Laboratory for Advanced Separation Technologies
Welcome to the williams lab
Research in our laboratory is focused on solving analytical challenges across a variety of disciplines. We have pushed the boundaries of field-flow fractionation (FFF) to provide new platforms for scientists to separate and characterize their materials. By innovating and advancing the theory and practice of various FFF subtechniques we are uniquely suited to study difficult subjects like protein aggregation, colloids, complex polymeric systems, and a variety of other nanoscale materials.
Explore our recent work
Upcoming Events
The Local Organizing committee and the Steering Board (SBFFF) are pleased to invite you at the 23rd International Symposium on Field- and Flow-based Separations (iSFFF 2024) that will be held in Nantes on La Cité Congress Center from June 3rd to 6th, 2024. Eleven years after the 16th symposium in Pau, the biennial iSFFF meeting comes back to France.
We ambition to propose you an outstanding scientific program and a unique opportunity to connect the global field and flow-based separation sciences community, meet people and share ideas, in a large and friendly venue located in the center of Nantes. A national Local Organizing Committee (LOC) has been created and gathers the main local and national French academic key actors in the field of FFF research and development.
We are all committed to working closely with them, to make your iSFFF 2024 a unique and enriching scientific experience.
Located at the mouth of the Vallée de la Loire, Nantes is the 6th largest city in France and is regularly quoted in newspapers as being one of the nicest cities in France. Nantes Atlantique Airport (20 minutes to downtown with the shuttle airport) is connected with non-stop flights to more than 60 cities in France, Europe and overseas. Nantes is also accessible by the TGV high speed train from Paris-Gare Montparnasse (2 hours) and from Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport (3 hours).
The entire Local Organizing Committee looks forward to welcoming you in Nantes, France in 2024.
Registration
Information coming soon!
NEWS
Congratulations Michael on your position at Neva Analytics!
Michael started in our lab in Fall of 2018 and will now be moving on to an industrial scientist position serving the pharmaceutical industry. Wish you the best of luck!
International Symposium Success!
New Publication!
Current lab member, Christine Plavchak, and previous students in the Williams’ lab, Carmen Bria and Billy Smith, recently published in Annual Review of Analytical Chemistry! Their publication, New Advances and Applications in Field-Flow Fractionation, highlights the unique characteristics of FFF which make it a powerful family of techniques that can address modern analytical challenges in biology, materials, and environmental studies.
You can read it at annualreviews.org, https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev-anchem-091520-052742.
New publication!
Congratulations to Michael Toney, Luca Baiamonte, Dr. William Smith, and Prof. Williams on the publication of their book chapter! The book, Molecular Characterization of Polymers, is available on Elsevier’s website and will be available March 19th. Our contribution is chapter 4, Field Flow Fractionation of Polymers, which outlines the fundamentals of field flow fractionation (FFF) with a focus on asymmetrical flow FFF and thermal FFF.
Grant Award from Hamilton Company!
Congratulations to Michael Toney on receiving a grant from the Hamilton Company for $1000 of in-store credit towards the purchase of new equipment for our lab! With this grant we were able to purchase new adjustable pipettes, a calibrated glass injection syringe, and a generous supply of pipette tips. Analytical chemistry can be expensive and tedious work, our new supplies from Hamilton help alleviate those stresses.
ACS RMRM 2020
Congratulations to Christine Plavchak and Michael Toney for winning awards for their flash presentations at the regional ACS conference! Christine won the Elsevier Coordination Chemistry award and Michael the Royal Society of Chemistry Flash Presentation award. Over 160 graduate and undergraduate students from across the Rocky Mountain Region (and beyond!) presented their work at this virtual conference and competition was tough. You can find a record of the wide array of talks presented at the following link: https://www.rmrm2020.com/
W.M. Keck Mentorship Award
There are essential qualities to a great mentor. They should be an expert in their field, a good listener, give constructive criticism, and be engaged. Professor Kim Williams has all of these qualities and more. Above all other aspects, the thing I appreciate most about her mentorship is that she is willing to grow with her mentee. She helps identify strengths for you to leverage and weaknesses to improve upon. At the same time, she is constantly seeking to do the same for herself and does not hide that process from her mentee. This openness shows those with much to prove that everyone, no matter how successful, is fallible and can always better themselves. It is also important to be aware of your progress, so Kim is adamant about setting goals and reflecting on the journey. As a mentee, I gain a profound sense of satisfaction whenever I look back to see all that we have accomplished.
Reading this you may think, of course she does this for her graduate student who she is invested in. But her desire to see others succeed is not limited to her students, in fact this award is for mentorship of faculty and staff. Kim is glad to motivate, advocate for, and support anyone she can. This generosity, combined with her world renown expertise, has placed her in a position of influence which many students and faculty (both at Mines and abroad) have benefited from. Her shining example has inspired generations at Mines so it is no surprise that she has been honored with the W.M. Keck Mentorship Award.
Congratulations Kim!
Prof. Williams appointed Fellow at IPF!
In 2017 Prof. Kim Williams received a Fulbright award to collaborate with world leaders in polymer science at the Leibniz Institute for Polymer Research in Dresden Germany. Collaboration with the IPF has led to several impactful publications in polymer separations and exchange of students. In recognition of this impactful work and to encourage future collaboration Prof. Williams was named a fellow at the IPF.
Congratulations Kim!
GRADS Conference 2020
In these extraordinary times our graduate student organized conference had to adapt to a virtual setting. Presentations covered a wide range of important topics from renewable energy to fundamental physics. A list of categories and presentations can be found on the GRADS website (https://gsg.mines.edu/grads/) and videos of the speakers may be streamed on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaf5LvSCVy-ENP195si11JA).
A special congratulations to our group members Christine Plavchak and Elizabeth ‘Lizzy’ Betz who excelled in their divisions. Christine earned 1st place in the Chemistry & Chemical Engineering – Long Form section for her presentation on “Counting biological particles: analytical challenges at the nanoscale” and Lizzy earned an honorable mention for being in the top 12 of over 100 short-form poster presentations!
Please watch presentations on the GRADS YouTube channel to support research at Mines!
Outreach: Rocky Mountain Camp for Dyslexic Kids
Our research lab recently had the privilege to design and implement an activity at the Rocky Mountain Camp for Dyslexic Kids. This is a 5 week camp is filled with exciting activities and helps build a strong language foundation to propel these kids forward to success. Faculty at the Colorado School of Mines have partnered with the camp to provide world class education in science that complements this immersive program.
To build a foundation in fundamental separation techniques, and have loads of fun, we developed an educational module that leverages common household goods to teach chromatography. Students at the camp explored the ideas of mixtures, chemical attraction, and solubility through food dyes and a criminal mystery. Below are photos of our patient instructors and fun-loving students ‘un-mixing’ dyes and determining who the thief was that stole all of our cake!
Stay tuned for updates, a link will be posted with instructions on how to incorporate this module in your home or classroom.