Christie G. Enke

Life and career

Education

• 1955 B.S. Principia College
• 1959 M.S. University of Illinois
• 1959 Ph.D. University of Illinois

  Research and Teaching

• Electroanalytical chemistry: Enke’s early research in electrochemistry centered on high-speed charge transfer kinetic studies. He also pioneered the use of operational amplifiers in electroanalytical instrumentation and later, computer control. He is co-inventor of the bipolar pulse method for measuring electrolytic conductance.
• Teaching electronics to scientists: Howard Malmstadt and Enke wrote the pioneering work, Electronics for Scientists. Then Malmstadt, Stan Crouch, and Enke wrote eight more texts and lab books in the electronics of laboratory instrumentation. This same team developed and presented the hands-on ACS short course, Electronics for Laboratory Instrumentation beginning in 1979. Enke also wrote an introductory analytical chemistry text called The Art and Science of Chemical Analysis.
• Mass spectrometry: Enke, his graduate student, Rick Yost, and a colleague, James Morrison, discovered low-energy collisional ion fragmentation in 1979. Collisional dissociation in an RF-only quadrupole mass filter between two quadrupole mass analyzers resulted in the first triple quadrupole mass spectrometer. Its low cost and unit resolution ushered in the technique now known as tandem mass spectrometry. Enke continued research in mass spectrometry including developing a distributed microprocessor control system for the triple-quadrupole, a fast integrating detector system for time-of-flight mass spectrometry, development of a tandem time-of-flight instrument with photofragmentation of ions, the equilibrium partition theory of electrospray ionization, and the invention of distance-of-flight mass spectrometry.
• Comprehensive analysis of complex mixtures: With Luc Nagels, Enke discovered that the concentrations of components in many natural complex mixtures have a log-normal distribution. With this information, one can learn the number and concentrations of components that are below the detection limit.

  Awards

• 1974 American Chemical Society Award for Chemical Instrumentation
• 1981 Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science
• 1989 American Chemical Society Award for Computers in Chemistry
• 1992 Michigan State University Distinguished Faculty Award
• 1993 Distinguished Contribution in Mass Spectrometry Award
• 2003 J. Calvin Giddings Award for Excellence in Education from Analytical Division of the American Chemical Society
• 2011 American Chemical Society Award in Analytical Chemistry
• 2011 Fellow, American Chemical Society
• 2014 Distinguished Service in the Advancement of Analytical Chemistry Award from the Analytical Division of the American Chemical Society
• 2015 Eastern Analytical Symposium Award for Outstanding Achievements in the Fields of Analytical Chemistry