Ewing Recognized for Research Achievements

18 September 2006 — Andrew Ewing, holder of the J. Lloyd Huck Chair in Natural Sciences, professor of chemistry, and professor of neural and behavioral sciences, has been honored with the American Chemical Society (ACS) Analytical Division Award in Chemical Instrumentation. Sponsored by the Dow Chemical Foundation, this award recognizes Ewing's work in the development of nanoscale methods based on electrochemical techniques, separation techniques, and mass-spectrometry imaging for the analysis of volume-limited samples, such as single nerve cells and the brains of fruit flies.

Ewing also has received the Eastern Analytical Symposium (EAS) Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Fields of Analytical Chemistry. This award is the premier award bestowed by the Eastern Analytical Symposium. It is presented to an individual who has demonstrated significant achievements in the multidisciplinary areas of analytical chemistry.

Ewing is one of the world's foremost leaders in developing nanoscale techniques and tools for understanding fundamental processes within the brain's individual cells. His techniques for measuring chemicals in the brain have enabled scientists to study the excretion of single neurotransmitter molecules from single nerve cells, as well as the chemicals that make up the cell membrane during the excretion process. "The importance of this work is that it provides a means to examine fundamental mechanisms underlying normal and abnormal neuronal function and how this function relates to illness, learning and memory, tolerance, and addiction, as well as the basic functioning of neuronal circuits," Ewing says.

Ewing's research has resulted in three major methods for monitoring nerve cells during their communications with each other: an electrochemistry technique using very small electrodes; a capillary electrophoresis technique capable of analyzing volumes less than one millionth of a rain drop; and a mass-spectrometry technique, developed in collaboration with Nick Winograd, Evan Pugh Professor of Chemistry, that is capable of imaging submicron sections of cell membranes.

In 2004, Ewing was named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). He previously received the National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator Award in 1987, both the Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship and a Camille and Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award in 1989, and the Swedish Medical Council Visiting Scientist Fellowship in 1991. He was honored with Penn State's Faculty Scholar Medal in Physical Sciences and Engineering in 1994, with the Penn State Graduate Faculty Teaching Award in 1997, with the Award for Outstanding Achievements in the Field of Capillary Electrophoresis from the Frederick Conference on Capillary Electrophoresis in 1999, and with the Benedetti-Pichler Award of the American Microchemical Society in 2000. He was a John Simon Guggenheim Fellow in 1999-2000, received a Distinguished Alumni Citation from Saint Lawrence University in 2001, and held a special creativity extension award from the National Science Foundation from 2001 to 2002. He is the author or co-author of more than 205 publications and serves on several advisory boards for journals and scientific meetings.

Ewing earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry, cum laude, at Saint Lawrence University in 1979 and a doctoral degree in analytical chemistry with a minor in biological chemistry at Indiana University in 1983. He was a research associate at the University of North Carolina from 1983 to 1984, when he joined the Penn State faculty as an assistant professor. Ewing was promoted to associate professor in 1989, then to professor in 1992. He was named adjunct professor of neuroscience and anatomy from 1995 to 2003 and served as co-director for the Neuroscience Option at Penn State from 1996 to 2000 and head of the Department of Chemistry from 1999 to 2004. He was named the J. Lloyd Huck Chair in Natural Sciences in 1999 and Professor of Neural and Behavioral Sciences in 2003.

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