Stefan van Leeuwen

Main research aims? I focus my work on PFAS, and how these pollutants move through the environment and how they impact food safety. I want to unravel this complex group of chemicals, and design comprehensive measurement strategies.

Most critical environmental issue… I believe society needs to re-think on what basis chemicals are allowed on the market. The speed of designing new chemicals is enormous, and environmental scientists cannot keep up with that. We’re still investigating problems from the past (PCBs, BFRs, etc) while at the same time new pollutant issues arise. PFAS are an explicit example of that. With such challenges ahead, analytical scientists can develop smart and comprehensive approaches to address the ever expanding chemical space.

What’s missing from the analytical toolbox? There are several, but one important aspect is how to get to a high level of confidence for identification and quantification in mass spectrometry when authentic reference standards are lacking. Historically, we used authentic reference standards for unequivocal compound identification, and reliable quantification. As regards HRMS (e.g. non target screening), there is a high degree of confidence that this technique may bring, but currently the highest degree of confidence cannot be achieved without confirmation through an authentic reference standard. The question that rises here: can we increase the availability of reference standards, or can analytical scientists come up with smart solutions to create a high level of confidence where society can rely on, without reference standards.