WATERS SYMPOSIUM
Recognizing Pioneers in the Development and Application of Portable Handheld X-ray Fluorescence Spectrometers
WHEN: Monday, March 12, 2012, 2:00 PM
WHERE: Room W-300 Orange County Convention Center, Orlando, Florida
The James L. Waters Annual Symposium is a unique component of the Pittcon Technical Program. In 1989, Mr. Waters, founder of Waters Associates, Inc. and President of Waters Business Systems, Inc., proposed that the Society for Analytical Chemists of Pittsburgh (SACP) offer an annual symposium exploring the origin, development, implementation, and commercialization of scientific instrumentation of established and major significance. The objective of the symposium is to recognize workers, developments, and applications of instrumentation by preserving the early, and in some cases more mature history, of the important contributions, as well as the cooperation between inventors, scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs and marketing organizations. All expenses associated with the symposium are generously funded by Mr. Waters. Administration of the symposium, including selection of the topics and speakers, is the responsibility of the SACP.
The Twenty-Third Waters Annual Symposium recognizes the development and application of portable handheld x-ray fluorescence spectrometers. Early handheld XRF units were an important stepping stone in moving from lab to field use. However, they were still too bulky and limited in performance to achieve widespread use. This symposium will focus primarily on the later generation of products that continue to drive explosive growth in the use of XRF in the field.
An outstanding panel of speakers has been assembled to recognize workers who are critical in the development, commercialization and application of this important area of instrumentation. The SACP is extremely pleased to welcome the following innovators to Pittcon 2012.
WATERS SYMPOSIUM BIOGRAPHIES
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SPEAKER: Lee Grodzins
AFFILIATION: AS&E
PRESENTATION: The Birth and Maturation of Handheld XRF Spectrometers
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| Lee Grodzins graduate from Purdue University with a PhD in 1954; scientist at BNL,1955-1959; M.I.T. Professor of Physics, 1959-1998; author of more than 150 papers and an awardee of 48 U.S. patents. He was a Guggenheim Fellow in 1964-65 and 1971-72, and an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow in 1980-81. He founded Niton Corporation in 1987 to develop and market hand-held instruments for analyzing toxic elements in the environment. A founding member of the Union of Concerned Scientists, he was its President in 1971-72. In 2,000, he founded Cornerstones of Science to connect children and adults with science and technology through library-based programs.
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SPEAKER: Andrew T. Elllis
AFFILIATION: Oxford Instruments
PRESENTATION: X-MET HHXRF Analyzers: A Stainless History
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| Andrew T. Elllis - Born and educated in Yorkshire, Northern England. Andy completed his Ph.D. in 1980 and moved to Denver, Colorado to join Don Leyden’s XRF group. Since then Andy has remained active in XRF, returning to the UK in 1982 as XRF Application Specialist to join Link Systems, later to be acquired by Oxford Instruments . He spent many years writing software and developing all aspects of laboratory EDXRF systems. In 2007, Andy moved to Finland to manage the business responsible for HHXRF and detector products and is now in the USA developing X-ray tubes. Andy has authored over 30 papers and remains excited by X-rays.
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SPEAKER: Stanislaw Piorek
AFFILIATION: Thermo Scientific Niton Analyzers
PRESENTATION: The Evolution of Analytical Capabilities of Field Portable and Handheld XRF Analyzers - From Pencil and Slide Rule to Fundamental Parameters Based Algorithms
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| Mr. Stanislaw Piorek holds a Ph.D. in Nuclear Technology and Electronics. He has over thirty years of experience in X-ray and gamma spectrometric methods, specifically in instrument and software design, applications development, marketing and sales to key accounts. He pioneered application of X-ray fluorescence analysis for the in-situ characterization of contaminated soil by defining and introducing the concept of screening, the analysis at which relaxed accuracy requirements provide for a rapid and cost effective method of delineating toxic metals in soil. The results of his work in this field contributed to successful development of the EPA Method 6200 for soil screening with portable X-ray analyzers. For alloy analysis and sorting Mr. Piorek developed specific identification algorithms for the positive identification of alloys with portable XRF analyzers. He is an active member of various Technical Committees of International Electrotechnical Commission and ASTM within which he leads development of standard test methods for screening electronic products and consumer goods for hazardous substances using XRF techniques. He serves on editorial board of X-Ray Spectrometry, a John Wiley’s journal. He is an author of over 50 papers, four book chapters and numerous symposia and conference presentations. As Director of Applied Research for Thermo Scientific Niton Analyzers, Dr. Piorek is responsible for the development and support of new analytical methods based on X-ray fluorescence and other, complementary techniques.
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SPEAKER: Alan Huber
AFFILIATION: Amptek, Inc.
PRESENTATION: The Development of Detectors for Handheld XRF
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| Alan Huber is President and Co-Founder of Amptek, Inc, a company engaged in the development and marketing of X-ray and gamma ray instrumentation for research and industry. He is a graduate of M.I.T. in Physics, and spent a number of years designing spacecraft instrumentation, primarily for the measurement of charged particles in the near-Earth environment. At Amptek, he has developed a line of hybrid electronic products for space research, high resolution, thermoelectrically cooled X-ray detectors, and both analog and digital processing electronics for use with radiation detectors. Alan lives in the Boston area.
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SPEAKER: Charles Jensen
AFFILIATION: Moxtek, Inc.
PRESENTATION: Performance Improvements in Miniature X-ray Sources
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| Mr. Charles Jensen graduated from Brigham Young University in 1991 with a Bachelors of Science degree in Manufacturing Engineering Technology. He worked at The Boeing Company for over 10 years, beginning in Tool & Process Engineering and moving to New Airplane Product Development. He was hired by Moxtek in June, 2001 as the manufacturing engineer responsible for bringing the revolutionary Bullet™ x-ray tube into production. In January of 2003, Mr. Jensen became the Product Manager for X-ray Tubes, and assumed responsibility for the research and development of all X-ray products in 2006. In 2011, Mr. Jensen was named CTO at Moxtek.
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