Jay Grate, Ph.D.
Laboratory Fellow, Fundamental and Computational Sciences Directorate, Chemical and Material Sciences Division, Material SciencesCurrent Activities and Projects
Dr. Grate has a distinguished career in chemical microsensors and microfluidics integrating aspects of chemical, material and measurement sciences into new microanalytical principles, methods, and systems.
His research interests in the chemical microsensors have focused on the interactions of organic vapors with polymeric sensing materials and the development of chemical sensing arrays whose data is processed by multivariate analysis techniques. His studies have addressed issues such as vapor/polymer interactions, sorption equilibria, polymer design and synthesis, and development of prototype sensor array systems with automated sampling and pattern recognition.
Dr. Grate also established a research program at Pacific Northwest in analytical microfluidics with applications in environmental characterization, automated radiochemical analysis, radionuclide sensing, medical isotope separations, pathogen detection, DNA processing, cell-based sensors, and biomolecular interaction studies. He and his coworkers have developed the field of sequential injection separations and invented several methods of renewable surface separations and sensing.
As Technical Group Leader for Microsensors and Microfluidics, Dr. Grate directs the efforts of this research program, which he established after he arrived at PNNL in 1992. As Laboratory Fellow, Dr. Grate continues to oversee his many sensor and materials related research projects.
Research Interests
- Polymeric and nanoparticle sensing materials
- Chemical interactions and selectivity
- Array-based chemical vapor detection
- Advanced chemometric methods
- Flow injection and sequential injection analysis
- Renewable surface separation and sensing
- Automated radiochemical analysis and radionuclide sensors
- Bioanalytical sample processing and detection
- Biomolecular interaction analysis
- Pathogen detection
Past Experience
Prior to PNNL, Dr. Grate worked as a research chemist at the Naval Research Laboratory from 1984 to 1992, and spent a year of sabbatical research at The Scripp's Research Institute. He is a member of the American Chemical Society and the Electrochemical Society, and serves as a member of the Executive Committee of the Sensors Group in the Electrochemical Society.
Education
PhD, chemistry, University of California, San Diego, 1983
MS, chemistry, University of California, San Diego, 1980
BA, Honors in chemistry, Rollins College (summa cum laude), 1978
