Richard Stokes

BSc (Honours) MSc CChem FRSC

A Chartered Chemist and a Consultant/Trainer for scientific end-users and instrumental manufacturers across all industries. 

I specialise in Gas Chromatography, Mass Spectrometry and related techniques, having gained over twenty three years experience within high throughput Environmental and Food contract laboratories. Early in my career I ran USEPA VOC and SVOC methods and went on to cover a wide range of semi-volatile suites including many miscellaneous pesticides.

As commercial pressures increased in the last two decades, speeding up analytical methodologies whilst simultaneously improving quality and limits of detection, that is to say ‘method miniaturisation’, became a hot topic and is a subject that continues to interest me and drive my thinking when developing applications to evaluate authenticity in essential oils.

I use GCMS-QQQ to quantify over 100 pesticides and the same instrument together with FID to identify and then measure 67 allergens. GCxGC-TOFMS will be the final piece in my jigsaw where the power of the second dimension and principal component analysis will future-proof my laboratory’s analytical portfolio.