Meet our Cannabis Q+A Series panelists!
Potency Testing Troubleshooting
Thursday, September 30, 2021 
Time: 10:00 AM (PDT)
Moderator
  • Richard Jack
Panelists:
  • Sean Orlowicz
  • Zara Jalali
  • Zachary Woodward
  • Allee Stone
Pesticides Method Development and Applications
Thursday, October 14, 2021 
Time: 10:00 AM (PDT)
Moderator
  • Richard Jack
Panelists:
  • Sean Orlowicz
  • Zara Jalali
  • Genevieve Hodson
  • Diana Tran
Residual Solvents Most Common Challenges
Thursday, October 28, 2021 
Time: 10:00 AM (PDT)
Moderator
  • Richard Jack
Panelists:
  • Sean Orlowicz
  • Ramkumar Dhandapani
  • Zara Jalali
  • Zachary Woodward
Ramkumar Dhandapani, PhD
Ramkumar Dhandapani has been in the chromatography industry for over 17 years with hands-on and troubleshooting experience. He has earnt a Masters and PhD degree in Analytical chemistry from Seton Hall University with specialization in Microextractions, Multidimensional Gas Chromatography and Tandem Mass Specs techniques. He has developed and validated several regulatory compliant methods in Pharmaceutical, Food, Fuels and Environmental industry as well as incorporated method improvement and troubleshooting across a range of separation techniques. Dr. Dhandapani joined Phenomenex in August of 2014 and he serves as the Global Product Manager-Gas Chromatography at Phenomenex. In addition to managing the GC product line, Dr. Dhandapani presents on innovations in Gas Chromatography at various chromatography conference.
Genevieve Hodson
Genevieve Hodson graduated from the University of Texas with a BS in Chemistry located in her home town of Austin Texas. She spent 2 years of her undergraduate performing research in an Organic Chemistry Lab synthesizing intermediates. Out of school she spent 4 years as an Analytical Chemist in the QC and R&D Department of Cerilliant (a Sigma Millipore Company). There she worked with many analytical instruments but became an expert at LC by performing purity analysis, customer specific methods, validations, qc testing and stability studies on a wide range of small molecules including pharmaceuticals, pesticides, explosives and illegal substances. From there she moved to Los Angeles California where she worked at Johnson and Johnson and then a small dietary supplement company. After Genevieve spent a year living abroad in Israel raising her first son, she moved back to LA where she got hired as a Technical Specialist at Phenomenex. At Phenomenex she enjoys continuing to learn about chromatography every day through helping customer with all their chromatography needs!
Richard Jack, PhD
Richard Jack is the Global Market Development manager for the environmental and food markets at Phenomenex corporation. He has over 18 yrs. experience with chromatography and mass spectrometry for the environmental, food, cannabis, semiconductor, chemical, and pharmaceutical industries. Richard has collaborated with global regulatory agencies to develop validated methods through new applications, instrumentation, column chemistries, and software. He is a former EPA Scientific Advisor for the EPA’s panel on Hydraulic Fracturing, a coauthor for EPA 557 and 557.1 along with ASTM D8001 and updates to D4327 and D6919 methods. He is currently the Second Vice Chairman for the ASTM D19 subcommittee on water analysis. Previously Richard was a Vertical marketing manager with Thermo Fisher Scientific, Dionex and Hitachi High Technologies where he designed analytical instrumentation, including IC and HPLC systems, pumps, autosamplers, and a variety of detectors. He received his Ph.D. in biochemistry and anaerobic microbiology from Virginia Tech University in Blacksburg, VA, He received his Master’s in ecology from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, TN.
Zara Jalali
Zara Jalali has been working in the field of analytical chemistry for over 12 years. After receiving her master's degree in chemical engineering-separation sciences from IUST, Zara started her career in Pacific Toxicology laboratories, where she Performed variety of testing on biological samples using GC, GC-MS, LC, LC-MS, and ICP-MS instrumentation. In past 12 years she has been working in clinical, environmental, forensic toxicology and cannabis fields in positions of chemist, toxicologist, scientist, and director. Zara joined Phenomenex in 2020, mainly focusing on environmental, food and cannabis applications. She has been helping the costumers and the team with finding new solutions for the Cannabis testing markets while trying to improve analytical solutions for this dynamic market. 
Sean Orlowicz
Sean Orlowicz has been working in the field of analytical chemistry for over 17 years. After receiving his degree in Chemistry from the University of Illinois at Chicago, he started his career in large scale synthesis, using HPLC and GC techniques in reaction monitoring and purification.  Sean took this experience to Phenomenex in 2003, working on site with clients worldwide on method development, troubleshooting and method transfer.  Sean explored instrumentation for a few years, growing to specialize in LCMS, before returning to Phenomenex to help build and manage Phenomenex’ new applications laboratory. There he drove innovation in chromatographic method development for many market segments.  In 2017, Sean took on a Business Development role aimed at driving new solutions and support for the Cannabis testing markets, and has lead many efforts to improve analytical solutions for this dynamic market.
Allee Stone
Allee Stone is an Account Manager serving the Food, Beverage, Nutraceutical, and Cannabis Industries. Originally from northern California, Allee graduated from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo with a Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry. Prior to joining Phenomenex, she was an analytical chemist where she gained experience in IC and GC-MS techniques for a gas purification company. She has over seven years of experience as a chromatography consultant, and specializes in LC, GC and Sample Preparation techniques. 
Diana Tran
Diana Tran specializes in LC-MS/MS method development as an applications scientist at SCIEX. For the past 4 years, she has been actively involved in cannabis testing analysis and has had a hand in almost every cannabis method developed at SCIEX since then. Prior to joining SCIEX, she has done method development for Mass Spec R&D at Quest Diagnostics Nichols Institute and proteomics at UC Davis Proteomics Core Facility, combining expertise in both small and large molecule analysis for high throughput laboratories.
Zachary Woodward
Zachary Woodward is a Technical Specialist with Phenomenex, Inc, assisting laboratories in the bio-pharma, environmental, and food industries.  He regularly advises laboratories with project development and method troubleshooting with respect to sample preparation, and both gas and liquid chromatography.  Zachary spent his formative years as an analytical and organic chemist at AMRI in Albany, New York, for whom he developed LC and GC methods.   He then developed both solid-phase extraction and LC analytical methods in a clinical setting for Focus Diagnostics, after which he took a break from chemistry to teach middle-school science.  Zachary received his B.Sci. in Chemistry from the College of William and Mary, was awarded both his Master’s in Chemistry and his Teaching Credential at San Diego State University, and earned his musician callouses from years of playing the bass guitar.
By submitting you confirm that you have reviewed and agree to the terms of use and privacy policy.