Winner: Edward Yeung

Professor Edward S. Yeung of the Faculty of Chemistry and U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory at Iowa State University has been awarded the 2012 Chromatographic Society Martin Medal.

Professor Yeung was awarded this medal for his sustained and important contribution to the promotion of separation science, particularly for his multidisciplinary work on electrophoretic DNA sequencing, the early analytical detection of life threatening diseases and more recently metabolomics. His work in the field of electrophoretic analysis of biomolecules and development of novel spectroscopic and spectrometric detection systems aligned with these are recognised as world-leading. This is reflected in his strong presence in the peer-reviewed scientific literature, his valued contribution to numerous scientific editorial boards and his continued association and organisation of international symposia.

Professor Yeung received his undergraduate degree in chemistry from Cornell University in 1968 and his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of California at Berkeley in 1972. Since then, he has presided at the chemistry faculty at Iowa State University, where he is currently Distinguished Professor Emeritus in Liberal Arts and Sciences. Additionally he is a Senior Scientist at the U.S. government funded Ames Laboratory at the same University. His development of 96-channel multiplexed capillary electrophoresis instrumentation led to the formation of his company CombiSep in 1999 to commercialise this product. CombiSep merged with Advanced Analytical Technology Inc. in 2006 and Professor Yeung acts as Director of the advisory board.

Professor Yeung’s scientific expertise is highly valued and recognised by the learned press. He was an Associate Editor of Analytical Chemistry and is currently a co-editor of Annual Review of Analytical Chemistry. He served on the editorial advisory board of Progress in Analytical Spectroscopy, Journal of Capillary Electrophoresis, Mikrochimica Acta, Spectrochimica Acta Part A, Journal of Microcolumn Separations, Electrophoresis, Journal of High Resolution Chromatography, Chromatographia and Journal of Biochemical and Biophysical Methods. As an author, he has published well over 450 papers, book chapters and books in the chromatographic, spectrometric and spectroscopic fields.

Professor Yeung’s work is internationally recognised and he currently holds appointments as an Honorary Professor at Hunan University, Zhengzhou University and Zhongshan University in China. He has received numerous accolades throughout his distinguished career including his Fellowship of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and of the American Chemical Society, the ACS Division of Analytical Chemistry Award in Chemical Instrumentation, the Lester W. Strock Award, the Pittsburgh Analytical Chemistry Award, the L. S. Palmer Award, the ACS Fisher Award in Analytical Chemistry, the Frederick Conference on Capillary Electrophoresis Award, the Eastern Analytical Symposium Award in Analytical Chemistry, the ACS Award in Chromatography, the International Prize of the Belgian Society of Pharmaceutical Sciences, the Eastern Analytical Symposium Award in Separation Science, the Ralph N. Adams Award in Bioanalytical Chemistry, the Golay Award, the Chicago Chromatography Discussion Group Merit Award and the ACS Division of Analytical Chemistry Award for Distinguished Service in the Advancement of Analytical Chemistry. His ability to develop novel analytical instrumentation from a fundamental understanding of physical and chemical principles has resulted in four separate R&D 100 awards.

Professor Yeung’s promotion of separation science extends to the organisation of a number of scientific meetings and symposia. Appropriately, Professor Yeung will be presented with the Martin Medal in June at HPLC 2012 in Anaheim, USA where he presides on the permanent organisation committee for this conference series.