Steven Lehotay

Lead Scientist, USDA Agricultural Research Service, Eastern Regional Research Center, Pennsylvania, USA.

Luckiest break
I think the luckiest was having a very supportive boss at the start of my career. I’ve learned since then that few people help others to that extent.

Career highlight
Development and transfer of analytical methods to meet real-world needs are the highlights of my career, and QuEChERS in partnership with Michelangelo Anastassiades and others has been most prominent.

Nominator comment: “A dedicated civil servant and analytical chemist. When many of his classmates were pursuing careers in industry or academia, Steve always wanted to work in government for the sake of making a difference in the public service sector.”

Nominator comment: “He revolutionized food analysis through the QuEChERS extraction procedure. It has become the corner stone of pesticide analysis globally.”

Part of the Power List 2017

The Magnificent Tens
After 2016’s celebration of women in analytical science, we return to the Top 100 for 2017.
But there’s a twist. This summer, we asked you to nominate scientists in ten categories – from the stars of separation science, to omics explorers, to the mentors training the next generation.

Go to The Power List 2017