| Environmental Forensics and Analytical Atomic Spectrochemistry
Abstract Environmental forensics is a new subject area relating to courtroom or litigation proceedings and the fact basis for mediated or negotiated transactions involving environmental matters. Environmental forensic investigations often deal with historical release of contaminants and attempt to establish who caused the contamination, when and how the contamination occurred, how extensive the contamination was, what levels of contamination exposure existed, and how valid the test results were. Plasma spectrochemical analysis has been applied to a large variety of environmental and forensic materials to identify and quantify their elemental concentrations, isotopic compositions, and metal compound forms. Specifically, inductively coupled plasma (ICP) atomic emission (ICP-AES) and mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) provide powerful elemental analysis tools for air monitoring, biota analysis, soil and sediment analysis, radionuclide determinations, and water and ecological monitoring. The features of plasma spectrochemistry will be described, and ICP analyses of environmental and forensic materials will be reviewed with emphasis on chemometric data interpretation for source identification. The unique applications of laser ablation (LA-ICP-MS) for microsamples and especially crime scene samples will be demonstrated. Elemental speciation with combined separation and ICP-MS tools also will be introduced.
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Ramon Barnes is director of the University Research Institute for
Analytical Chemistry, Professor Emeritus of Chemistry at the University
of Massachusetts, editor of the ICP Information Newsletter (1975-), and
chairman of the Winter Conference on Plasma Spectrochemistry (1980-).
He received a Ph.D. in analytical chemistry from the University of
Illinois, Champaign/Urbana, in 1966, an A.M. in chemistry from Columbia
University, New York, in 1963, and was a post doctoral research fellow
at Iowa State University, Ames, in 1968 and 1969. He served as an Army
Captain at NASA Lewis Research Center, Cleveland, from 1966 to 1968.
From 1969 to 2000 he taught analytical chemistry and maintained an
international research program at the University of Massachusetts,
Amherst. He has published more than 300 papers, edited four books, and
continues an active research interest in fundamentals and applications
of inductively coupled plasma (ICP) discharges for spectrochemical
analysis. The University Research Institute for Analytical Chemistry
(URIAC) is the research and development division of ICP Information
Newsletter, Inc., a not-for-profit corporation established in 1997 to
foster science education, research, and study in spectroanalytical
chemistry. URIAC provides specialty plasma spectrochemical analysis,
method development, training, consulting, and applied research with ICP
atomic emission spectrometry and ICP mass spectrometry for ultratrace
metal and stable isotope analysis, method development, training,
consulting, and applied research with ICP atomic emission spectrometry
and ICP mass spectrometry for ultratrace metal and stable isotope
analyses in environmental forensics, drug development, medicine,
public health, and semiconductor manufacturing.
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Thursday, November 12th, 2009
Executive Committee Meeting, 5:30-6:30 pm in Olin-Rice 205
Dinner 6:30-7:15 in Olin-Rice Atrium
Presentation, 7:30-8:30 in Olin-Rice 250
Dinner will be pizza, salad, and meat or vegetarian lasagne from Davanni's.
Cost of the dinner is $15 with advance payment or $17 on-site payment.
A student discount rate of $10 ($12 on-site) is available.
Please note that you may attend the exec meeting and/or presentation for free; the above cost is only for the catering.
Dinner reservations must be sent no later than Thursday, November 5th.
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