Research in our group generally involves the areas of spectrochemical analysis, chemical instrumentation, and information theory; with particular emphasis on mass spectrometry and optical techniques in the ultraviolet, visible, and infrared regions. Current projects include studies on basic atom formation, ionization, and excitation processes in flames and rare-gas plasmas, for use in atomic emission, absorption, mass, and fluorescence spectrometry; the development of new atomic methods of analysis; instrumental techniques to reduce the effects of background noise on measurements; computer-assisted chemical analysis; remote analysis based on fiber optics; near-infrared reflectance analysis; development of chromatographic detectors; plasma-source mass spectrometry; and picosecond time-resolved luminescence spectroscopy.