Robert Birdsall, Ph.D., Scientist, Waters Corporation

Robert Birdsall is a consultant scientist with over 10 years of experience in the separation and analysis of biotherapeutics including antibodies, oligonucleotides, and glycoproteins. He is currently working in the scientific operations’ biopharmaceutical group within Waters Corporation with a focus on developing analytical solutions for the characterization, monitoring and quantification of biotherapeutics using new separation technologies. Since obtaining his Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry from Purdue University in 2013 Robert has authored multiple peer reviewed papers and patents in the application of new technology and methods for improving chromatographic performance in the separation of protein-based molecules.

Amandaa Brewer, Ph.D., Senior Research Scientist, Arkema

Amandaa K. Brewer received her Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry in 2010 from Florida State University (FSU) and her B.S. in Chemistry from Roanoke College in 2005. Her Ph.D. thesis was under Andre Striegel and titled “Multi-Detector Hydrodynamic Chromatography: Particle Characterization and Ultra-High Molar Mass Polymer Analysis.” From 2011 to 2015 she worked at Tosoh Bioscience LLC, where she was first the GPC Technical Specialist and later advanced to the GPC Sales Support Leader. In May 2015 Amandaa joined Arkema Inc., at their North America Research and Development site in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. She is currently a Senior Research Scientist in the Analytical and Systems Research Group at Arkema and heads the Gel Permeation Chromatography Laboratory. Her research interests are in the area of macromolecular characterization, in particular in using structure-property relationships obtained by multi-detector size-based separations techniques to aid in the understanding of end-product performance and applications as well as the characterization of ultra-high molar mass polymers and applying multi-detector hydrodynamic chromatography to industrial applications. Amandaa is the author of peer-reviewed publications focusing in the area of size based separation methods such as size-exclusion and hydrodynamic chromatography coupled to multi detection methods, namely multi-angle light scattering, quasi-elastic light scattering, differential viscometry, and differential refractometry. She has also published an encyclopedia article on gel-permeation column packing material and lectured in the area of multi-detector size-exclusion chromatography.

Richard Daw, Senior Technical Support Specialist, Waters Corporation

Richard Daw earned his MChem. in Chemistry from the University of Exeter (UK) in 2002. After gaining experience with a wide variety of analytical chemistry applications, Richard started working at Waters Corporation in 2014 as a technical support specialist, covering the SE USA. Richard provides pre- and post- sales support to customers across all markets by performing instrument demonstrations, delivering seminars and working directly with customers to ensure their success with Waters solutions.

Nicholas Dudenhoeffer, Ph.D., Senior Scientist, Eurofins BioPharma Product Testing

Nicholas Dudenhoeffer, Ph.D., is a Senior Scientist at Eurofins BPT-Columbia in the Method Development and Validation Group. Nicholas obtained his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the Missouri University of Science and Technology and his B.S. in biology at Lincoln University.

Jennifer Fournier, Director of Product Marketing, Chemistry Technology Center, Waters Corporation

Jennifer is a Director of Product Marketing in the Chemistry Technology Center of Waters Corporation. In this role, Jennifer leads a team that is responsible for the marketing activities and new product opportunities for the chemistry business. She first joined Waters in 2004 as a Research Chemist after working as an analytical chemist for Armstrong Pharmaceuticals. Jennifer also has experience as a high school biology teacher. She holds a master’s degree in biology from Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

James French, Sr. Scientist, Team Lead, Eurofins BioPharma Product Testing

30+ years in the pharmaceutical industry. 10 years in bulk pharmaceutical research and quality management. 10 years in  performing laboratory / quality management contract manufacturing for animal health products and 10 years in managing multiple groups in a contract research organization supporting cGMP method development and validation. Bachelor’s of Science was earned from the University of Missouri in St. Louis.

