Axcend today announced that its Co-Founder and Chief Science Officer, Milton L. Lee, Ph.D., has received the prestigious 2019 ACS Award in Analytical Chemistry from the American Chemical Society.
According to the Award citation, Dr. Lee was honored, “For innovations in column technologies, instrumentation, applications, and commercial implementation of micro-separations and combined micro-separations/mass spectrometry.”
Bonnie A. Charpentier, Ph.D., 2019 ACS President (Left) and Michelle V. Buchanan, Ph.D., Deputy for Science and Technology of Oak Ridge National Laboratory (right), presented the Award to Dr. Lee during ceremonies held last week at the ACS National Meeting & Expo in Orlando, Florida.
Initiated by the American Chemical Society in 1947, the ACS Award in Analytical Chemistry is perceived by most industry experts as one of the top honors in the world for chemists and scientists working in the field of Analytical Chemistry.
Professor Milton L. Lee, Ph.D. Career Synopsis
Dr. Lee has been a member of the faculty of Brigham Young University since 1976 and is currently the Emeritus H. Tracy Hall Professor of Chemistry. He is best known for his research in capillary separation techniques and mass spectrometry detection. He has authored/co‑authored over 590 scientific publications and has delivered over 500 technical presentations during his career. In addition, he has mentored over 100 graduate students and post-doctoral researchers during his time in academia.
Dr. Lee is also a serial entrepreneur and has been involved in inventing, commercializing and transferring technology from his research laboratory at BYU into the private sector on four separate occasions, each of which raised external funds.
Case in point, he and Glen Mella co-founded Axcend in 2018 to bring to market a compact, lightweight, extremely transportable, economical and now shipping high-performance liquid chromatograph called the Axcend Focus LC™ — a system that allows chemists to Bring the Lab to the Sample™ and take HPLC Anywhere™.
In addition, Dr. Lee:
- Founded Torion Technologies in 2001 to develop a hand-portable gas chromatography-mass spectrometry system, a company acquired in 2015 by Perkin Elmer.
- Founded Sensar Corporation in 1991 to develop unique time-of-flight mass spectrometry instrumentation, a firm acquired in 2002 by LECO.
- Co-founded Lee Scientific in 1984 to develop supercritical fluid chromatographic instrumentation, a company acquired in 1988 by Dionex.
The mantra that ‘One person can make a difference’ is proven by the life of Dr. Milton Lee. It’s been my distinct privilege to get to know and work closely with Milt for the past year-and-a-half, and I look forward to many exciting accomplishments together in the years ahead.”
Glen Mella, Axcend Co-Founder and CEO
Not surprisingly, Dr. Lee has received numerous industry awards during his career of over 40 years. Among the awards that he has received for his achievements in research and professional activities are
- the 2018 Csaba Horváth Memorial Award (2018),
- the LC/GC Europe Lifetime Achievement Award (2014).
- American Chemical Society Award in Separations Science and Technology (2012),
- Eastern Analytical Symposium Award for Outstanding Achievements in the Fields of Analytical Chemistry (2008),
- the Pittsburgh Analytical Chemistry Award (2008),
- R&D 100 Awards from R&D magazine (2008 and 1993),
- the California Separation Science Society Award (2005),
- the Eastern Analytical Symposium Award for Achievements in Separation Science (1999),
- the Dal Nogare Award (1999),
- an honorary doctorate from Uppsala University in Sweden (1998),
- the American Chemical Society Award in Chemical Instrumentation (1998),
- the M.J.E. Golay Award (1998),
- the Latin-American Chromatography Congress Medal (1998),
- the Martin Gold Medal (1996),
- the Russian Tswett Chromatography Medal (1992),
- the American Chemical Society Award in Chromatography (1988),
- the Keene P. Dimick Chromatography Award (1988), and
- the M.S. Tswett Chromatography Medal (1984).
In addition, Dr. Lee was named three times as one of the 100 most influential people in the field of analytical sciences by The Analytical Scientist magazine in 2013, 2015 and 2017.
I am quite humbled to receive this award from the American Chemical Society. So to my colleagues and peers at the ACS, I say ‘Thank You.’”
Dr. Milton Lee