Paris with a Twist

Dan, David and Jeff in the Paris sunshine

Opportunities to spend a day in the company of a World-renowned expert plus doing so in one of the most beautiful cities in the World don’t come along very often.

When I was asked to accompany our Applications Chemist, Dan Carrier to meet David Benanou (Head of Chemical Expertise at the Veolia Environment Research and Innovation Centre near Paris) I jumped at the chance.

There was a good business reason for my visit. Let me explain…

David Benanou is a pioneer and huge advocate of Stir Bar Sorptive Extraction (SBSE) for extracting organic compounds such as pesticides or taste and odour contaminants in drinking water.

Prior to Anatune, I worked in the water industry, analysing drinking water samples for organic compounds, so I was intrigued as to how the Twister approach worked and how it could be applied in the UK.  The technique is extremely easy to use, saves time and yields low detection limits.

David and his team have developed a wide range of methods using SBSE, especially for drinking water contaminants, which have been implemented throughout the world. Dan and I were impressed with the attention to detail that David used whilst painstakingly developing these methods.

To get the most out of the technique, David also gave Dan some great tips and tricks and he was eager to get back to the lab to put these into practice.

David is a great enthusiast and is very generous in sharing his considerable expertise. In October, David will make his experience available to analysts in the UK, by conducting, a series of Workshops in our Cambridge laboratory.

The theme of the series of workshops is “The analysis of taste and odour in water using SBSE”.

Believe me, from the day I spent with David, the workshops will be worth attending.

The Workshops are one-day events and will be held on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd October 2012. There will be a mixture of hands-on practical work and presentations discussing the theory behind the techniques.

Places on the workshops are limited and, as I write, they are filling up quickly, so if you want to book a place, please contact us right away.

Contributed by Jeff Stubbs of Anatune.