About
Established in 1989
The International Symposia on Field- and Flow-Based Separations have been held in about 18 month intervals since the first International Symposium on Field-Flow Fractionation (FFF) in 1989, Salt Lake City, USA, established by J. Calvin Giddings. Through the continuous efforts of the past twenty symposia held in Europe and USA, this symposium series has offered FFF researchers the opportunity to discuss the latest achievements and applications in all aspects of FFF related research. In 2007, the symposia were expanded to include all field- and flow-based separations.
The Steering Board for International Symposia on Field- and Flow-Based Separations (SBFFF) is pleased to open a permanent website for the International Symposium on FFF. This website is aimed not only to disseminate information on FFF symposia and events, but to encourage the growth of FFF in innovative research fields and the mutual collaborations among FFF researchers around the world. The SBFFF will maintain the tradition of this symposium as an important international meeting for researchers who are active in developing field- and flow-based separations including fundamental theory, instrumental developments, hyphenation of FFF with various analytical platforms, and a wide variety of applications.
A message from the SBFFF
Steering Board members
Bruce K. Gale, received his undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering from Brigham Young University in 1995 and his PhD in Bioengineering from the University of Utah in 2000. He was an assistant professor of Biomedical Engineering at Louisiana Tech University before returning to the University of Utah in 2001 where he is now Chair and a professor of Mechanical Engineering. He is currently Director of the Utah State Center of Excellence for Biomedical Microfluidics, a center devoted to research and commercialization activities around microfluidic devices. His primary interests include solving medical, biology, and chemistry problems using a variety of microfluidic approaches to complete complex and challenging medical and biological assays. Specifically, he is working to develop a microfluidic toolbox and approaches for the rapid design, simulation, and fabrication of devices with medical and biological applications. The ultimate goal is to develop platforms for personalized medicine, which should allow medical treatments to be customized to the needs of individual patients. As an outgrowth of his work, 5 companies have been formed and he maintains a role at each.
Bruce K Gale, PhD
Professor and Chair, Department of Mechanical Engineering
University of Utah
Wei Gao, PhD
Principle Research Scientist, Corporate Research and Development, Dow Inc.
Pennsylvania, USA
Wei Gao is a Principal Research Scientist in Analytical Science, Corporate Research and Development, at Dow Inc. She received her BS degree from Fudan University and PhD in Polymer Chemistry and Physics from Peking University. She then worked as a postdoctoral fellow and an Associate Professor in the Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Employment at the NSF-I/UCRC center for Biocatalyisis and Bioprocessing of Macromolecules at Polytechnic University (Now NYU Tandon School of Engineering) followed in 2000, and in 2005 she became a Research Assistant Professor. In 2006, Wei joined Rohm and Haas/Dow. She intensively works on polymer and particle characterization, the synthesis−structure−property relationship of polymeric and colloidal systems, and sustainable polymers. She has published over 30 peer reviewed journal articles and book chapters, edited one book, and has more than 20 patents and patent applications. She has organized American Chemical Society (ACS) symposia in the areas of separation and characterization of macromolecules and particles, polymer sciences for everyday things, polymer colloids, and industrial innovation of polymer science. She is a lifetime member of Chinese American Chemical Society (CACS) member. She also served on the scientific program committee for the GPC2015 conference and the steering board member for international symposium on Field- and Flow-Based Separations (FFF2018 and FFF2022). She was the recipient of the NOVA Innovation Award from Rohm and Haas Company (2008), US EPA Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Awards (2003 and 2013), Vernon A. Strenger Scientists’ Award from Dow (2019), and ACS Polymer Chemistry Division (POLY) fellow (2021).
Dr. Hackley is a research chemist and senior scientist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), a non-regulatory science agency within the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC). Dr. Hackley led a multidisciplinary project team focused on the metrology of engineered nanomaterials for 15 years. Currently, he leads efforts to produce nanoscale certified reference materials that underpin metrology and commerce. Dr. Hackley is a subject matter expert in standards committee ISO 229, ISO 24/SC4 and ASTM E56. His current scientific interests center on the development and standardization of analytical methods for applications in drug delivery and nanoplastics, including multi-detector asymmetrical-flow field-flow fractionation. He received the DOC Silver Medal for scientific achievement in 2008, the NIST Judson C. French award for significant improvement in products delivered to industry in 2012, the ASTM award of appreciation in 2019, and the DOC Bronze Medal award for superior federal service related to the development of a system of traceable measurements enabling risk assessment of photocatalytic nanomaterials in 2021. He is on the scientific advisory board for the journal Environmental Science: Nano, the scientific oversight committee for the National Cancer Institute’s Nanotechnology Characterization Laboratory and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. He has authored or co-authored more than 130 papers on particle science & technology, materials chemistry, environmental science, and analytical science applied to nanomaterials.
