UB’s Luis Colón receives ACS chromatography award

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Luis A. Colón, PhD, SUNY Distinguished Professor and A. Conger Goodyear Professor in the University at Buffalo Department of Chemistry, has received the Joseph J. Kirkland Award in Chromatography from the American Chemical Society (ACS).

Established this year by the ACS Division of Analytical Chemistry, the honor is an extension of the most prestigious ACS award in separation science, the ACS Award in Chromatography. The annual award recognizes outstanding contributions to the fields of chromatography, with consideration given to developments of new methods. 

Colón will receive $2,500 and participate in the division’s award ceremony at the ACS Fall National Meeting later this year in Washington, D.C., where a symposium will be held in his honor.

“I am truly honored and overwhelmed to be a part of an exceptionally distinguished group of leaders in the field of chromatography recognized with this award,” Colón says. 

Colón has made pioneering contributions to the advancement of chromatography, a laboratory process that involves separating chemical mixtures into their individual components.

His research is centered on developing materials to separate and analyze complex chemical or biochemical sample mixtures, such as biofluids, antiviral drugs in cells, protein digests, pharmaceutical drugs, and environmental samples. 

Colón’s work on one particular material has inspired numerous research groups and even catalyzed the commercialization of the material for chromatography. His silica hybrids combine particles of inorganic silica — the major component of sand — with an organic component. Their advantage is they’re stable at extreme pH levels, below 2 and above 11, whereas conventional materials are typically stable only between pH 2 and 8.

Colón’s influential studies and patents on the materials throughout the 1990s and 2000s showcased their benefits and applications. Organic-inorganic hybrid silica materials for chromatography were not commercially available prior to his work. 

Colón continues to further develop silica hybrids today. He is the principal investigator on a $457,080 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to develop silica hybrids for the detection of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), better known as forever chemicals. The materials will be fine-tuned for adsorbing PFAS and other pollutants at low levels within water samples.

In addition to his research, Colón has spent decades recruiting and encouraging students from his native Puerto Rico and other places to pursue advanced science degrees, recommending them for jobs and fellowships and paying their way to conferences when financial resources are scarce. As a result, many of his students have gone on to jobs in research and academia, corporations and in the pharmaceutical industry.      

Since joining UB in 1993, Colón has directly mentored over 50 graduate students, the majority of whom hail from underrepresented groups. Plus, more than 100 Hispanic American students have taken part in his summer internships, a model that several other institutions have replicated.

He is currently the co-principal investigator on a $500,000 grant from Alfred P. Sloan Foundation that expands a longstanding STEM graduate program pipeline between UB and his alma mater, the University of Puerto Rico at Cayey.

Colón received the 2024 Lifetime Mentor Award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). His other awards for mentorship include the 2016 ACS Award for Encouraging Disadvantage Students into Careers in the Chemical Sciences. In 2015, he was named by then-President Barack Obama as a recipient of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring.

He was also recently one of 18 Latin American researchers recognized by Chemical & Engineering News in their 2024 “Trailblazers” issue, which celebrates diversity in the world of chemistry. That was in addition to his inclusion on an NBC News list of 10 Latinos whose Hispanic heritage proudly informs their expertise, outlook and commitment to making things better. 

Colón served as a postdoctoral research fellow at Stanford University after receiving his PhD in analytical chemistry from the University of Massachusetts Lowell. He received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Puerto Rico at Cayey.