BYU Well Represented at International Meeting

BYU had a great showing at the 35th Annual International Symposium on Capillary Chromatography in San Diego May 1-5 with one student awarded the prestigious Leslie Ettre Award and three more recognized in the top 10 presented posters, professor Milton Lee said.

“Students could always work harder,” Dr. Lee joked. “[But] I believe they are good students and they have worked hard to accomplish these goals, these achievements, and I’m pleased with their performance.”

Dr. Lee said he has taken students to the symposium before. This year, out of the seven in attendance, five presented their research along with hundreds of other students, professors and scientists at every level from all over the world.

“I think [the symposium] was a really good experience because it opened their eyes to what other people are doing and how competitive the field is,” Dr. Lee said. “I’ve noticed an increase in enthusiasm to work hard to achieve. So I think it’s good to expose students to the cutting edge research in their areas so they know what they’re involved in.”

The Ettre Award is presented to a promising young scientist 35 years or younger who presented the most interesting original research in capillary gas chromatography. Six to eight prominent scientists are chosen to act as judges and attend all the talks and poster presentations given at the conference. These judges then vote on which scientist receives the award. The award includes a $2,500 research grant and $1,000 travel contribution to and free registration for the next ISCC meeting in Italy. The winner is also invited to give an oral presentation on their research at the next meeting.

This year, the Ettre Award went to fourth-year BYU graduate student Dan Li. Li, who is from China, earned a master’s degree in microbiology prior to coming to the United States to study chemistry. She spent two years working on microfluidics in Dr. Lee’s lab before moving to an anti-terrorism project researching the detection of biological warfare agents. She hopes to graduate with her PhD in August 2012.

“Dan Li bridges between microbiology and chemistry,” Dr. Lee said. “She’s working with micro-organisms, bacteria and also with the chemistry – analytical chemistry.”

Dr. Lee explained that as part of that project, Li has been involved in the development of a hand portable gas chromatograph mass spectrometer system for detecting chemical warfare agents. In order to adapt the instrumentation to detect biological warfare as well, she has to develop and optimize the chemical treatment methods and then identify specific biomarkers for different bioweapons like anthrax. Li also works on an interdisciplinary team involving microbiology professor Dr. Richard Robison and statistics professor Dr. Dennis Tolley, as well as students from both fields.

“When you’re looking at a lot of samples and biomarkers, you need to involve statistics for recognizing trends and patterns and quality of the data,” Dr. Lee explained.

Li said in an e-mail she was surprised and honored when her name was announced as the winner of the Ettre Award because there were so many excellent talks.

“It is good for me to combine my biological background to analytical chemistry which could provide me broader vision and more job opportunities,” Li said. “In Dr. Lee's group, I found a perfect project [where] I can use my microbiological knowledge very well and learn new things in [the] analytical area. I would like to give my special thanks to my adviser, Dr. Milton Lee, who provided this great opportunity [for me] to work in his group and encouragement to overcome many obstacles. I would also like to thank our department for giving me this offer to make my dream come true.”

Three other students in Dr. Lee’s lab, Jie Xuan, Pankaj Aggarwal, and Anzi Wang, were also recognized at the ISCC as being in the top 10 out of about 200 posters presented.

“[I found out I was in the top 10] on the last day of the conference when they announced my name,” Xuan, a fourth-year graduate student from China, said. “Only the top three get [a cash award], but I was very pleased to be in the top 10. Pankaj and Anzi and I were all really excited.”

Aggarwal, a graduate student from India, was excited to find out he was in the top 10.

“It was my first time presenting at a conference,” he said. “I found out I was in the top 10 on Wednesday of the conference, I think. They wrote on the board the names of the top 10 and then announced our names and awarded the top three.”

After he presented his poster, Aggarwal said it was great to be able to talk with several other people at the meeting about his work.

“It’s good because while you’re discussing, you get to know what others are thinking. After coming back, I’m thinking of continuing that work,” he said. “[I’m working with Dr. Lee] developing monolithic columns for separation of biomolecules and small molecules. We also fabricate monoliths and characterize them to understand what they do.”

Wang, a second-year graduate student in analytical chemistry from Hefei, China, also had a good experience presenting his research on gas chromatography. This was his first year attending the ISCC meeting.

“During the meeting, a lot of people requested the reprint of my poster,” Wang said in an e-mail. “This makes me feel excited: my research (thermal gradient gas chromatography) is novel and might be useful for their own study. It’s also fun to talk to people and explain what technology I’m developing. Their response encourages me to continue my research and further explore other possibilities.”

Wang said he wasn’t surprised when Li received the Leslie Ettre Award.

“She deserves it,” he said. “Dan Li works very hard. It’s not surprising that she got such good experimental results from thousands of runs, and she gave an excellent talk.”

By Jessica Henrie

Photo courtesy of Dr. Lee