Lee A. Gethings, Ph.D., Senior Manager, Biomedical Research, Waters Corporation

Dr Gethings is currently the Senior Manager of Biomedical Research with responsibility for the OMICS scientific group within Waters. Primarily focused on LC-MS applications for both targeted and untargeted methodologies, with specialism predominantly on high resolution mass spectrometry, with significant contributions to data independent strategies and associated informatic pipelines. Prior to joining the company in 2006, he received his honors degree in Chemistry from the University of York (2002), Master’s degree from the University of Manchester, Institute of Science & Technology (2003) and gained a PhD in biological mass spectrometry (2008). His focus of research has long been associated with proteomics with an interest in systems biology, encompassing metabolomics and lipidomics. Over the period of 14 years within Waters, he has built a collaborative network globally working with a diverse set of academics contributing to multi-interdisciplinary projects. In additional to his industrial role, Dr Gethings also has an academic position at the University of Manchester within the Division of Immunity and Respiratory Medicine.

Amanda Guiraldelli, Ph.D., Scientific Affairs Manager, US Pharmacopeia

Dr. Amanda Guiraldelli is graduated in pharmacy biochemistry and holds a Ph.D. in analytical chemistry from the University of São Paulo - Brazil. Focus of her thesis was plant metabolomics by UHPLC-HRMS, GC-MS and 1H NMR and application of QbD principles in analytical procedure development. Currently, Dr. Amanda Guiraldelli is scientific affairs manager at U.S. Pharmacopeia and visiting professor at the Federal University of Campinas (Unicamp) at the Institute of Chemistry mentoring students in research projects on AQbD. Amanda is specialist in chromatography and mass spectrometry and has 12 years of experience in R&D areas, with strong expertise in analytical procedure development & validation, AQbD, stability studies of drug products, analysis of pharmaceutical impurities & degradation products, chemometrics, omics science and characterization of compendial standards. Previously, Dr. Amanda Guiraldelli worked as senior scientist at the USP reference standard laboratory for 8 years with characterization of compendial standards. She also worked as R&D scientist in a brazilian pharmaceutical industry and as visiting scientist at Technishe Universität Berlin in Germany working on proteins characterization by LC-HRMS and at Leiden University in Netherlands (Center for Proteomics and Metabolomics) working on method development for characterization of biological samples by UHPLC-HRMS. Dr. Amanda Guiraldelli is also a member of the North Jersey Chromatography Group (NJCG) - American Chemical Society (ACS).

Chris Henry, Senior Scientist, Waters Corporation

Chris has been at Waters for 8 years working in the area of small molecule pharma solutions using LC-MS. Prior to joining Waters Chris has worked in industry for ~20years focussing on late-stage development and QC. He obtained a degree in Biochemistry from the University of Paisley.

Paula Hong, Ph.D., Principal Consulting Scientist, Waters Corporation

Paula Hong is a Principal Consulting Scientist at Waters Corporation in the Systems Design and Development Application Laboratory. She received her Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry from The University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA), focusing on the reactivity of transition metal/silane complexes. Paula has over 15 years’ experience in the area of LC and LC/MS applications, including amino acid analysis, ion-exchange and peptide mapping. She began her career at Waters in the chemistry division focusing on novel column chemistries for biopharmaceutical applications, including studies on the first hybrid sub 2-µm SEC column. Her more recent work has focused on understanding the role of instrumentation characteristics on chromatographic separations. These studies have included method development for both reversed-phase and supercritical fluid applications as well as method transfer. She has authored over 25 journal articles, white papers, and application notes on a variety of chromatographic principles.

Miroslav Janco, Ph.D., Senior Research Scientist, Dow

Dr. Miroslav Janco is a senior research scientist and a Polymer Separations GTN leader within the Analytical Science team of the Core R&D organization at Dow Chemical. He holds a M.S. with honors in Chemical Engineering from the Institute of Fine Chemical Technology in Moscow, Russia and a Ph.D. in Macromolecular Chemistry from the Polymer Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava. His extensive career in the field of separation science and analytical chemistry was built in renowned laboratories around the word including Osaka University (Japan), University of California—Berkeley, Hahn-Meitner Institute (Berlin, Germany), and the University of Torino (Italy) where he developed a unique LC CAP-NMR hyphenated technique for the separation of polymers by tacticity, fast polymer separations by HPLC on monolithic columns and applied LC CAP for separations of block copolymers, respectively. Currently, his research is focused on the separation and characterization of polymers on both particle and molecular levels by HDC and LC, including SEC, HPLC, LC CAP modes using conventional (RI, UV, ELSD) and enhanced (LS, VIS, ICP/MS, MALDI and NMR) detections as well as coupled (2D-LC) and hyphenated (LC-ICP/MS and LC-NMR) techniques. Dr. Janco has authored or coauthored 26 original scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals and presented his research at more than 60 international conferences. His latest contribution to the field of polymer separation and characterization is development of Ultra-High Pressure Size Exclusion Chromatography (UHP SEC) commercialized as Advanced Polymer Chromatography (APC) by Waters.

