Welcome to my USC web site. I try to keep things reasonably updated but, as you can expect, this web site is a continual work in progress, so bear with me.

I have wide ranging research and teaching interests in analytical chemistry and applied statistics. My graduate work, with Professor Stan Deming at Emory University and at the University of Houston, involved applications of experimental design and optimization to analytical methods development (chemometics). I (and my graduate students) have done research in capillary gas chromatography (GC), GC/mass spectrometry (MS), analytical pyrolysis, liquid chromatography, and analytical microbiology, and other areas. More recently, Dr. Scott Goode and I have developed a laser pyrolysis system based on a UV laser coupled to GC/time-of-flight MS and are using it for spatially selective analysis of synthetic and natural polymers.

Forensic analytical chemistry has interested me since since the 1980's, and my research group started doing research projects in forensic analytical chemistry in the early 90's. We are currently involved in developing improved methods of analysis for forensic trace evidence such as textile fibers, drugs of abuse, hair, and polymers (such as adhesive tape and tire rubber). Our work in fiber analysis has the overall objective of understanding the scientific basis and establishing the validity of new methods for forensic fiber examinations.

Techniques used in our lab include UV-vis and Raman microspectroscopy, both heated filament and laser pyrolysis GC/MS, liquid chromatography, and fast GC/MS. We recently acquired a capillary electrophoresis instrument that we have interfaced to a Q-TOF mass spectrometer, as well as a Agilent CE instrument. My interests in chemometrics have expanded into pattern recognition applied to multivariate chemical data.

My collaborators in the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry include Drs. Angel, Ferry, Ferguson, Goode, and Myrick. Please visit their web sites also.

I teach undergraduate and graduate courses in analytical chemistry at USC; I also teach, with Stan Deming, continuing education courses on experimental design and statistics for the American Chemical Society (Washington, DC) and for Statistical Designs (Houston, TX).

Please take the time to browse the information here on our work and my teaching. Contact me if you are interested, if you need further information, or if I can be of assistance to you.

Best wishes,

Steve Morgan