ABSTRACT
II. EARLY INVOLVEMENT I first become involved with the practical aspects of gas chromatography as an undergraduate student pursuing a Bachelor of Science degree in organic chemistry. I had commenced a student internship with Burroughs-Wellcome (now Glaxo-Wellcome) in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, in August 1971. After several months of effort synthesizing candidate substances for anti-inflammatory testing, by January 1972 my supervisor and I had obtained an apparently pure, white crystalline material that produced the correct NMR and IR spectra. Its melting point, however, was too broad, so she suggested using GC to investigate potential impurities. I had used an isothermal packed column GC briefly the year before, as part of an instrumentation course in college, so I proudly proclaimed that I knew how to use the instrument presented for this analysis. I demonstrated my competence by dissolving the crystals in hexane, setting up the instrument, and deftly injecting a microliter of solution.
