Our six experts from both industry and acadmia provide their thoughts on HPLC systems in this Q&A, commenting on which systems work best for them, and more.

Nowhere is the controversy over instrument upgrades more animated than in HPLC, or more correctly, in the debate over switching from HPLC to UHPLC.

Although by no means the only operational issue involved in HPLC, cost of ownership is something everyone considers and ultimately comes to grips with. 

Unlike many other mature analytical technologies, HPLC seems to have entered a period of intense innovation and competition. 

Stephanie Smith has an exciting job. As assistant lab director of the Physical Sciences Unit at the National Forensics Laboratory of the United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS)—the law enforcement arm of the United States Postal Service she puts her daily efforts into making the U.S. mail safer by helping solve thousands of postal crimes.

Developers of analytical instrumentation for food laboratories are constantly being kept on their toes—foremost by the competing technical advancements and expanding market demands inherent in their business, and also by the need to help customers comply with changing and more stringent regulatory requirements worldwide.

The privilege of conducting research dedicated to finding cures for human diseases is one reason Paul Diaz starts his workday with enthusiasm. “The life of a scientist can be stressful, but in what other profession does it seem like someone is is paying you to indulge in a guilty pleasure?”

U.S. forensic laboratories are reeling from the enfeeblement of city, state and federal budgets. And with substantive regulatory changes slated for 2011, the labs may soon experience alterations in how they are accredited and managed, how their staffers are trained and certified, and how they are funded and paid for their services.

Connie Schreppel, director of water quality at Mohawk Valley Water Authority, oversees a 2,100-square-foot water quality lab, a 300-square-foot laboratory located in a treatment plant as well as the operations of the less-than-typical Adirondack watershed lab.

The National Academy of Sciences has unanimously recommended 13 measures to address problems plaguing crime-lab forensics, including a call for massive forensic-science research sponsored and funded by a science-based agency outside the Department of Justice.