Sanford A. Asher Wins Pittsburgh Analytical Chemistry Award

Sanford A. Asher, a Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at the University of Pittsburgh (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), was presented with the Pittsburgh Analytical Chemistry Award on March 8 at Pittcon 2016 in Atlanta, Georgia.

Asher pioneered the development of deep ultraviolet resonance spectroscopy for use in biophysical, physical, and analytical chemistry. His group developed both instrumentation and methodologies for determining protein structure and protein folding. Among the projects Asher and his group have in the works are the development of standoff instruments for the detection of explosive molecules, and the development of novel photonic crystal optical devices and responsive materials.

Asher received his PhD in chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley, and was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University (Cambridge, Massachusetts) in applied physics. He is the author of more than 290 publications and holds more than 29 patents in the area of photonic crystals.