Paul J. Gemperline

Paul J. Gemperline (born 1955) is an American analytical chemist and chemometrician. He is a Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at East Carolina University (ECU) located in Greenville, North Carolina and has been the recipient of several scientific awards, including the 2003 Eastern Analytical Symposium Award in Chemometrics. He is author of more than 60 publications in the field of chemometrics. His dissertation was titled, "The Design of the Laboratory Network DISNET."

In 2014 CSU recognized Gemperline as a distinguished alumnus. He received the Helms Award for Outstanding Research from the East Carolina University Chapter of Sigma Xi in 1987, the East Carolina University Distinguished Research Professor of Chemistry (award for 5-year achievement and permanent title) in 1999, and in 2001 was made an East Carolina University College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor of Chemistry,

In 2003 Gemperline joined the university administration as associate vice chancellor of research and graduate studies. He became dean of the Graduate School in 2008 and remained in that position until his retirement in 2022.

Scientific career Gemperline came to the notice of a larger scientific community in 1984 with the publication of a paper describing DISNET in the Journal of Automated Methods and Management in Chemistry. (The journal title was changed to Journal of Analytical Methods in Chemistry in 2013.) Gemperline and his colleagues provided methodologies which underlay the improvements in calibration accuracy, computer-based data acquisition and mathematical analysis in chemometrics. The qualitative advances helped open new scientific fields such as molecular modeling and QSAR, cheminformatics, the '-omics' fields of genomics, proteomics, metabonomics and metabolomics, process modeling and process analytical technology.

Gemperline is a self-taught chemometrician, and he has been most influential by dispersing knowledge of his chemometric methodologies through his publications. Perhaps the best example of this is his book, Practical Guide to Chemometrics, for which he served as both editor and as a contributor. Better process methods can create inflection points that became the foundation for radical improvements and transitions in the scientific enterprise. It can be decades before the implications of particular advances are intuited, especially those related to the basic training of the next generations of chemists. His research in chemometrics has been "focused on development of new algorithms and software tools for analysis of multivariate spectroscopic measurements using pattern recognition methods, artificial neural networks, multivariate statistical methods, multivariate calibration, and non-linear model estimation." Sandia National Laboratories researcher, David Haaland, called Gemperline a "chemometrician extraordinaire," with a "deep understanding of chemometrics" and "wide-ranging" contributions to the research literature, and said after his first meeting with Gemperline he "always read his publications and attended his talks at conferences knowing that I would learn something new every time." Gemperline collaborated with Burroughs Wellcome in the 1980s to develop software for multivariate pattern recognition analysis of near-infrared reflectance spectra for rapid, non-destructive testing of pharmaceutical ingredients and products. His research and publications in this area furthered his international recognition.

Gemperline served as the editor-in-chief of Journal of Chemometrics for ten years, from 2007 to 2017, and before that as the North American editor for five years, from 1996 to 2001. He joined the editorial advisory board of Spectroscopy Magazine in 2020.

Personal life Outside of his scientific, teaching and administrative pursuits, Gemperline enjoys cycling, sailing, kayaking, photography 2001: East Carolina University College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, Lifetime Achievement Award 2003: Eastern Analytical Symposium Award for Achievement in Chemometrics. 2010: Applied Spectroscopy William F. Meggers Award for outstanding paper appearing in Applied Spectroscopy

Publications

Gemperline is author of more than 60 peer-reviewed publications in the field of Chemometrics.

His most-cited publication is his book, Practical Guide to Chemometrics (CRC Press), for which he served as both editor and as a contributor. The chapters he contributed were based on the teaching notes he had developed at East Carolina University for use with undergraduate and master's degree level students.