Short Biography Pat J. Sandra

Pat J. Sandra (born 20 October 1946 in Kortrijk, Belgium) received his M.S. Degree in Chemistry in 1969 and his Ph.D. in Sciences in 1975 from the Ghent University, Belgium. Since then, he has been on the Faculty of Sciences at the same University where he is currently Professor in Separation Sciences at the Department of Organic Chemistry. In 1986 he founded the Research Institute for Chromatography in Kortrijk, Belgium, a center of excellence for research and education in chromatography, mass spectrometry and capillary electrophoresis. He is currently also extraordinary professor at the Department of Chemistry at the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa, at the Department of Analytical Chemistry, Evora, Portugal and director of the Pfizer Analytical Research Center at the Ghent University. Pat Sandra is active in all fields of separation sciences (GC, LC, SFC and CE) and major areas of his research are high-throughput, high-resolution, miniaturization, hyphenation and automation to study chemicals, pharmaceuticals, natural products and pollution. Sampling and sample preparation is also a topic of intensive research. New developments in this respect allowed the construction of fully automated analytical systems enhancing the robustness for the determination of pesticide traces and toxin residues.

The “Twister” also originates from his research activities. He is the author or co-author of more than 400 scientific papers and contributed in books on High Resolution GC, Sample Introduction in Capillary GC, Essential Oil Analysis, Micellar Electrokinetic Chromatography and Water Analysis. Pat Sandra is the chairman of the International Symposium series : “International Symposium on Capillary Chromatography”, “Hyphenated Techniques in Chromatography” and “HPLC 2007”. He was the recipient of the 1989 Tswett Award (Russia), the 1994 Dal Nogare Award (USA), the 1994 Martin Gold Medal (Chromatographic Society, UK), the 1995 Golay Award (USA), the 1996 Colacro Medal (Venezuela), the A1 Professor status in South Africa (2000), the 2001 Memorial Medal of the Slovak Chemical Society (Slovak Republic), the 2004 ISEO Award (Sicily, Italy), the 2004 Chromatography Award (Buffelspoort, South Africa), the Honours Diploma from the Slovak Pharmaceutical Society –2005 (Slovak Republic) and the American Chemical Society Chromatography Award 2005 (USA). He also received the doctor honoris causa title in Pharmacy from the University of Turin, Italy (2004) and in Food Chemistry and Safety from the University of Messina, Italy (2007). He was appointed honorary professor at the Dalian Institute for Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, June 2007. In 2008, he received the EAS Award in Chromatography (New Jersey, USA), the CASSS Award for Innovative Contributions to Separation Science (California, USA) and the Jan Weber Award for Innovations in Pharmaceutical Analysis (Slovak Republic).

Pat Sandra and his research groups have been active in all modern separation techniques i.e. capillary gas chromatography, liquid chromatography, supercritical fluid chromatography, capillary electrophoresis, micellar electrokinetic chromatography and capillary electrochromatography. Also sample preparation, automation and detection were studied. Important developments were made in sample preparation (stir bar sorptive extraction – patent), high temperature capillary GC, immobilization of GC phases, coupled techniques especially with mass spectroscopy and inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy, etc. The developed methods were applied in natural product research, environmental analysis, enantioselective synthesis, pharmaceutical analysis, etc. In this framework he offered the Belgian government quick analytical solutions to solve for the 1999 Belgian Dioxin crisis Current research concerns the development of separation methods to analyze combinatorial libraries, volatiles emitted by living plants and glycoproteins. New strategies are presently developed for air monitoring.

An important new development (paper in print) concerns the development of an automated system to monitor more than 350 pesticides in water samples and foodstuffs. Based on his research activities Pfizer has established a Centre of Excellence in Pharmaceutical Analysis with Pat Sandra as director. Key words are high throughput, productivity, green chromatography and innovation.He was the recipient of the 1989 Tswett Award (Russia), the 1994 Dal Nogare Award (USA), the 1994 Martin Gold Medal (Chromatographic Society, UK), the 1995 Golay Award (USA), the 1996 Colacro Medal (Venezuela), the A1 Professor status in South Africa (2000), the 2001 Memorial Medal of the Slovak Chemical Society (Slovak Republic), the 2004 ISEO Award (Sicily, Italy), the 2004 Chromatography Award (Buffelspoort, South Africa), the Honours Diploma from the Slovak Pharmaceutical Society –2005 (Slovak Republic) and the American Chemical Society Chromatography Award 2005 (USA). He also received the doctor honoris causa title in Pharmacy from the University of Turin, Italy (2004) and in Food Chemistry and Safety from the University of Messina, Italy (2007). He was appointed honorary professor at the Dalian Institute for Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, June 2007. In 2008, he received the EAS Award in Chromatography (New Jersey, USA), the CASSS Award for Innovative Contributions to Separation Science (California, USA) and the Jan Weber Award for Innovations in Pharmaceutical Analysis (Slovak Republic).