical Symposium; and the Pittsburgh Conference Award in Analytical Chemistry; and the American Chemical Society Award in Analytical Chemistry. He was inducted into the Academy of Distinguished Teachers at the University of Minnesota.