Vincent A. Hackley, PhD
Research Chemist, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Materials Measurement Science Division
Maryland, USA
Mauricio Antonio Hoyos, PhD
Chargé de Recherche Hors Class CNRS. Laboratoire de physique et mécanique des milieux hétérogènes
Ecole supérieure de physique et chimie industrielles, ESPCI, PSL
Institut Langevin
CNRS UMR7636
33 1 80963083
1 rue jussieu 75005 Paris France
https://www.pmmh.espci.fr/
Mauricio Hoyos is a senior researcher (hors classe) at CNRS,National Center for scientific research, Laboratory of physics and mechanics of heterogeneous media, Ecole superieure de physique et chimie industrielles, ESPCI, Paris France.
I am physicist and physical-chemist, Master in particle physics and Astrophysics, with PhD in Acoustics rheology and mass and heat transfer. My habilitation Thesis HDR, was on “nonideal effects in separation in Field-Flow Fractionation”. Mi specialty is in SPLITT Fractionation, thermal FFF, Sedimentation FFF. My research topics are: hydrodynamics, microfluidics, acoustofluidics, Blood and cell separation, acoustic levitation, active matter, biophysics, filtration and separation of biological cells, bacteria and nanomotors.
I have 60 published preview international papers, and 12 patents mostly on Ultrasonics for biomedical applications. I am co-founder and scientific adviser of AENITIS Technologies, www. Aenitis.fr.
Albena Lederer received her Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry in 1999 from the Max-Planck-Institute of Polymer Research Mainz and the University Mainz and her habilitation degree in Physical Chemistry in 2010 from the Technishe Universität Dresden. Currently she is the head of the Center Macromolecular Structure Analysis at the Leibniz-Institut für Polymerforschung Dresden (IPF), Germany and holds the SASOL Chair in Analytical Polymer Science at Stellenbosch University (SU), South Africa. She is the head of the joint IPF-SU research group Polymer Separation. Her research interests are in the field of polymer analysis with special focus on advanced separation and scattering techniques. Her current activities are related to the nanostructural aspects of multifunctional macromolecules and natural polymers, novel separation techniques and intermolecular interactions of complex synthetic and biofunctional architectures, and in situ characterization of responsive polymer systems.
Albena Lederer, PhD
Professor, Center for Macromolecular Structure Analysis, Leibniz-Institut für Polymerforschung Dresden e.V.
Chair of Analytical Polymer Science, Stellenbosch University
Michael Maskos, PhD
Executive Director
Fraunhofer-Institut für Mikrotechnik und Mikrosysteme IMM /
Fraunhofer Institute for Microengineering and Microsystems IMM
Carl-Zeiss-Str. 18-20, 55129 Mainz, Germany
Prof. Dr. Michael Maskos, graduate chemist, heads the Fraunhofer Institute for Microengineering and Microsystems IMM, Mainz, Germany, as executive director since 2018 and in parallel was appointed as a full professor at the Johannes-Gutenberg University Mainz in the field of Chemical Process Engineering / Microfluidics in 2011. Before heading the Fraunhofer Institute, he was CEO of the Institut für Mikrotechnik Mainz GmbH (IMM) since 2011. Maskos obtained several scholarships and awards (e.g. Research Award of the Boehringer-Ingelheim Foundation, Germany; research scholarship of the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina (visiting scientist at McGill University, Montreal, Canada); and Literature Prize of the German Chemical Industry for the textbook “Polymers: Synthesis, Characteristics and Applications”). He additionally graduated at the Helmholtz-Academy of Young Researchers in Scientific Management and serves as Co-Editor-in-Chief for “Microsystem Technologies” (Springer Nature).
As physical chemist his research areas are amphiphilic polymers and nanoparticles – mostly in solution – and their characterization by light scattering and field-flow fractionation. In parallel, he works in the fields of microtechnology, microfluidics and chemical microreaction technology.
Myeong Hee Moon received his B.S. in chemistry from Yonsei University in 1987, and Ph.D. from University of Utah in 1991 under the prof. Calvin J. Giddings. He got his first position at Dept. of chemistry, Kangnung National University in 1994, moved to Pusan National University in 1999, and he is now at Dept, of Chemistry, Yonsei University, Seoul, Korea since 2003. His research has been focused on developing methodology in field-flow fractionation (FFF) for the separation and characterization of biological macromolecules. Efforts were made to develop various FFF channel systems such as frit-inlet asymmetrical flow FFF, hollow-fiber flow field-flow fractionation, multidimensional separation techniques using isloelectric focusing and asymmetrical FlFFF (IEF-AF4) for protein separation, and miniaturized AF4 for direct lipidomic analysis with ESI-MS/MS. His research interests also include lipidomic analysis for the study of disease related biomarkers by utilizing on-line or off-line hyphenation of FlFFF with nanoflow LC-ESI-MS/MS.
Myeong Hee Moon, PhD
Professor, Dept. of Chemistry, Yonsei University
Seoul, Korea
William C. Smith, PhD
ORISE Fellow, United States Food and Drug Administration, Joint appointment: Office of Pharmaceutical Quality/Office of Generic Drugs
Maryland, USA
Dr. William C. Smith (Billy), is currently an ORISE Fellow at U.S. Food and Drug Administration with Dr. Xiaoming Xu in the Division of Product Quality Research working on complex drug formulations from emulsions and injectables to implantable polymeric devices. His research focusses on the physicochemical characterization of nano- and micro-scale materials and the development and validation of methods for macromolecular and particle interactions.