Brooke Koshel, Ph.D., Principal Scientist, Waters Corporation

Brooke Koshel is a Principal Scientist in the Scientific Operations organization at Waters Corporation. Brooke provides support for a number of biopharmaceutical applications including separation-based techniques and mass detection for oligonucleotides, peptides, and protein analysis. Prior to joining Waters Corporation, Brooke worked in a pharmaceutical development laboratory evaluating drug substances and drug products using chromatography and electrophoresis methods.

Xiaoxiao Liu, Ph.D., Senior Scientist, Waters Corporation

Xiaoxiao Liu, Ph.D. is a senior scientist within Chemistry R&D at Waters. In her past 3 years at Waters. She has been involved in new product development activities and specializing in the fundamentals of released glycan analysis, affinity based sample preparations and the optimization of peptide mapping techniques. Dr. Liu received her doctorate from Michigan State University and her bachelor degree from Fudan University.

Pauline McGregor, Ph.D., CChem MRSC, PMcG Consulting

Pauline McGregor Ph.D. CChem MRSC founded PMcG Consulting in September 2006. She has over thirty years’ experience in the Pharmaceutical industry and holds a PhD in organic, analytical chemistry . She originally came to Canada from Edinburgh, Scotland in 1995 to carry out her postdoctoral studies at the University of Western Ontario. Pauline brings a technical expertise to laboratories which enable her to assist them to develop, transfer, verify and validate analytical procedures, and also optimize efficiency with regards to laboratory operations and troubleshooting in an analytical development and QC environment. She been involved in the development and evolution of lifecycle management for analytical procedures and AQbD since 2010. Pauline was a member of the USP expert panel for Validation, Verification and Transfer of Analytical Procedures and a member of a USP Chemical Medicines expert review committee. She continues to be a USP volunteer Expert Advisor and is a Member of the Royal Society of Chemistry , UK.

Bertil Nshime, Research Scientist, Amway

Bertil Nshime joined Amway Corporation in summer of 2011. He has worked in both the quality control, and the analytical sciences groups within Amway’s Innovation and Science division. Bertil is responsible for the development, validation, and transfer of LC methods for vitamins and trace level analytes using mass detection. These methods are used to support new and existing products for quality, marketing and regulatory purposes.

Ben Pointer, Eurofins, Senior Scientist, Eurofins Center of Excellence for Nutrition Analysis

Ben Pointer specializes in nutritional analysis of food, feed, pet food and dietary supplements with technical expertise in chromatography and mass spectrometry. Ben is focused on modernizing analytical methods for analysis of vitamins, amino acids and sugars in food products and contributes to AOAC multi-lab studies. Ben graduated with Masters in Biomedical Science from Des Moines University and has a Bachelor’s of Science degree from Saint Ambrose University.

Oscar Quattrocchi, Training Manager, D’Amico Sistemas and US Pharmacopeia

Oscar Quattrocchi is currently Training Manager at D´Amico Sistemas S.A. since 2008 and a member of the USP General Chapters Expert Committee, Chemical Analysis since 2005, now in the fourth cycle finishing in 2025, former Vicechair of the USP GCEC, former Chair of the USP Residual Solvents Expert Panel, former Vicechair of the USP Medicines Compendium and currently Chair of the USP Spanish Translation Expert Panel. He had worked more than 30 years in the Pharmaceutical Industry as Manager for Analytical Development, Stability Testing and international registration of Drug Substances and Drug Products. He published two books on HPLC and several articles in scientific publications and was a speaker in numerous congresses and symposiums in Argentina, Brazil, and the USA.

