Every year the Chromatographic Society awards exceptional scientists with the Martin and Silver Jubilee awards. The Chromatographic Society is pleased to announce the awarding of the 2024 Martin medal to Professor David McCalley and Dr. Fabrice Gritti. As well as the 2024 Jubilee Medal to Professors Lucie Nováková, Kevin Schug and John Langley.

2024 Martin Medal winners

The Martin Medal is named after Professor A.J.P. Martin who, together with Richard Synge, received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1952 for their seminal work on partition chromatography. The award represents the highest honour that The Chromatographic Society confers.

2024 Martin Medal winner David McCalley, University of the West of England, UK.

David McCalley joined the University of the West of England in 2012 and was awarded a Chair in 2012. While Professor McCalley’s name has become synonymous with HILIC due to his trail-blazing research into the applications and underlying fundamentals of the separation mode. He has also conducted research widely in the area of stationary phase development as well as fundamental chromatography of basic compounds, environmental contaminants and metabolites.
The primary separation tools used by his group are liquid chromatography and gas chromatography coupled to a variety of detections systems, including mass spectrometry approaches. His work has always been highly regarded and is highlighted by him having the most cited article in LC-GC Europe in the journals history. He is an author of almost 100 scientific publications (>5000 citations) and 3 book chapters. His Hirsch index (h-index) is 45.
Professor McCalley is a mainstay at international conferences (HPLC, ISC, HTC) and has represented UK chromatographic excellence for many years, as well as serving on chromatographic editorial boards (Journal of Chromatography A, LC-GC). This is reflected his numerous appearances in the list of the world’s 100 most influential analytical scientists by the “Analytical Science” magazine, he was awarded the ChromSoc’s Jubilee medal in 2008.

2024 Martin Medal winner Fabrice Gritti, Waters Corporation, USA.

Fabrice Gritti joined Waters in 2015 as a research scientist. Before this he was a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Tennessee group of Prof. Georges Guiochon. Dr. Gritti’s research focuses primarily on liquid and solid adsorption thermodynamics and mass transfer in heterogeneous media, as well as development of detailed theory related to band broadening in chromatographic columns.
His work which has been performed largely in an industrial environment and has led to the characterisation and optimised design of new liquid chromatography columns and instrument technologies. These have reshaped column and instrument designs which maximise performance and sensitivity in both liquid and supercritical fluid chromatography, his work has earned him many awards including the ChromSoc’s Jubilee medal in 2013, JFK Huber Lecture Award in 2019 and more recently the EAS Award for Outstanding Achievements in Separation Science in 2022.
Dr. Gritti is an exceptional example of the research impact of industrial chromatographers (which includes only 4 other Martin awardees). He has published over 300 papers (>3500 citations) and 12 patents. His h-index is 57. Dr. Gritti’s presence as a key opinion leader and frequent speaker at all major conferences (>90 keynote lectures) as well as his serving on chromatographic journal editorial boards (Journal of Chromatography A ) illustrates his dedication to supporting the chromatographic field.

2024 Silver Jubilee Medal winners

The Jubilee Medal was created in 1982 to mark the 25th anniversary of The Chromatographic Society, with the intention of recognising up-and-coming separation scientists who have made major use of separation science in their own field or have made important contributions to a particular area of separation science. In 2024 the Silver Jubilee medal has been awarded to three eminent scientists, Professors Lucie Nováková, Kevin Schug and John Langley.

2024 Silver Jubilee Medal winner Lucie Nováková, Charles University, Czech Republic.

Lucie Nováková joined the Charles University in Prague in 2011, becoming a full professor in 2019. Her research is primarily oriented towards fast LC and SFC techniques, and their coupling to mass spectrometry. Her research has a particular focus on pharmaceutical analysis, plant analysis and bioanalytical methods and therefore Professor Nováková’s research also focuses on developing and miniaturising sample preparation approaches and increasing sample throughput. She currently has published over 140 peer-reviewed publications (>3700 citations), 2 books and 2 book chapters. Her research is well cited and she has an h-index of 42.
Outside of research she is widely involved in teaching and education activities, such as serving on editorial boards (Trends in Analytical Chemistry, Chromatography Today), HPLC and SFC training courses, seminars and international conferences (for example the HPLC conference series and ISC2024).

2024 Silver Jubilee Medal winner Kevin A Schug, University of Texas at Arlington, USA.

Kevin A Schug joined the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) in 2005 and became professor in 2015. He has extensive industrial collaborations and is the founder of the Shimadzu Center for Advanced Analytical Chemistry at UTA. His research focusses primarily on the fundamentals of gas and liquid phase separations as well as detector technology for trace analysis, such as, VUV (vacuum ultraviolet) in GC and the underlying mechanisms of soft ionisation in MS. His research is primarily applied to the investigation of water treatment analysis and natural products, but also has interests in sustainable and environmental trace analyses. Professor Schug has published over 222 papers (> 5800 citations) and has an h-index of 40.
The impact of his work is evident, and he has been recognised through several awards (Emerging Leader in Chromatography Award 2009, Young Investigator in Separation Science Award 2013, and more). He has also been recognised in the Analytical Scientist’s top 100 power list numerous times, Professor Schug has served on a number of editorial boards (Journal of Separation Science, American Society for Mass Spectrometry, to name a few) as well as presented at numerous conferences, highlighting his important contribution to the chromatographic community.

2024 Silver Jubilee Medal winner John Langley, University of Southampton, UK.

Professor John Langley joined the University of Southampton in 1988 where he now leads the characterisation and analytics section in the Department of Chemistry. His research focuses mainly on separation and detection of polymeric material, organometallics, and various (bio)pharmaceuticals utilising a multitude of separation techniques interfaced with MS and works closely with many companies within the pharmaceutical and petrochemical industries. He has published over 130 publications (>4000 citations) and has an h-index of 35. He was recognised by the British Mass Spectrometry Society through their BMSS Medal in 2021.
Outside of research John has played a significant leadership role in UK separation science, through his teaching (internal and external to the University), research and advocacy. He is well known for his support of diversity and inclusion within the separation science (and MS) communities. As Chair of the Royal Society of Chemistry’s separation science group for several years, he has worked collaboratively with a variety of societies to deliver several national and international symposia including HTC, SinS (solutions in science) and the International Mass Spectrometry Conference.

The Chromtography Society again congratulates all winners and looks forward to awarding the medals in 2024 at renowned venues such ISC2024.