Drouét Warren Vidrine Wins Williams-Wright Award

Drouét Warren Vidrine, of Vidrine Consulting, received the 2016 Williams-Wright Award from the Coblentz Society on March 9 at Pittcon 2016 in Atlanta, Georgia. The award recognizes his significant contributions in both instrument and application innovations, particularly those that have helped Fourier transform–infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) mature from a fragile laboratory technique to a ubiquitous industrial tool.

Vidrine received his PhD in physical chemistry from the University of South Carolina (Columbia, South Carolina). Among his accomplishments, Vidrine is responsible for the first flowcell LC–FT-IR accessory and the first patented SFC–FT-IR flowcell. He invented double-modulated FT-IR (with L. Nafie), and he invented the rigid silicon far-IR beamsplitter. He was the project manager for the development of the diamond-20 FT-IR analyzer (with D. Calhoun), and he invented a 3D structure for refractively scanned FT-IR (with Ponce).

Vidrine has been issued 12 patents, has been published in more than 50 reviewed journals, and has made 475 technical presentations.