EAS Award for Outstanding Achievements in Separation Science

Mary J. Wirth is the W. Brooks Fortune Distinguished Professor Emerita at Purdue University. She received her B.S. in chemistry from Northern Illinois University, where she became fascinated by separation science while taking a graduate course from Professor Joseph Pesek. She received her Ph.D. from Purdue University, working under the direction of Professor Fred Lytle, where she learned to invent new instrumentation to investigate chemical phenomena.   Dr. Wirth’s research interests have focused on understanding silica interfaces to advance chromatography, electrophoresis, and optical spectroscopy, for which she employed tools such as optical microscopy, AFM, SEM, solid-stateNMR, FTIR, and single-molecule spectroscopy.  Her research has been recognized with awards that include the Spectrochemical Analysis Award from the ACS Analytical Division, the Gold Medal Award from the Society for Applied Spectroscopy, the Dal Nogare Award from the Chromatography Forum of the Delaware Valley, the Jubilee Award from the Chromatography Society (Europe), and the EAS Award for Outstanding Achievements in the Fields of Analytical Chemistry.