
Analysis of Emerging Contaminants Using High Resolution Accurate Mass Spectrometry
“Reports that say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don't know we don't know” -- United States Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.
This session will help you gain a better understanding of how operators, practitioners and researchers investigate the “Unknown Unknowns” utilising High Resolution, Accurate Mass, Quantitative Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry (QToF-MS), coupled with both Liquid Chromatography (LC) or Gas Chromatography (GC), to provide unprecedented insights for Health, Environmental and Legacy Risk Assessment.
Bob Symons is the Regional Technical Manager for Eurofins Environment Testing in Australia & New Zealand as is based in their Sydney laboratory. Bob has a PhD in analytical chemistry from La Trobe University and has been working in the area of environmental organic chemistry for over 35 years. Bob’s interests over the past 25 years have been the analysis of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) including dioxins, PCBs, & brominated flame retardants as well as per- and polyfluoro alkyl substances (PFAS) using advanced mass spectrometric techniques. Bob is leading Eurofins establishment of an emerging contaminants laboratory specialising in the determination of “unknown unknowns” as well as the first commercial facility in Australia analysing microplastics.