Editorial

A Tribute to Leslie Ettre on the Occasion of his Seventieth Birthday

~ r ~ s~ Leslie Stephen Ettre, internationally Ch--nect chromatographer and Special Editor of

,ornato ra h" 1992 ~L g p ta reaches seventy on September 16, thio ~ ~ne present special issue is published to celebrate t,, ~_event, and it is mv particular leasure to a tribute -,, lfi m A . - - P P Y

, une ot the leading personalities in the last four SCore of years encompassing chromatographic history Since the introduction of gas chromatography in 1952.

A native of Hungary, Dr. Ettre studied chemical en- gineering at the Technical University of Budapest and graduated as a Diplom Engineer in 1945. He also received his doctorate from the same institution. After ~ r n , t , .

~tlst~a!ion he held various research positions in in- re-- ~al organizations with increasing managerial

~P~ and was concurrently engaged in academic teachin- Due to the ,,olitical situation m Iqun-ar �9 g" v " " ^ ~ Y m 1956, Leslie moved to Germany and found employment at Lurgi, a major German process design ~nedf~ company in Frankfurt am Main. Here �9 uecame acquainted with the new technique of as Chrom - g

th, ~,at~ In September 1958 he emigrated to C'~ tJnited States and was hired by the Perkin-Elmer ,~_urp.~ in Norwalk, Connecticut as a roduct "peclalist. P

It Was an exciting era when gas chromatography was ex- periencing a meteoric growth and capillary columns had in~ ~ffeen introduced. There were opportunities abound- ~?~Orinstrumental d vel me t s - - 1on of ~ne e op n and forexpans Ch..SCope of gas chromatography. Leslie's assignment as ,:..~e.t Application Chemist was to coordinate the ac- -vlttes at Perkin-Elmer with regard to the application of ge as. chromatography to various areas of science and Oh- �9 in t 2~~176 In these years Perkin-Elmer was the leader andUe design, and manufacture of gas chromatographs o~ Leshe played an important role in the development

- c a �9 c'.^, p]llary gas chromatography invented by Marcel ~,~ay at Perkin-Elmer. In 1968 Leslie took a position as Chet cutive editor of the Encyclopedia of Industrial U_ emical Analysis, published by John Wiley & Sons. �9 pon COmpletion of a 20-volume series Leslie returned ~ePerkin-Eimer as senior staff scientist in 1972. Later ,~ Was promoted to Senior Scientist, reachin~ the top of ~e non-managerial ladder in the corporate'hierarchy. ,.~ a member of the Advanced Analytical Technology

r~ he advised the management about future a..vei~ and new technological opportunities and cted as a liaison between Perkin-Elmer and academic

~Search before his retirement in 1990 While at Perkin- 11] �9

er Leshe was Research Affiliate with the Depart-

Chromatographia Vol. 34, No. 5-8, September/October 1992

ment of Engineering and Applied Science at Yale in 1977-1978; Adjunct Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Houston, 1886-1988; and lecturer in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Yale, 1988-1990. He has taught various graduate courses dealing with chromatography and other separation methods. Since 1990 he has been adjunct professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Yale.

His affiliation with Chromatographia goes back to 1970 and he has served this international scientific journal in various editorial capacities. He has also been an editorial board member with the Journal of Chromato- graphic Science, Journal of Liquid Chromatography and LC/GC Magazine. Over the years Leslie has been in- volved in the work of professional organizations, and all the offices he held are too numerous to list here. I per- sonally learned to appreciate the significance of his recent contributions to the New England Chromato- graphy Council, the Chromatography Subdivision of the Division of Analytical Chemistry, American Chemical Society and his work as an Associate Member of the Commission of Analytical Nomenclature of the IUPAC.

Leslie has received numerous awards for his scientific contributions, and a few are listed as follows: the M.S. Tswett Award in Chromatography by the International Symposium on Advances in Chromatography, 1978; Chromatography Anniversary Medal by the Scientific Council of Chromatography, USSR Academy of Scien- ces, 1979; L.S. Palmer Award, Minnesota Chromato- graphy Forum 1980; A.J.P. Martin Award by The Chromatography Society, 1982; National Award in Chromatography by the American Chemical Society, 1985; M.S. Tswett Medal by the Chromatography As- sociation of the USSR, 1991; and very recently the M.J.E. Golay Award for his lifetime contributions to capillary chromatography by the International Sym- posium on Capillary Chromatography, 1992.

Ettre's oeuvre spans the last 35 years of chromato- graphy, an era that has seen the meteoric growth of ana- lytical instrumentation. As a keen observer in a unique position at the industrial/academic interface with profuse technical knowledge he has played a highly suc- cessful role nulli secundus in the evolution of gas chromatography, encompassing instrument and column manufacture, fundamental studies and the practical ap- plication of the technique. In a remarkable way he was able to preserve his stature and integrity as a scientist,

Editorial 209

0009-5893/92/9 0209-03 $ 03.00/0 �9 1992 Friedr. Vieweg & Sohn Verlagsgesellschaft mbH

despite his industrial position. He has authored nearly 200 scientific publications and his oeuvre can be divided into three parts. The first entails a series of papers that demonstrate a host of novel uses of chromatographic techniques and their combinations. Since applications drive instrument manufacturing his work had great im- pact on the course taken by the development of gas chromatography, particularly in the sixties and seven- ties. The second part deals with scientific studies of a fundamental nature. His studies on the Kov~its retention index were instrumental in making this system the most widely used approach to the organization of retention data and to the characterization of stationary phases in gas chromatography. His contributions greatly ad- vanced accurate quantitative analysis and organic trace analysis by gas chromatography and the development of new detectors and columns.

