Andrew (Andy) T. Weakley graduated in 2014 with a PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Idaho. As a graduate student, Dr. Weakley developed several model-free baseline correction algorithms applicable to vibrational spectra containing uni- and bidirectional bands, quantified the hard and soft segment fraction of mixed thermoplastic polyurethanes using partial least squares (PLS) with Raman spectroscopy, and developed a variable selection algorithm known as backward Monte Carlo Unimportant Variable Elimination (BMCUVE). Presently, Dr. Weakley is post-doctoral fellow at the Air Quality Research Center (AQRC) at the University of California, Davis continuing to advance chemometric techniques in the atmospheric sciences by developing and implementing source-sensitive multilevel PLS methodologies to quantifying organic and elemental (“soot”) carbon in ambient particulate matter. Other research and interest areas include the near-infrared analysis of agriculture samples, mid-infrared forensic analysis, PLS latent variable interpretation, and chemometric education.

Areas of expertise: analytical services, FTIR, multivariate analysis