Monika Dittmann
The Power List 2016
Monika Dittmann
Principal Scientist R&D, Agilent Technologies, Germany
Passion: I believe that a thorough understanding of the fundamental aspects is absolutely necessary to advance separation science. Even for mature fields, such as HPLC, there are still many topics that need to be addressed, in particular in the area of multidimensional LC.
Pivotal moment: The introduction of (U)HPLC in 2004 opened up a whole new field of fundamental and applied research. When I switched my focus from microfluidics back to HPLC, I had the chance to collaborate with many brilliant scientists, such as Gert Desmet and his group (especially Deirdre Cabooter and Ken Broeckhoven) and Dwight Stoll. Even after more than 10 years, there are still many interesting topics to work on.
Prediction: Multidimensional LC has the potential to multiply the number of components that can be separated compared to conventional LC. Coupling multidimensional LC to modern high-resolution mass-spectrometers will enable a much more detailed analysis of complex samples in fields such as proteomics or metabolomics.