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Cynthia Larive is an American bioanalytical chemist known for developing new instrumentation and analysis techniques involving nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR) and mass spectrometry. She is currently a professor of chemistry and Divisional Dean for chemistry, mathematics, physics and astronomy in the college of natural and agricultural sciences at the University of California, Riverside. She is a fellow of AAAS, IUPAC and ACS, and editor of the Analytical Sciences Digital Library.
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Education and career
Larive received her bachelor of science from South Dakota State University in 1980, her masters of science degree from Purdue University in 1982, and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Riverside, in 1992.
Initially she was a professor in the chemistry department at the University of Kansas, and later joined the faculty of the University of California, Riverside, in 2007. Since 2004 she has served as the editor-in-chief of the Analytical Sciences Digital Library. She is also an editor of the journal Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry.
Research
Larive works in the field of bioanalytical chemistry, applying analytical tools such as nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR) and mass spectrometry to the products of chemical separations. Much of her research focuses on reducing the amount of sample needed for analysis, such as constructing microcoil NMR probes that can measure as little as 25 nL of sample and are usable as part of an capillary isotachophoresis apparatus. This has been applied to structure determination of heparin and heparan sulfate. She developed NMR pulse sequences to study protein ligand interactions in complexes with multiple ligands. She also researches analytical methods for metabolomics and chemogenomics for the reaction of plants to pesticides and hypoxia using NMR and mass spectroscopy.
NMR is often thought of as a low-sensitivity method, but Larive's laboratory has developed ways of increasing the sensitivity of their measurements to obtain precise chemical and structural information. The techniques she is developing are relevant to understanding carbohydrate structure and biosynthesis, designing new drugs and measuring the purity of pharmaceuticals. Her work in developing chemical profiles for substances also has relevance for the authentication of foodstuffs such as wine, olive oil, and pomegranate juice.
Awards
Larive has received a number of awards, including the National Science Foundation CAREER Award in 1995. She received the American Chemical Society Analytical Division's J. Calvin Giddings Award for Excellence in Education in 2007 and served as chair of the Analytical Division in 2013. In 2015, Larive received the Award for Volunteer Service to the American Chemical Society.
Larive is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) (2008), the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) (2004) and the American Chemical Society (ACS) (2011).