Professor Publishes Primer on Chemometrics
Gerard Dumancas, Ph.D., associate professor of chemistry at The University of Scranton, published a digital primer titled “Spectroscopic and Chemometric Techniques for Pharmaceutical Applications” through the American Chemical Society (ACS), one of the largest scientific societies and the premier home of chemistry professionals with over 155,000 members worldwide. The peer-reviewed and by invitation only ACS primer focuses on providing basic content about various spectroscopic and chemometric tools in pharmaceutical analyses. In collaboration with five professors and scientists from throughout the world, the primer has been purchased by over 300 libraries worldwide to date and is also available for sale to individuals through Google Play.
According to Dr. Dumancas, chemometrics is a highly-specialized discipline that uses statistics and computer applications in analytical chemistry. The primary goal of chemometrics is to utilize various statistical, mathematical and software techniques to develop analytical methods that can interpret data in a more meaningful manner. In pharmaceutical industries, chemometrics is essentially used for quality control of laboratory results, drug development and synthesis, as well as toxicity classification and prediction of drug efficacy to name a few. Utilizing chemometrics reduces time of analysis and minimizes the use of chemicals, thereby providing industries with time and cost-saving resources to optimize results.
The digital primer provides chemists across all levels an overview on important chemometrics topics in just three to four hours.
“A nice introductory overview of the potential of chemometrics for pharmaceutical analysis, which couples a wide overview of the instrumental possibilities and, at the same time, of the possible applications. Good for people who don’t want to struggle much with the theory while focusing on the practical use of the techniques,” as noted by Federico Marini, Ph.D., of the University of Rome La Sapienza in Spain who also served as one of the chemometrician reviewers for the primer.
Dr. Dumancas joined the faculty of The University of Scranton in the spring of 2022 and has then generated 18 peer reviewed publications in high-impact factor journals. Over the course of his academic career, he has won seven international and one U.S. national awards for excellence in research from the American Chemical Society, American Oil Chemists’ Society and the Society for Laboratory Automation and Screening. In 2018, he was awarded by the former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte with a Balik Scientist Award as one of the Outstanding Scientists of the Philippines.
In 2022, Dr. Dumancas, received a $1.158 million National Science Foundation funded Noyce Scholars grant to support future science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) high school teachers in high-need school districts.
Dr. Dumancas earned his bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of the Philippines and his Ph.D. in analytical chemistry from Oklahoma State University.