Marzieh Ramezani, Ph.D., Techinical Support Specialist, Waters Corporation

Marzieh Ramezani joined Waters in 2017 after receiving her PhD in bioanalytical chemistry from University of Minnesota. She is a technical support specialist in Milford Northeast demo lab supporting all product solutions, with a focus on biopharmaceutical applications.

Euan Ross, Principal Markting Manager, Global Food & Environmental Markets, Waters Corporation

Euan Ross has worked in the chromatography industry for nearly two decades and has been with Waters Corporation since 2006. In his current role as a Principal Market Development Manager, he is responsible for understanding and supporting the routine testing requirements of the global food industry. He works with customers to understand their business and analytical challenges and helps address them with Waters technologies.

Jennifer Simeone, Principal Scientist, Waters Corporation

Jennifer Simeone is a principal scientist in the Systems Design & Development Group. Prior to joining Waters in 2010, Jennifer worked for Charles River Laboratories where she gained extensive knowledge in bioanalytical LC/MS/MS of small molecules. Since joining Waters, Jennifer has gained experience with the development and evaluation of novel technologies and processes for liquid chromatography, supercritical fluid chromatography, and hyphenated LC/MS and SFC/MS approaches. Her current focus at Waters is on separations, specifically the development and evaluation of both Waters products as well as competitive systems for LC/UV and LC/MS applications.

Kerri M. Smith, Ph.D., Principal Scientist, Waters Corporation

Kerri Smith is a principal scientist in the Systems and Consumables group of Scientific Operations. Her focus is on developing LC/MS based solutions in both qualitative and quantitative analysis in the pharmaceutical and biomedical research areas. She received her Ph.D. in Clinical/Bioanalytical Chemistry from Cleveland State University in 2011 with an emphasis on bioanalytical method development for small molecules. She started her career at Waters in the MS Demo Lab in 2011 before transitioning to Milford in 2015. With over 15 years laboratory experience from chemical biology to analytical chemistry, Kerri has a varied skill set which shows in her publication as well as patent application record.

Bastiaan Staal, Ph.D., Head of Laboratory, BASF

Dr. Bastiaan Staal is a polymer chemist who finished his Ph.D. in 2005 in the University of Eindhoven (the Netherlands) on copolymer characterization by MALDI-TOF-MS. Since 2006 he is a lab leader at BASF, responsible for GPC and HPLC of polymers for the central research at BASF. His main interests include developing alternative methods in data processing for both HPLC and GPC (mainly handling nonlinear detectors), searching for stable conditions for performing proper GPC, unraveling (MALDI) MS data of co-polymers and hyphenation techniques like GPC-IR, and pushing 2D chromatography (HPLCxGPC) to its limits. His main drive is forming the bridge between theory and the industrial praxis.

Joe Turpin, Director, Chromatography Products & Services, S-Matrix

Joseph Turpin is Director of Chromatography Products and Services for S-Matrix Corporation. Mr. Turpin was formerly a Senior Research Scientist with Eli Lilly and Company in Indianapolis. A graduate of Purdue University and Indiana University, Mr. Turpin has long been engaged in drug product research and development, and the application of analytical technology in support of new drug development. Mr. Turpin has been involved with pharmaceutical drug development for over 30 years, including the development of several currently marketed products. Current research activities involve the application of Quality by Design (QbD) and experimental design (DOE) in support of new drug development.

