ABSTRACT
Until Lloyd Currie's paper Limits for Qualitative Detection and Quantitative Determination: Application to Radiochemistry was published, there was enough inconsistency in the definition of "detection limit" to conceal a great deal of disagreement. Currie asks and answers a disarmingly simple question: What do we mean by the detection limit of a measurement process? He found that the literature "revealed a plethora of mathematical expressions and widely-ranging terminology." The culmination of Currie's work was seen in the adoption of a harmonized international position (ISO-IUPAC) on the nomenclature, concepts, and formulation of detection, decision, and determination limits. Lloyd A. Currie attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and then received his Ph.D. in 1955 at the University of Chicago under Willard Libby. After serving on the faculty at Pennsylvania State University, he came to the National Bureau of Standards in 1962. In addition to chemometrics, his specialty has been atmospheric radioactivity, especially 37Ar and 14C.