Billy received his Ph.D. in 2019 from the Colorado School of Mines under Dr. S. Kim R. Williams, in applied chemistry. The emphasis of his Ph.D. was the development of thermal field-flow fractionation for the characterization of hybrid colloidal nanomaterials and polymers with complex architectures. In 2017, Billy was a guest researcher at the Leibniz-Institute for Polymer Research (IPF) in Dresden, Germany under Dr. Albena Lederer investigating novel hyperbranched polyethylenes and polyesters. He received his Bachelor of Science in chemistry from The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington in 2012.
Graduate from Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Chimie de Toulouse in 1996, Dr. Frédéric Violleau obtained a PhD from the Institut National Polytechnique de Toulouse in 2000. Professor at the PURPAN School of Engineering since 2003, Dr. Frédéric VIOLLEAU is currently Deputy Director of Research at EI PURPAN. As part of his research activities, he is the founder and scientific leader of the Toulouse FFF Center (TFFFC), the only platform in Europe equipped with all FFF techniques. Dr Frédéric VIOLLEAU has been invited researcher at Laboratory for Advanced Separations Technologies, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO, USA (5 weeks in 2013) – Pr. Kim S. R. Williams and at Department of Chemistry and Polymer Science, University of Stellenbosch, Stellenbosch, South Africa (2 weeks in 2019) – Pr. Harald Pasch.
TFFFC interested in developing new analytical approaches using FFF techniques for biomacromolecules, polymers and self-assemblies characterization. Works currently carried out are particularly focus on the determination of the size distribution of milk proteins, high molar masses, polyelectrolytes, self-assembled systems used as vectors of active substances, monoclonal antibodies for exemple. The TFFFC platform collaborates with many companies and laboratories in France and worldwide.
Frédéric Violleau, PhD
Deputy Director for Research, Ecole d’Ingénieurs de PURPAN
Toulouse, France
S. Kim R. Williams, PhD
Professor, Dept. of Chemistry, Colorado School of Mines
Colorado, USA
Kim R. Williams is a Professor of Chemistry at the Colorado School of Mines, Research-Advising Faculty in the Materials Science program, and Faculty in the Quantitative Biosciences and Bioengineering program. Her work with field-flow fractionation started with her postdoctoral at the University of Utah with the late J. Calvin Giddings. Her current research program can be broadly classified as separation science of nanometer to micrometer-size species. This includes a focus on developing field-flow fractionation (FFF) with light scattering and mass spectrometry approaches to simultaneously separate and characterize complex multi-component systems. More specifically, her research group has introduced new methods to measure distributions in nanoparticle surface composition and shape as well as difficult to analyze polymer attributes such as architecture and number of chain ends. Applications extend to materials for renewable energy systems and membrane, biotherapeutic proteins, and biological particles such as lipoproteins and extracellular vesicles for disease diagnostics.
Professor Williams is the recipient of a 2017-2019 Fulbright Flex Award to Germany, a three-time recipient of the Colorado School of Mines Outstanding Graduate Professor Award, and the 2020 W. M. Keck Mentorship for Faculty Award. She is the co-editor of a book titled Field-Flow Fractionation in Biopolymer Analysis and has taught particle sizing workshops worldwide. She co-chaired the International FFF Steering Board (2013-2020) and has served on workshops and subcommittees of the National Academies of Science, the National Nanotechnology Initiative, and the National Science Foundation in the United States.
The research of the Zhong group is devoted to developing bioanalytical techniques for advancement of our understanding on the functions of biomolecules and for improvement of disease diagnosis and treatment. Our work employs diverse analytical techniques, like flow-field flow fraction, capillary electrophoresis, flow cytometry, microfluidics, optical spectroscopy, and mass spectrometry. We combine them with several chemical tools, such as synthetic receptors, functional nucleic acids, and nanomaterials, for the development of analytical tools, to enable the discovery, detection, and functional analysis of potential biomarkers that could reflect disease initiation and progression. Our research has three current focuses: 1) Rapid processing and detection of cell-free biomarkers from biospecimens for clinical applications; 2) Development of chemical/biochemical probes to enable study of epigenetic factors like protein post-translational modification, nucleic acid folding and modification, for better understanding of their biological functions in vitro and in vivo; and 3) Study of the nano-bio interface to guide sustainable design and applications of nanomaterials.
Wenwan Zhong, PhD
Professor, Dept. of Chemistry; Environmental Toxicology Program, University of California
California, USA
Previous SBFFF Members
Ron Beckett, Monash University, Australia
Karin Caldwell, Uppsala University, Sweden
Francesco Dondi, University of Ferrara, Italy
Seungho Lee, Hannam University, Korea
Martin Schimpf, Boise State University, USA
Michel Martin, École supérieure de physique et de chimie industrielles de la Ville de Paris, France
Atitaya Siripinyanond, Mahidol University, Thailand
Karl-Gustav Wahlund, University of Lund, Sweden
P. Stephen Williams, Cleveland Clinic, USA
History of FFF Symposia
