Ep. 40: Curiosity, Collaboration, and Open-Mindnesses are the Keys

Welcome to “Analytically Speaking,” the podcast from LCGC International and Spectroscopy.

In this episode, podcast co-hosts Dr. Dwight Stoll and Dr. James Grinias talk with Professor Luis Colon. Dr. Colon is the SUNY Distinguished Professor, and A. Conger Goodyear Professor at the University at Buffalo. He received his bachelors degree from University of Puerto Rico at Cayey, and then received the Ph.D. from UMass Lowell. He also was a postdoctoral fellow in the Zare Group at Stanford where did groundbreaking work in detection for capillary electrophoresis. Colon has won numerous awards, including most recently the Kirkland Award in Chromatography (formerly known as the ACS Award in Chromatography), which we celebrated at the ACS Fall 2025 National Meeting.

In a fascinating conversation, we discuss the influence of Luis’ father on his scientific career, by demonstrating to Luis (whether he realized it at the time or not) a physical separation of coffee shells and beans in the wind. Dr. Colon explains the origins of his interest in materials development for chromatography, which included observations he made on the relatively short lifetimes and fragility of silica-based materials while working in industry early in his career. We also spend a good bit of time discussing Prof. Colon’s motivations for an approach to mentoring younger scientists, as well as some of his thoughts about the future of the separation science field. Finally, Luis shares some of his wisdom gained over several decades as a successful and well recognized analytical scientist, emphasizing the importance of curiosity, collaboration, and open-mindedness.

Literature Discussed:

J.R. Ezzo, B.L. Salazar, R.J. Díaz-Santiago, L.A. Colón, Silica surface modification via diazotization of p -phenylenediamine: a stationary phase for HPLC, Analyst (2025) 10.1039.D5AN00869G.https://doi.org/10.1039/D5AN00869G.
J.M. Cintrón, L.A. Colón, Organo-silica nano-particles used in ultrahigh-pressure liquid chromatography, Analyst 127 (2002) 701–704.https://doi.org/10.1039/b203236h.

More about our hosts:

Dwight Stoll, PhD:

Dwight R. Stoll is a professor of chemistry at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota. He received his PhD from the University of Minnesota, under Professor Peter Carr, working on the development of fast, comprehensive two-dimensional liquid chromatography (2D-LC). Stoll’s current primary research focus is on the development of 2D-LC for both targeted and untargeted analyses. Active research projects in his laboratory touch on most aspects of multidimensional separation methodologies, including optimization strategies, characterization of selectivity in reversed-phase LC, instrument development, and applications in biopharmaceutical analysis. Stoll is the author or co-author of more than 80 peer-reviewed publications and six book chapters and has instructed numerous short courses in 2D-LC. In 2011 he was the recipient of LCGC’s Emerging Leader in Chromatography Award. In 2017 he received the Georges Guiochon Faculty Fellowship, and was recognized with an Agilent Technologies Thought Leader Award. He is also a member of LCGC’s editorial advisory board and is the editor of the “LC Troubleshooting” column in LCGC.

Jerome Workman, Jr., PhD:

Jerome (Jerry) J. Workman, Jr. is the Executive Editor for LCGC and Spectroscopy. He has held positions as CTO, executive VP, senior research fellow, director, and senior scientist at companies of all sizes, from start-ups to world-leading corporations. He has been an adjunct faculty member of four universities and advised multiple graduate students. He has more than 75 U.S. and international patent applications and 30 issued U.S. and international patents and multiple trade secrets, as well as 500+ technical publications, and 20 reference book volumes on a broad range of spectroscopy and data processing techniques. He has received multiple awards from scientific societies, and has taught annual courses in spectroscopy, chemometrics, and statistics for the AOAC, ACS, ISA, FACSS, and at several universities and corporations. He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemists (FAIC), the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), and the Royal Society of Chemistry in the UK (FRSC, CChem, CSci). Jerry holds B.A and M.A degrees from Saint Mary's University of Minnesota, and a PhD degree from Columbia Pacific University working in near-infrared spectroscopy. He is an alumnus of both Columbia University Business School and the MIT Sloan School of Management.

About the Analytically Speaking Podcast:

Analytically Speaking, the podcast from LCGC and Spectroscopy, addresses important issues in separation science and analytical spectroscopy. Topics include new analytical techniques, methods, and approaches; the latest trends; advances in instrument and software technology; practical solutions for specific applications; recent papers in the scientific literature and their applicability; challenges and solutions for data analysis and interpretation; analytical chemistry theory and fundamentals (from advanced research to tutorials and troubleshooting); and more. Our regular hosts are Dwight Stoll, PhD, a professor of chemistry at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota, and Jerry Workman, PhD, a spectroscopist, noted author, and currently the Senior Technical Editor of Spectroscopy and LCGC. Dwight covers separation science and Jerry addresses spectroscopy related topics.