Professor Bernhard Welz, Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil, celebrates his 75th birthday today on October 5th. Welz is a world-leading researcher in the field of analysis, in particular atomic absorption spectrometry, inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, and the application of these techniques to environmental and oil and coal analysis.

Bernhard Welz was born in Augsburg, Germany, and received his Ph.D. in Chemistry at the University of Stuttgart, Germany, in 1966. He joined the instrument manufacturer Perkin Elmer, Überlingen, Germany, in 1967. Here, he worked first as Application Specialist for Atomic Absorption Spectrometry, then as Product Manager Atomic Spectroscopy, and finally from 1982–1998 as Director of Applied Research Atomic Spectroscopy. In 1999, he moved to Brazil to become a Visiting Professor, and later a Voluntary Professor, at the Federal University of Santa Catarina, where he teached instrumental analytical chemistry and atomic spectroscopy.

Welz has more than 200 publications in various international journals and he is the author of several books on Atomic Absorption Spectrometry (AAS).

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Some of Bernhard Welz’s books:

High-Resolution Continuum Source AAS: The Better Way to Do Atomic Absorption Spectrometry
B. Welz, H. Becker-Ross, S. Florek, U. Heitmann,
Wiley-VCH, Weinheim, Germany, 2005.
ISBN: 978-3-527-30736-4

Atomic Absorption Spectrometry
B. Welz, M. Sperling,
Wiley-VCH, Weinheim, Germany, 1998.
ISBN: 978-3-527-28571-6

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