A decade of electrophoretic experiments and computer simulation studies in the laboratory of Andreas Chrambach

✍ Scribed by Dietmar Tietz

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2007
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 226 KB
• Volume: 28
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0173-0835
• DOI: 10.1002/elps.200600478

✦ Synopsis

When I joined Andreas Chrambach's group in December 1983, I saw two small laboratories that seemed incredibly crowded by a wealth of equipment and machinery stacked to the high ceilings, leaving only narrow aisles that mandated walking sideways. Andreas gave me the assurance that there was enough space for everybody.

I knew the definition of electrophoresis, but I had no practical experience. "This is an advantage", Andreas said, "I look for knowledge that I don't have and I prefer collaborators with an open mind." This statement serves to illustrate Andreas's approach to scientific endeavors: He gave researchers the opportunity to bring in their own ideas, even if this changed the path of the project.

Andreas was not only interested in establishing optimal, "happiness" conditions for the particles he separated in electrophoresis, he also made a sincere effort to create happiness conditions for everyone working in his laboratory. He was convinced that good science could only prosper in a pressurefree zone and a climate of trust.

Andreas would never admit that a particular separation problem could not be solved by electrophoresis. The tougher the problem, the more engaged he got, even if it took years to find a solution. "We have the luxury of exploring worthwhile problems in separation science," he said, "other laboratories cannot obtain funding for this kind of research."

Andreas also believed that no experimental work should remain unpublished. Therefore, my very first electrophoretic experiments were designed to yield a publishable result.