Bruce A. Tomkins
Staff Research Scientist

B. A., 1973, University of Connecticut
M. S., 1975, Ph. D., 1978, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Staff Research Scientist, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, 1978 to present

Bruce A. Tomkins has published seventy open-literature papers, made fifty oral presentations, and written or co-authored fifty internal reports describing the trace- and ultratrace level determination of organic species in various matrices. His work relies heavily on a wide variety of analytical sampling procedures followed by gas or liquid chromatographic separations.

For thirteen years, he developed and certified new analytical procedures for the U. S. Army Rocky Mountain Arsenal for analytes and/or detection limits peculiar to site cleanup. Some of these methods permitted the detection of organochlorine pesticides and N-nitrosodimethylamine in groundwater at part-per-trillion levels. Other procedures quantitated manufacturing by-products of sarin, such as di-isopropyl methylphosphonate (DIMP) and dimethyl methylphosphonate (DMMP) in groundwater at part-per-billion concentrations. He developed and certified procedures for quantitating DIMP, DMMP, and degradation products of sulfur mustard in soil and crushed concrete. His latest work employs "solventless" solid phase microextraction (SPME) for the determination of chemical warfare agent degradation products such as Lewisite oxide in soil and organophosphorus pesticides in groundwater at part-per-billion concentrations. His work for the U. S. Army Rocky Mountain Arsenal is described in twenty peer-reviewed open-literature papers, ten oral presentations, and twenty-five internal reports.

Some of his latest work involves the coulometric determination of hydrazine in air and the quantitation of various calixarene extracting reagents used for scavenging radionuclides from certain processing fluids.

He completed a basic course in chemical weapons inspection offered by the United Nations Monitoring, Verification, and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) in 2002, and received advanced training in the same field in 2003. He is currently serving as a subject matter expert for chemical warfare agents with the Regional Technology Integration Initiative/Safe Cities effort for Memphis, TN.

His personal interests include the officiating of swimming at both the local and national level. He has officiated at three Olympic Trials and more than twenty national or regional championships.

Organic and Biological Mass Spectrometry Group Staff