Bob Pirok

Meet Bob Pirok

Fears? That we forget the past. I am someone who always looks ahead, but when it comes to science, I think we – including myself – must be more careful that we do not lose touch with everything the scientists before us have published in the literature. It is getting increasingly complex to obtain a full overview of all there is to a science, and as such there is an increased likelihood that information gets lost. Consequently, we need to do much of the work again. By agreeing more on conventions for terminology we could make a step forward. Marriot and Schoenmakers once did so as well.

Advice? Follow your own path. Take note of what others say, but also reflect and verify your own personal view.

Missions? To continue developing tools that allow everyone to use the full potential of state-of-the-art separation technology. It amazes me how we are all developing the next best technology whereas almost no one can use what we have right now. Modern separation technology, especially multi-dimensional, has the capabilities to crack many analytical problems in public and private labs. It is unacceptable that you rarely see this stuff applied in routine environments. We must do better. Moreover, we cannot fully process the data that rolls from a (2D-)LC-MS/MS and consequently only extract a fraction of the information. Instead, our focus as a community appears to be on increasing the theoretical peak capacities rather than the effective peak capacity that an analyst obtains in the lab.