Whom Not to Forget
5.1.11.
K.K.Stewart, G.R.Beecher and P.Haare published, in 1976, a paper entitled “Rapid Analysis of Discrete Samples” which used continuous nonsegmented flow for assay of proteins. Later, Stewart decided to adopt the term FIA for his future works and published with colleagues a series of innovative papers that promoted the FIA technique in the US. It is unfortunate that he initiated the aforementioned patent lawsuit. I therefore hope to be excused for my inability to evaluate his contribution fairly. However, he published two papers on the history of FIA that offer the reader an opportunity to form his own opinion [222,314].
Alison McDonald served as Chief Editor for Analytica
Chimica Acta for a quarter of a century. Elo and I have
been truly lucky to have her maternal guidance and
endless patience with our writing style. More importantly,
it was Alison who prompted us to write the first
Monograph on FIA, and practically ordered us to write
the second one. She is an excellent cook and a terrible
driver, and she has a heart of gold. The enclosed letter
Speaks volumes about her generosity.
Lars Hallgren, formerly from Novo-Nordisk Company in
Denmark, spent one year at CPAC shortly after
SI was conceived. Within a very short time, he
constructed an apparatus that was far better than
ours and wrote software in Visual Basic, that made SI
truly practical. We learned much from his design and the
rigorous attitude of an industrial chemist. On his return
to Denmark, Lars designed a unique SI process analyzer
that was used for enzymatic assays at Novo-Nordisk,
both in Denmark and the US. Unfortunately, for competitive
reasons, he was not able to publish his work.
Garth Klein, CEO at FIAlab Instruments, was a genius who created FIAlab for Windows, an entrepreneur who brought FIAlab business from $ 60 k/year to $1200 k/year. An inventor who designed and brought countless innovations to FI/SI technology. Anyone who has used FIAlab software and instrumentation knows that he is the true unsung hero of this story.
