Peter Myers- 2006 Silver Jubilee Medal (Joint Winner)
Peter obtained his B.Sc. in Pure Chemistry 1st Class with Honours in 1969 from the University of Salford and his Ph.D. in Maths, Physics and Chemistry in 1972 from the same University. He was granted a Fellowship of the Royal Society of Chemistry in March 1996.
He is member of The Royal Institution of Great Britain, of The Pye 104 Club, of the Royal Photographic Society and founding member of SWAG.
He started the Desty Memorial Lecture for Innovation in Separation Science in 1996 to encourage young scientists in chromatography after his mentor Denis Desty. And he continues to act as a scientific member of the International Symposium on Capillary Chromatography Science and is an editorial member on a number of scientific journals.
Peter's involvement in chromatography came by mistake as he always wanted to be a photographer (see www.petermyers.co.uk) when he started work at Phase Separations and became the technical director responsible for the development of the Sol-Gel process for the manufacture of spherical ceramics for use in chromatography. The process now produces silica, alumina, zirconia and titania porous spheres with a wide range of controllable pore sizes, pore volumes and surface areas. Peter also developed bonded phases for these ceramics include hydrophobic, hydrophilic, strong cation and anion exchanges to the new polymer coated materials offering high pH stability. By modifying the particle size distribution and developing new methods for air classification, he developed new fast analysis columns.
Peter's background and interest in computers led him to develop transputers for use in molecular modelling and computational chemistry using new molecular modelling and applying this into Computational Chromatography. Another aspect of his research into the use of computers into chromatography has been to develop programs for the optimisation of mobile phase parameters in both HPLC and GC in conjunction.
Today Peter acts as independent consultant across all areas of chromatography and is a visiting Professor at a number of Universities. His main research aim is to replace the industrial habit of collecting fluid samples in bottles and delivering them to laboratories for analysis, to replace these manual procedures by automated instruments. The proposed new self-contained analysers will allow measurement at the point of use, thereby eliminating labour, transport time and potential contamination. This new paradigm is made possible through microfabrication. The miniaturisation and integration of solid-phase extraction, electro-chromatographic separations and full-spectrum electro-optical or electro-magnetic detection will allow the encapsulation and optimisation of existing instrumental methods into micro-fluidic, application–specific chemistry chips. Each chip is essentially a laboratory integrated into its sample’s environment.