17th MDCW 2026 - Short Course (Day 0)

A Beginner’s Guide to Multidimensional Chromatography

Instructors:

• Pierre-Hugues Stefanuto (University of Liège)
• Katelynn Perrault Uptmor (William & Mary)
• Dwight Stoll (Gustavus Adolphus College)
• Petr Vozka (California State University Los Angeles)

Course Description

So...you want to do multidimensional chromatography? If you are getting started in the field using either liquid or gas chromatography, you’re in the right place. 

This course will cover a brief history and introduction to both multidimensional gas chromatography and multidimensional liquid chromatography. Discussion will also include basic system components and data handling strategies to apply after acquiring your data. A hands-on portion of the course will also include familiarization with common system components and consumables for both GC and LC, as well as the opportunity to use a commercial GC×GC instrument.

MDCW: 17th MDCW 2026 - Short Course (Day 0)

Agenda

8:30 AM – 9:00 AM Registration and Welcome Activity

9:00 AM – 10:00 AM Part I – History, Terminology, Fundamental Concepts

• Brief history of the development of multidimensional separations
• Terminology
• Fundamental Concepts

MDCW: 17th MDCW 2026 - Short Course (Day 0)

10:00 AM – 10:30 AM Coffee Break

10:30 AM – 12:00 PM Part II – Introduction to Multidimensional GC

• Method basics (column selection, method parameters, carrier gas choices, detector considerations)
• Modulator selection (thermal, flow, others)
• Method development made simple
• Data preprocessing and initial handling

MDCW: 17th MDCW 2026 - Short Course (Day 0)

12:00 PM – 1:00 PM Lunch

1:00 PM – 2:00 PM Part III – Introduction to Multidimensional LC

• Modes of multidimensional separation commonly used with LC (heartcut, multiple heartcut/selective comprehensive, fully comprehensive)
• Interfaces used for multidimensional LC
• Common use cases of multidimensional LC (industry and academic research examples)
• Introduction to method development strategies

MDCW: 17th MDCW 2026 - Short Course (Day 0)

2:00 PM – 3:00 PM Part IV – Laboratory Instrument Familiarization – Rotations 1 & 2

MDCW: 17th MDCW 2026 - Short Course (Day 0)

MDCW: 17th MDCW 2026 - Short Course (Day 0)

3:00 PM – 4:00 PM Part IV – Laboratory Instrument Familiarization – Rotations 3 & 4

• Participants will be put in small groups and rotate to different stations to familiarize with a variety of GC and LC components used for multidimensional systems including:
  • Rotation 1: 2D LC – Interfaces, valves, columns, acquisition software
  • Rotation 2: GC×GC – Tuning, sequence setup, acquisition
  • Rotation 3: GC×GC – Hardware and consumables
  • Rotation 4: GC×GC – Data processing examples

MDCW: 17th MDCW 2026 - Short Course (Day 0)

MDCW: 17th MDCW 2026 - Short Course (Day 0)

4:00 PM – 4:30 PM Final Wrap-Up and Discussion