Ask the Expert

Dr. Richard Burrows is a Corporate Technical Director for TestAmerica’s network of laboratories in the United States. His duties include implementing new technology, improving existing methods, and leading technical groups within TestAmerica. Dr. Burrows has over 30 years of experience in analytical chemistry in academic and commercial laboratory settings.

He has been actively involved with environmental methods and techniques through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), American Council of Independent Laboratories (ACIL), and Environmental Laboratory Advisory Board (ELAB) organizations. His work has involved bringing new perspectives to method detection limits (MDLs), calibration, quality assurance and quality control (QA/QC), and method development.

Dr. Burrows is currently Chair of the NELAC Institute's (TNI) Environmental Measurement Methods Expert Committee, and is twice recipient of the ACIL Preston Millar Award.

Dr. Burrows has a Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry from the University of Bristol, England, and performed research in gas chromatography and mass spectrometry at San Diego State University.

Professional Affiliations

Chair of the Technical Committee of the American Council of Independent Laboratories.

Professional Activities

On August 14, 2008, Dr. Burrows presented on a new procedure designed to determine method detection and quantitation limits at the 2008 National Environmental Monitoring Conference (NEMC) in Washington, DC.

This procedure, pioneered by Dr. Burrows and further developed under his leadership in association with an EPA sponsored Federal Advisory Committee, is intended to replace the current method detection limit (MDL) procedure found in Title 40 of the Code of Federal Regulations.

Presentations

Analysis of Flue Gas Desulfurization Wastewaters by ICP-MS

Detection, Quantification and Calibration: Impacts on Data Quality in Environmental Chemistry Webinar

Analysis of flue gas desulfurization wastewaters by Agilent 7700x ICP-MS; Richard Burrows, TestAmerica Laboratories Inc. USA, Steve Wilbur, Agilent Technologies Inc. USA

Turning Data into Information by Richard Burrows 2010