chapter 5 - Department of Chemistry

Previous general trends held as, approaching the new millennium,the “central science” led the transformation fromthe Age of the Atom to the Biotechnology Century. Whilemaintaining its role from previous decades, analytical instrumentationdramatically shifted emphasis from petrochemicalsto biologicals, from geophysics to genomics. Technologicaldemands from industries and research fields notpreviously associated with traditional chemical instrumentationled to additional innovations in simplification, standardization,computerization, and “small footprint” benchtopequipment that could be used by a changing and diversely educatedworkforce that serviced the economically affluentbaby-boom generation seemingly benton both “living forever” and having it all.Military technology continued to followits pattern of demanding high-techinstrumentation as superconductors,fiber-optics, computers, satellite sensing,and laser technology led the way.Regulatory analysis expanded in complexitybeyond individual pollutants toissues of global warming; biological andchemical warfare; and the subtleties ofendocrine disruption, bioremediation,and the genetic damage of large-scalepopulations, including the former Sovietstates. The possibilities of nanotechnology,biological computers, robotics, andartificial intelligence became plausiblesources of innovation in instrumentationrather than fantasy.On the international front, the emergenceof the European Union providedadded impetus for a business-friendlygovernment in the United States to lookfavorably on corporate mergers and international marketing,all of which affected the analytical instrumentationbusiness and the larger chemical industry dramatically.The vast majority of innovations in instrumentationwere not in new kinds of analysis (as in previous decades,when major new forms of chromatography or spectroscopycame to light) but rather in the area of enhancements andcombinations of instruments. The wealth of possibilities forinterfacing and combining analytical techniques seemedIt will be an era inwhich the boundariesbetween basic andapplied science erode.Commercial relevancewill be an intrinsicfeature if not a statedgoal of most science.— Frank Press, president ofthe National Academy ofSciences, 1992destined for the long-term goal of creating a multidimensionalanalytical technology using all the various methodsof analysis. This was the promise of the creation of a virtualStar Trek “tricorder,” which would analyze all things for allpeople just by pointing at an object. Such a developmentwas the prediction of Tony White, Perkin-Elmer CEO, atPittcon ‘96.The Corporate LandscapeVery early on, the promise of the past decade was suddenlypulled up short, according to Lawrence Schmid, president ofSDI, Inc. “A general instrument industry slowdown has beenunder way in the United States for thepast year,” he said. The reasons for thisvaried, but lowered government fundingand the sudden fear that biotechnologywould not live up to its promise were twoof the most important reasons given [Today’sChemist 1990, 3(1)]. The low levelof growth in gross national product (GNP)was the final straw. Referring to Pittcons‘90 and ‘91, Schmid projected that “theinstrument industry appears to be takinga conservative view of the future whichdoes not include accelerated product developmentprograms.” Referring toPittcon ‘93, Ward Worthy wrote, “Therewas a sort of consensus . . . that the glorydays of the 1980s, when annual double-digitgrowth rates were the norm,were gone.” The analytical instrumentindustry was relatively flat [TCAW 1993,2(4)].“The trends in the late 1980s continuedthrough 1990; mergers and acquisitionsincreased in size and frequency.” [Today’s Chemist1991, 4(2)]. Later in the decade, Spectronics left Milton Roywhen purchased by Life Sciences International (LSI) in1995; Teckmar and Dohrman merged in 1995. AnalyticalTechnology Inc. (ATI) took over Orion, Mattson, Unicam,Russell, and Cahn. Both ATI and LSI were eventually sold toThermo Instruments Systems.The Thermo line of companies, all subsidiaries of ThermoElectron (founded in 1956), were by far the most amazing ex-84 Made to Measure March 1999 http://pubs.acs.org