Editorial

Peter Myers: 60th Birthday

It is difficult to believe that Peter Myers is 60 years old; has this energetic and

productive scientist and entrepreneur really reached the age at which many retire?

In fact, these birthday good wishes are intended as an appreciation of work in

progress rather than a valediction.

A Yorkshireman by birth and conviction, Peter in fact crossed the Pennines to

Salford University for his degree and Ph.D. studies—the latter in mass spec-

trometry—and then went to work in the Unilever research laboratory on

Merseyside. Early in his career he realized the importance of better column

materials for the then fast emerging technique of HPLC, and soon became

Technical Director of Phase Separations Ltd. The company quickly became world

leaders through Peter’s Sol-Gel process for the manufacture of porous spherical

particles, and the development of the procedures for the bonding of groups to

generate the full range of stationary phases with high-pH stability and controlled

particle size. Phase Separations became the world’s largest supplier of spherical

silica, and after the company became part of the Waters Corporation, Peter was

concerned with the new generation of materials for HPLC.

In addition to advances in HPLC, Peter Myers’ interests have been broad but

always rooted in the soundest of science, and have included the use of new column

technology in SFC, CEC and in pioneering developments in differential field

gradient focusing for protein separation. His work has often incorporated the

extensive use of computational methods, especially in modelling the separation

process and in operating parameter optimization. Peter’s current research, begun

as a Visiting Professor first at Leeds and York and now at Liverpool, is concerned

with new directions in miniaturized analytical instrumentation. Here, he is com-

bining microfabricated separation devices, incorporating novel pumps and

detector schemes, with modern electronics to provide integrated systems. We look

forward to successful outcomes from these initiatives.

DOI: 10.1365/s10337-007-0436-y

2007, 66, 647–648

Editorial Chromatographia 2007, 66, November (No. 9/10) 647

A description of Peter’s work does little justice to his influence on the scientific

community; a true networker with innumerable contacts and co-workers

throughout industry and academe, he freely and enthusiastically offers advice and

material assistance to anyone who asks—as is attested by the acknowledgement of

his help in a legion of papers in the literature.

Peter’s admiration for Denis Desty, with whom he cooperated on one of

Desty’s last projects (fullerene chemistry), led him to inaugurate in 1996 the Desty

Memorial Lecture and Prize. The winner, usually a younger scientist, is judged to

have shown great innovation in separation science and presents a lecture in a

programme designed to stimulate new thinking in the subject.

I am sure that all of his numerous friends will join me in the warmest of 60th

birthday greetings to Peter—innovator, entrepreneur and benefactor of analytical

science!

Keith Bartle

648 Chromatographia 2007, 66, November (No. 9/10) Editorial