Rate My Professor Michael Webb

Michael Webb is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. He earned his Ph.D. from Indiana University. His research specializations and academic interests lie in analytical atomic spectrometry, including fundamentals and instrumentation development, solution-cathode glow discharge, atmospheric pressure glow discharges, optical emission spectrometry with compact spectrographs, elemental analysis of solutions and complex mixtures, imaging and spatial profiling of plasma species, effects of organic additives on plasma properties, miniaturized and portable plasma sources for high-throughput analysis, surface elemental mapping, and chemical modifiers for signal enhancement.

In his laboratory, Webb focuses on instrument and technique development for diverse analytical spectroscopy applications, such as solution-cathode glow discharge for detecting trace metals in liquid samples, spectral imaging for extracting chemical information from images including forgery detection, and microcontroller-based spectroscopy using Arduinos, LEDs, and 3D printing for inexpensive educational and field instruments. He is a member of the graduate faculty. Key publications include "EXPRESS: Landmark Publications in Analytical Atomic Spectrometry: Fundamentals and Instrumentation Development" (2024), "Imaging studies of emission and laser scattering from a solution-cathode glow discharge" (2020), "Monochromatic spatial imaging of the liquid sampling – Atmospheric pressure glow discharge: Effects of gas flow on spatial profiles of analyte and background species" (2019), "Alternative Atomic Spectroscopy" (2017), "Measurement of sample and plasma properties in solution-cathode glow discharge and effects of organic additives on these properties" (2015), "Improvements to a Grating-Based Spectral Imaging Microscope and Its Application to Reflectance Analysis of Blue Pen Inks" (2015), "Signal enhancement in solution-cathode glow discharge - Optical emission spectrometry via low molecular weight organic compounds" (2013), "Solution–cathode glow discharge – optical emission spectrometry of a new design and using a compact spectrograph" (2013), and a patent "Ambient-atmosphere glow discharge for determination of elemental concentration in solutions in a high-throughput or transient fashion" (2011). His work has received over 1,700 citations.