Leslie has also published extensively on reaction gas chromatography and pyrolysis gas chromatography. His results with an integral microreactor-gas chromato- graphy are particularly noteworthy, since they ex- panded significantly the use of gas chromatography in the investigation of heterogeneous catalysts and catalytic reactions. Furthermore, his seminal studies led to the wide use of dynamic methods for the surface area measurement of solids. Nevertheless his most striking contributions were associated with the characterization of the column parameters for capillary gas chromato- graphy in order to facilitate column design and en- gineering. In the late seventies and eighties Leslie's ac- tivities were expanded to the then new-tangled in- strumental chromatographic technique- H P L C - which also resulted in a handsome number of publications.

The third area of his work is devoted to the history of chromatography. His excellent memory, broad, en- cyclopedic knowledge, attention to detail and predilec- tion for history served him very well in becoming a prolific writer who has provided a detailed picture of the various periods that characterize the evolution of chromatography in the context of time and status of science at large. Despite his personal involvement and role in that endeavor he has written remarkably un- biased essays on the rise of the analytical instrument in- dustry in the U.S.A. and its role in the development of gas chromatography.

Even those who had only a cursory involvement with chromatography recognize Leslie Ettre by his role in the dissemination of knowledge. As an invited speaker he has been a regular participant in chromatographic symposia all over the world during the last thirty years. He has been in great demand by universities, scientific academies and professional societies as a seminar speaker whose presentations were always substantial and whose wit and common sense charmed the listeners. In the ensuing discussions he appeared as a walking en- cyclopedia, thus augmenting the impression made on his audience in the 50 or so countries he has visited. Stu- dents who have taken his advanced courses on chroma- tography have also benefited from his didactics to facilitate understanding of complex phenomena. Numerous books authored, coauthored or edited by

him bear witness to his prolific creativity. His authOrita" rive book "Open Tubular Columns in Gas Chrornat~ graphy", published in 1965, was the first monographr176 r the subject. For a long time it served as the BibLe L~ those who were engaged in working with capillary columns in the first epoch of capillary gas chrOrnat~ graphy. His idea to edit, with Albert Zlatkis in.19_7!'a d corn endium containin~ the biograr, hical sketclae5 ~ .

�9 P . , , : , , : , ~ . ._htv brief memoirs of leading chromatographers was la~g,~ ~e original, albeit controversial, at that time. NoW, t~ book has become a peerless source of information of fu- ture generations and a testimonial to the scientists vr ~ laid the foundation of chromatography. In the very ear~ eighties Leslie wrote an introductory text for I4Pl~t~ which had been translated into other languages btlt was distributed by Perkin-Elmer only to customers. I under~ stand from my students that it is their favorite text a~~ there is now a black market for this book!

Leslie has three hobbies phi lael _hs toryand t r a V e j ' ~ 1 7 6 chr~176 that he also counts as one: ing. He is a top-level expert in certain aspects of H u~a" garian philately, with a few books and scores of publiCal tions to his credit as a philatelist. He has a keen intere~' in the sources of his admirable knowledge of historY' particularly in that of Central Europe. An avid reader on this topic, he has an astonishing capacity for details which were important sources of change but as suCl~ were largely overlooked by others. In any case, hi~ penchant for unravelling history was certainly ,

- 0t motivating force for him to become the historian chromatography. His professional responsibilities have made it mandatory for Leslie to travel extensively, yet he never got tired of boarding a plane and heading to a distant part of the world as an itinerant chrom at~176 grapher. He has enjoyed travelling because it was mote to him than just a business trip. He was observant of tlae milieu, the culture and the history of the new surround; ings in which he found pleasure in immersing hirnsell and in the analysis of the new impressions that he coO" sidered recreational.

The turbulent years of chromatography are over, at least until another epoch commences, triggered by ~. major new development. We have reached a period 0t consolidation, during which major advances come froO miniaturization, adaptation to the new opportunities engendered by massive computerization and froO meeting the needs of the rapidly expanding world of science and technology for powerful analytical and purification techniques. When Leslie Ettre and some of his compatriots appeared on the chromatographic sce ~e in a world with highly specialized scientific educational systems, there was a need for a polymathic approach for which the generalist training in Central Europe was eminently qualified. Since then, as in other mature fields, chromatography has been taken over bY specialists, the subject is taught in schools and instr0" ments galore are offered by a strong manufacturing irv dustry. There are many similarities between the postwar emergence of an analytical instrument industry and the recent evolvement of the biotechnology industry. Tta~ scale on which the two will operate in the future may I~e

210 Chromatographia Vol. 34, No. 5-8, September/October 1992 Editorial

quite different, but in both cases we experienced the ad- vent of a new discipline, and the birth of a group of scientists who practised the new m6tier without being Prepared for it by formal training. Now we are living in another time when there is a community of chromato- graPhers that has evolved with Leslie Ettre playing a Prominent role.

Ifind it quite remarkable that Leslie Ettre belies his age, and after a brief recess imposed upon him by a quad- ruple cardiac bypass to wo-,- _ operat ion recently, he is now back

�9 ~ at home and comes to Yale regularly to prepare for his next teaching assignment.

In the name of all his friends, the editors and publishers of Chromatographia and the chromatographic com- munity at large, I wish to extend our heartfelt con- gratulations and best wishes to Leslie Et t re on the oc- casion of his 70th birthday. This issue, with papers dedi- cated to him, is our birthday present. Happy Birthday, good health and further success in your professional and private endeavors.

Csaba Horvfith

(~hromatographia Vol. 34, No. 5-8, September/October 1992 Editorial 211