Ian Wilson, Professor of Drug Metabolism and Molecular Toxicology, Imperial College in London

Ian Wilson trained as a biochemist at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology followed by a PhD in the Chemistry Dept. at Keele University. He spent much of his subsequent career in the Pharmaceutical industry, most recently as a Senior Principal Scientist in the Dept of Drug Metabolism and Pharmacokinetics at the AstraZeneca Research site at Alderley Park in Cheshire (UK). In September 2012 he joined Imperial College in London as Professor of Drug metabolism and Molecular Toxicology and remains a visiting Professor there. An analytical chemist by training he employs advanced instrumental analytical methods to generate data to enable biological systems to be better characterized and understood. His research interests cover a diverse range of topics including metabonomics/metabolomics, drug metabolism, toxicology, systems biology and the microbiome. A particular focus is currently the inter-dependence of the host and the gut microbiota in terms of the interplay between the effects of the host on the metabolism of the consortia of microbes that make up the gut microbiome and the effect of these organisms on the metabolism of the host. He is the author, or co-author, of over 550 papers or reviews, and has received a number of awards in separation and analytical science from the Royal Society of Chemistry, the Chromatographic Society and the Belgian Society for Pharmaceutical Sciences and the Bioanalysis Significant Contribution Award (BOSCA) from the journal “Bioanalysis”.

Session Chairs:

Lama Berro, Americas Field Marketing Manager, Chemistry, Waters Corporation

Lama Berro is the Chemistry Field Marketing Manager for the Americas. Lama has a baccalaureate in Biochemistry and has spent 12 years working in bioanalytical labs at pharmaceutical companies and contract labs. She has been supporting consumables products at Waters since 2015.

Emily Britton, Ph.D., Senior Marketing Manager, Food & Natural Products, Waters Corporation

Emily Rose Britton, PhD is the Senior Marketing Manager for Food and Natural products in the United States. Emily has been with Waters since 2018, following her graduate studies at the University of North Carolina Greensboro where she used metabolomics as a tool for investigating plant medicines for antimicrobial activity. She brings strong analytical expertise in food, dietary supplements, nutraceuticals, and natural products (including tobacco and cannabis) and has a passion for facilitating collaboration. Emily is an active member of AOAC International, the American Society of Pharmacognosy, the United Natural Products Alliance and Females in Mass Spectrometry, and can be found promoting Waters and science communication on Twitter (@ChEmilyBritton).

Kieron Faherty, Ph.D., Manager, Separations & Mass Spectrometry Americas Field Marketing, Waters Corporation

Kieron Faherty is the Separations and Mass Spectrometry Field Marketing Manager for the Americas at Waters Corporation. He received his B.Sc. (Hons) in Chemistry from the University of Reading (Reading, Berkshire, UK) and his doctorate in Chemistry from the University of Massachusetts (Amherst, MA). He has held several field-based positions at Waters, most recently as a Field Applications Specialist focused on biopharmaceutical applications using Time-of-Flight mass spectrometry instrumentation.

Jane Finzi, Market Development Manager, Brazil, Waters Corporation

Jane Finzi has 18 years of experience in Mass Spectrometry, working in the analytical method development as well as performing installation, maintenance, and customer training in this technology. She worked as an analytical coordinator in a contract organization, certified by the European Commission, to detect veterinary drugs residues in food. She was the Mass Spectrometry lab technician at LnBio (CNPEM, National Synchrotron Light Laboratory) and worked with large and small molecules characterizations. She has experience inside the Pharmaceutical Industry developing methods for pharmacokinetic studies. Besides this technical background she had the opportunity to work as a National Sales Manager in an Analytical Instrumentation company. Jane has a bachelor’s degree in chemistry, master’s in molecular biology and recently acquired her post-graduation degree in Business Management. At Waters, she had the opportunity to work as a field service specialist, Mass Spectrometry sales specialist and since 2018 she is responsible for market development in Brazil.

Ann Gray, Biopharmaceutical Market Development Manager, Waters Corporation

Ann Gray has worked for Waters Corporation for more than thirty years. She has held a number of positions including chromatography sales representative, biopharmaceutical specialist, and business development manager. Currently Ann is Americas Biopharmaceutical Market Development Manager. Prior to joining Waters she learned her analytical instrumentation analyzing tobacco and purifying proteins at United States Department of Agriculture. She has a Masters degree in biology from New Mexico State University and a bachelor of science degree from Juniata College.

