Alex joined the Hieftje research group in Fall 2008 directly after receiving his BA in chemistry from Earlham College. As an undergraduate, Alex performed research both in the U.S. and abroad: at Earlham he researched mass spectrometric approaches for the determination of atrazine with Dr. Corinne Deibel and at the University of Technology in Graz, Austria he studied inorganic synthesis under the guidance of Dr. Frank Uhlig. Alex graduated from Earlham as a member of Phi Beta Kappa with Departmental and College Honors.
Upon matriculation into the Hieftje research group, Alex became engaged in the development of novel mass spectrometry (MS) instrumentation. In his first year in the lab, he focused on the characterization of a dual-source time-of-flight mass spectrometer. Since then, Alex’s research expanded to the development and characterization of a distance-of-flight mass spectrometry (DOFMS) instrument. Broadly, his research into DOFMS involves a fundamental exploration of the technique and the integration of new ion-detection technologies into this novel MS platform. For his research achievements at IU, Alex was awarded the Felix Haurowitz Award for Graduate Research and is supported as a Robert and Marjorie Mann Fellow. In addition to research, Alex has served as an associate instructor (similar to a TA) for several courses at Indiana University and was awarded the Associate Instructor Teaching Award in 2009.
