image: This is Daniel Armstrong, Robert A. Welch Distinguished Professor. view more
Credit: UTA
Two renowned chemists at The University of Texas at Arlington are among those honored as the best and brightest analytical scientists in the world by The Analytical Scientist magazine.
Daniel Armstrong, Robert A. Welch Distinguished Professor, and Purnendu "Sandy" Dasgupta, the Hamish Small Chair in Ion Analysis, are included in the magazine's fifth annual Power List edition, which this year is comprised of Top 10 scientists in 10 categories: Separation Scientists, Spectroscopists, Mass Spectrometrists, Giants of Nano, Pharma Pioneers, Omics Explorers, Public Defenders, Inventors, Mentors and Leaders.
While a handful of scientists are included in more than one category, Dasgupta and Armstrong are the only honorees from Texas universities to make the prestigious 2017 Power List.
Armstrong was ranked No. 5 in the Mentors category and No. 7 in the Separation Scientists category. Dasgupta was ranked No. 7 in the Inventors category.
"Congratulations to Dr. Dasgupta and Dr. Armstrong for being included in this very prestigious group of analytical scientists," Morteza Khaledi, College of Science dean, said. "It shows the high regard which their peers have for them. With their contributions, they have achieved a level of excellence attained by few scientists. Their work has had and continues to have a major impact in a variety of fields, here in Texas and around the world."
This year is not the first time Armstrong and Dasgupta have appeared in The Analytical Scientist's Power List rankings. Armstrong ranked No. 16 in the magazine's inaugural Power List of the top 100 most influential people in analytical sciences in 2013, and he was No. 8 in the 2015 list, which ranked a Top 20 and listed 80 other leading figures in the field. Dasgupta was included in the 2015 field of top 100 noted scientists, executives and consultants from institutions around the world.
"I was always broadly interested in many aspects of science," Armstrong told The Analytical Scientist when asked why he went into the field. "However, I quickly found out that to effectively investigate any interesting problem, one had to have the right tools and techniques - and often these didn't exist or were inadequate. It became apparent that the invention/development and understanding of such innovative approaches was often more elegant than the problems they were used to solve."
Armstrong is considered the "father" of micelle and cyclodextrin-based separations and has nearly 700 publications, including 29 book chapters and 28 patents. The Scientific Citation Index named him as one of the world's most highly cited scientists. He was inducted to the National Academy of Inventors in 2014, was named a Fellow of the American Chemical Society in 2013 and was admitted as a Fellow of The Royal Society of Chemistry in 2009.
Among the many other awards he has received are: the Wilfred T. Doherty Research & Service Award from the DFW Section of the ACS, the ACS Award for Separation Science & Technology, induction to the UTA Academy of Distinguished Scholars, the UTA Distinguished Record of Research or Creative Activity Award, the Dal Nogare Award for Separation Science and the ACS Award in Chromatography.
Armstrong came to UTA in 2006 after previous stops at Texas Tech University, University of Missouri-Rolla and Iowa State University. He received his doctorate in chemistry from Texas A&M University in 1977.
"Convincing others something is a good idea when you know in your heart you can't distinguish a good idea from a bad one," Dasgupta told The Analytical Scientist when asked what makes a good inventor. "Your head convinces you otherwise."
Dasgupta is recognized as a pioneer in the field of ion chromatography whose inventions have become modern cornerstones of the field. He has published more than 400 papers and holds 29 patents. He was named an IEEE Fellow.
Among the numerous awards Dasgupta has received are the Talanta Medal, the Tech Titans Technology Inventors Award, the Award for Outstanding Achievements in the Fields of Analytical Chemistry from the Eastern Analytical Symposium, the ACS Division of Analytical Chemistry's J. Calvin Giddings Award for Excellence in Education, the Stephen Dal Nogare Award in Chromatography, the Wilfred T. Doherty Research & Service Award from the DFW Section of the ACS, the ACS National Award in Chromatography and the Outstanding Achievement Award in Ion Chromatography.
Dasgupta came to UTA in 2007 after previously working at the University of California at Davis and Texas Tech University. He received his doctorate in analytical chemistry, with a minor in electrical engineering, from Louisiana State University in 1977.
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For 2017, The Analytical Scientist's editors asked readers to nominate the best and brightest analytical scientists across 10 categories. The nominees were whittled down to the final Top 10s by a judging panel comprised of top industry and academic scientists, and the editorial team. In 2014, the magazine presented a "Top 40 Under 40" Power List, which included Kevin Schug, UTA's Shimadzu Distinguished Professor of Analytical Chemistry.