Bryan Katzenmeyer, Ph.D., Senior Manager, Materials Science, Waters Corporation

Bryan Katzenmeyer has over 10+ years of experience specializing in mass spectrometry and separation techniques for the characterization of materials, polymers, monomers, and small molecules as well as increasing leadership roles within technical organizations. He currently oversees the Americas Materials Science business marketing segment for Waters Corporation. The Materials Science business market focuses on polymers, fine and specialty chemicals, extractables/leachables, medical device testing, cosmetics and personal care products, fuel/energy, and agrochemicals. Prior to joining Waters, Bryan was an Analytical Group Leader and Senior Scientist at Valspar (now part of Sherwin-Williams). While here he managed the liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry team focused on developing and validating analytical methodologies to characterize extractables and leachables, resins, oligomers, monomers, and other small molecules in packaging coatings for the food and beverage industries. Bryan received his Ph.D. in Polymer-Analytical Chemistry at The University of Akron working under Distinguished Professor Chrys Wesdemiotis. Here, he researched interfacing liquid chromatography and ion mobility separation with multi-dimensional mass spectrometry for the structural characterization of polymeric materials. He also obtained a M.S. in Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a B.S. in Chemistry from Penn State University.

Andrew Leightner, Market Development Manager, DMPK, Discovery, E&L, Waters Corporation

Andy Leightner is a Market Development Manager at Waters Corporation for the past year and a half. Prior to Waters, Andy worked for many clients as part of Contract Research Organizations. He focused on solving the challenging needs associated with method development and validation. Andy earned a degree in biology from The University of Wisconsin – Madison.

Narendra Meruva, Ph.D., Director Food, Environmental & Cannabis Markets, Waters Corporation

Naren Meruva serves as the Director of Marketing at Waters based in Boston, USA with focus on Food, Environmental and Cannabis markets. He has 17 years of industry experience as a Principal Scientist and a Global Marketing professional in separation science technologies including LC, GC and Mass Spectrometry applied to analysis of food, dietary supplements, natural products, tobacco and cannabis. Naren holds a PhD in Analytical Chemistry from University of South Carolina and an MBA from Virginia Tech University. He is also an active member of several industry organizations including AOAC, APHL and ACIL focused on developing standardized methods for food, dietary supplements and cannabis markets

Roy Martin, Ph.D., Sr. Manager, Biological Mass Spectrometry, Waters Corporation

Dr. LeRoy B. Martin, III is a Senior Manager for Biological Mass Spectrometry at Waters Corporation. His primary role is developing and implementing advanced mass spectrometry solutions in the Americas. He is currently managing the Biomolecular Research marketing effort in the Americas. He is also charged with evaluating and integrating new technologies and planning for their inclusion either as Waters Corp. offerings or in combinations of instrumentation platforms. He’s particularly focused on the ion mobility, imaging, and direct analysis platforms and integrating these technologies into a molecular discovery platform.

Adriana Tirado, Market Development Specialist, Mexico & LAD, Waters Corporation

Adriana is the Market Development Specialist in the Spanish-speaking countries of Latin America at Waters and has 15 years of experience in Sales & business development. She joined Waters in 2012 as a sales representative for northern Mexico. She has worked in different companies as a sales executive developing brand presence in the analytical & Life Sciences markets, where she also held the position of service engineer and technical support engineer in liquid chromatography. Prior to that, she was an Associate professor in the Autonomous University of Nuevo León working in the analytical area and supporting the natural products research line of the analytical department in the Faculty of Medicine. She studied Clinical Chemistry Biologist and has a master’s degree in Biomedical Chemistry from the Autonomous University of Nuevo León.

Isabelle Vu Trieu, Pharmaceutical Market Development Manager, Americas, Waters Corporation

Isabelle is a business development professional dedicated to delivering benefits to analytical scientists in the life sciences industry. With 17 years of experience in chromatography and mass spectrometry, Isabelle is particularly interested in helping pharmaceutical scientists achieve the data quality and integrity needed to drive decisions for drug quality, safety and efficacy. Isabelle joined Waters in 2009 and currently manages the development of the pharmaceutical market in the Americas. She holds Masters’ degrees in Chemistry from Columbia University and the University Claude Bernard in Lyon, France as well as a Chemical Engineering degree from Ecole Supérieure de Chimie Physique Electronique in Lyon, France.