Flow Injection Tutorial

Accounts of discoveries in science and technology are always written in an impersonal and detached style, in order to stress the facts rather than personal involvement. Yet, in real life scientists do get excited, frustrated, and inspired by their experiments, and by their interaction with colleagues and students. Therefore, I decided to write about the development of flow injection as seen through my eyes. By doing so, I have inevitably failed to give credit due to many who made important contributions, and to those who organized meetings that advanced FIA development and facilitated acceptance of the technique, which impacted in many ways our lives and lives of our students. And the gap between the distant past and what is due increased because Inventing FIA remained unchanged since written for the first edition of this Tutorial.

I am truly grateful that this gap is to be filled by friends and colleagues, who so kindly volunteered to offer their viewpoint, of how this incredible development unfolded leading to “technology, that provides a platform for the use of most analytical methods.” (Gary Christian and Alan Townshend 2008).

The story will, without doubt ,offer a rare insight into how difficult is to cross the boundary between academia and industry, how challenging is to develop a viable product and how demanding is to market it and sell. On academic side, equally arduous is the quest of getting financial support (*). And most interesting will be to read about the change - from chart recorder and logarithmic tables to e-technology.

G.D. Christian, A. Townshend. Preface to the \Monograph.by S.D.Kolev, I.D. McKelvie

“Advances in Flow Injection and Related Techniques” Elsevier Amsterdam 2008.

(*) Throughout my entire carrier at UW I never managed to get funded by NSF. And not for lack of trying. Only after I retired I was awarded one at the ripe age of 78. I hope tat this tidbit will cheer the youngsters.