Customer Reviews

Chemometrics: A Practical Guide (Wiley-Interscience Series on Laboratory Automation)

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The authors have put together a supremely useful guide to actually using chemometric techniques, as opposed to academic research. Consequently, my copy is getting dog-eared from frequent use. Perhaps the most helpful part of the book is the multitude of tables that explain when each different technique might best be used, and how to understand and interpret the diagnostics that arise from the calculations. The table of questions to ask BEFORE an experiment is worth the price of the book. If you're trying to write new chemometric algorithms, buy something else. But if you're trying to apply chemometric techniques in the 'real world' with the highest information-to-effort ratio, you need a copy of this book.

Chemometrics by Beebe et al. is my first recommendation to colleagues interested in the successful use and theory of chemometrics. It is a user focused book with theory sufficient to guide the appropriate and informed use of chemometric techniques in a variety of analyses. It is a "hard read" in the best sense of that phrase. You will probably have to work at getting through this book, but you do not need a degree in mathematics to understand and enjoy it.

If you are using one of the many "shrink wrapped" chemometrics software packages available today, and you are troubled by these techniques great utility, and your limited understanding of the underlying theory, Beebe is a great a place to start.

Admittedly, I'm biased as the authors are friends. However, this is one of the best books on chemometrics, particularly for those who have some exposure to the subject and wish to learn more. The authors have drawn on their years of experience explaining complex results to non-expert clients to present some complex mathematical ideas in an understandable fashion.