Cawse, James N. 1945–

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CAWSE, James N. 1945–

PERSONAL: Born November 27, 1945, in Staten Island, NY; son of Alfred J. (a judge) and Janet (a teacher; maiden name, Decker) Cawse; married Marietta Rapetti (a school counselor), July 13, 1974; children: Lauren, Jeanne. Ethnicity: "White." Education: Wesleyan University, B.A., 1967; Stanford University, Ph.D., 1973.

ADDRESSES: Office—General Electric Global Research, 1 Research Circle, Niskayuna, NY 12309. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Union Carbide, Charleston, WV, research chemist, 1974–79; General Electric Global Research, Niskayuna, NY, research chemist, 1980–.

MEMBER: American Chemical Society, American Society for Quality.

WRITINGS:

(Editor and contributor) Experimental Design for Combinatorial and High Throughput Materials Development, John Wiley and Sons (New York, NY), 2002.

Contributor to scientific journals, including Journal of Combinatorial Chemistry, Accounts of Chemical Research, Polymer Testing, and Progress in Organic Coatings.

SIDELIGHTS: James N. Cawse told CA: "A few years ago I was invited to join a groundbreaking effort in combinatorial chemistry at General Electric as an experimental strategist. I found that combinatorial and high throughput experimentation methods were changing the materials development world as thoroughly as they changed the drug discovery world in the last decade. Advances in chemistries, analytical techniques, preparation methods, software, and hardware have made this a tremendously exciting area to work in. Entirely new approaches were needed to deal with the explosion in experimental capability. As materials scientists, we started thinking differently, attacking research areas as entire units rather than proceeding from experiment to experiment.

"As a relatively unusual chemist with extensive training and experience in experimental design, I had the marvelous opportunity to think deeply about the key intellectual step of planning the experiments. I realized that, with the experimental horsepower now eas-ily accessible, the experimenter really needed to map a route before careening across the landscape. In this effort I was aided by a world-class team at General Electric Global Research and, as I began to work on the book, a very strong group of contributors. It was great fun and a super education just trying to understand the mathematical, statistical, and chemical depth of their contributions!"