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 Dr. William Conner Smith!
William C. Smith, lovingly known as Billy, has successfully defended his thesis and completed his PhD in Applied Chemistry. While studying at Mines, Billy has been recognized for his passion and excellence in science by various esteemed scholars and organizations. His fun-loving demeanor and ability to answer endless streams of questions from those he mentored will be missed as he moves on to a postdoctoral position at the Food and Drug Administration.
Congratulations Billy! The Williams’ group wishes you the best in all of your future endeavours.
Fraser Stoddart visits the Chemistry department at Mines!
International SCM-9 Conference
Dr. Williams recently visited Amsterdam to attend the 9th international symposium on the Separation and Characterization of Macromolecules. In the midst of teaching a short course and presenting as a keynote speaker she stopped by Martin Geisler’s poster titled Topology Analysis of Novel Short Chain Branched Polyethylenes – A New Approach for the Branching Characterization by Thermal FFF”. Martin and his group at the IPF in Dresden have been a collaborators of ours since 2017 thanks to the Fulbright Scholar Award. Congratulations on a successful poster presentation Martin!
Fulbright Scholar Dr. Kim Williams!
Dr. Williams was honored with the Fulbright Scholar Award to conduct research at the Leibniz Institute for Polymer Research in Dresden Germany. She has planned 3 visits with her graduate student William Smith to push the frontiers of thermal field-flow fractionation theory by the analysis of model polymer systems. Watch out for up and coming publications!
Dr. Williams, Billy, and collaborators celebrate their partnership over a fine dinner in Germany.
https://www.cies.org/grantee/kim-williams
Local brewery teams up with Mines students
Dr. Williams takes graduate level education to the next level in her Advanced Analytical Chemistry course by integrating real world problems into the classroom. Students were asked to write a research proposal for a novel analytical method for determining the quantity of gluten in beer. Holidaily brewery sells gluten free beer to accommodate people with Celiac’s disease and gluten intolerance. They regularly test the gluten content of their beer by traditional methods but still received complaints from customers who experienced adverse reactions to the beer. The class was presented with this problem and tasked with writing a proposal to the fictional Williams’ Foundation who would judge the merit of each proposal and award one with ‘grant’ money. You can read more about it in The Denver Post article linked below.
Congratulations to the Outstanding Researcher Riley Hansen!
Riley has been named the Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher of 2018 for the Department of Chemistry at CSM! We are proud to have this fantastic student working in our lab. Riley first set out to investigate the effects of the various salts and surfactants found in FL-70 (a commonly used detergent used for particle stability and dispersion within solution). His work was incorporated into the presentation talk that our very own Billy Smith presented on at the 19th International Symposium on Field- and Flow-Based Separations (FFF 2018). Billy’s talk received the Student Poster Presentation Award. Riley has since moved to a new project that seeks to separate and characterize two distinct outer membrane vesicle populations (OMVs) found to be excreted by gram-negative bacteria when grown on lignin enriched media (as compared to glucose enriched). These OMV populations may lead to a whole new world in aromatic catabolism.
New publication in characterization of lipoproteins
For more information on Carmen’s paper please visit the link to the full text.
Link to full text: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00216-018-1499-3
New publication in composition based separation of nanoparticles
For more information on William’s paper please visit the link to the full text.
Link to full text: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/ipdf/10.1021/acsanm.8b01643
Congratulations Riley Hansen!
Riley graduated from the Colorado School of Mines in Fall of 2018 with a double major, B.S. in Chemistry and B.S. in Chemical and Biochemical Engineering with a minor in Biomedical Engineering. This exceptional student has worked in our research lab since Spring of 2017 and was recently awarded Chemistry Undergraduate Student Researcher of the Year by the department. Riley will continue to work in the research lab until the Fall of 2019 where he will look to cross the Atlantic to receive his Masters Degree in Chemical Engineering at the Universität Hamburg in Hamburg, Germany.
