To quote Cary Grant, “Ours is a collaborative profession.”  Thus, as I approach the end of my formal career, it is heart rendering to think of all the help I have had over the years.  My parents valued education above almost all else.  I got a free education, first, at Oakland University in Michigan and, later, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  I ended up in Klaus Biemann’s research group just when mass spectrometry was beginning to be a critical tool for analytical and organic chemists.  Bonnie, Veronica, Kari, and David were supportive of all of the time I spent working or traveling.  For my part, the only critical decision I made was an early one, when I decided that mass spectrometry could be useful to the newly developing field of environmental chemistry.  It was especially clear that mass spectrometry would be an important qualitative tool for identifying polluting compounds in the environment.  Given my background, it was easy to move into this gap.  What was more remarkable was the willingness of the Chemical Engineering Department at MIT to appoint me as an assistant professor even though I knew nothing about this field.  This is the classic example of being in the right place at the right time -- besides I did not cost much (this was before start-up funds were common).  My background in Klaus’s laboratory and the general atmosphere at MIT had inculcated into me the importance of having external funding if one wanted to get anything done.  MIT’s name made it easy to attract money, but one thing led to another, and in 1979, we all moved to Indiana University in Bloomington.  This was largely the result of a fellow MIT student, John Hayes, who leveraged me into the new School of Public and Environmental Affairs and into IU’s Department of Chemistry.  I was lucky to attract some excellent students, who were productive, and we continued to attract external funding for our work.  Through it all, I have tried to remain humble (in fact, I take pride in my humility) and to remember that any recognition of my work has been the result of the work of others.  I thank them all.<br/>

In gratitude to my students, colleagues, and family

2019 Spring National Meeting

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