ABSTRACT
Calvin Giddings made some of the most important contributions to the field of band spreading in chromatography. His simple random walk theory set out the basis of band spreading in terms which everyone could understand, while his nonequilibrium theory elucidated the underlying phenomena in clear mathematical terms and provided rigorous equations which could be tested experimentally. Gas chromatography was the first chromatographic method to which the term “high performance” could be applied, in that the operating conditions were carefully controlled. Early theories of band spreading, in the 1940s, were somewhat mathematical and generally did not address the molecular phenomena which were at the bottom of the chromatographic process. Modern capillary electrophoresis was initiated by Jorgenson and Lukacs in 1981. Jorgenson appreciated that, because electroosmotic flow in an open tube originates in the electrical double layer at the wall, there would be no dispersion arising from transcolumn velocity variations.
