Burtis began his career at ORNL as a postdoctoral research associate in the Analytical Chemistry Division, becoming a permanent staff member in the Oak Ridge Body Fluids Analysis Group. He later served as group leader of the Centrifugal Analyzer Group in the Molecular Anatomy Program, coordinator of the Chemical Technology Division's biotechnology program and technical consultant to the UT-Battelle drug testing programs. In addition, he spent one year as a senior chemist at Varian Aerograph in Walnut Creek, Calif., and three years as the chief of the Analytical Biochemistry Branch for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
His major accomplishments at ORNL include the application of liquid chromatography to the separation of compounds of biological interest, development and application of centrifugal analyzers to automated clinical analyses and development of technology to detect and measure environmental toxicants.
Burtis has worked in the ORNL Health Services Division since 1998. His responsibilities include oversight of the clinical laboratory, technical consultant to the drug testing program and quality assurance coordinator for the Health Services Division. He is also an adjunct Professor of Clinical Pathology at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.
He has published over 125 articles in the general area of biological analyses and currently is the senior editor of the Tietz Textbook of Clinical Chemistry and the Tietz Fundamentals of Clinical that are now in their 3rd and 5th editions, respectively.
He has been active in several professional organizations, serving as president of the American Association of Clinical Chemistry and on the Board of Directors of the National Committee on Clinical Laboratory Standards. He currently is the Vice President of the International Federation of Clinical Chemistry.
A native of Montrose, Colo., Burtis earned a bachelor's degree in nutrition from Colorado State University and a master's and doctorate in biochemistry from Purdue University.
ORNL is a DOE multiprogram research facility managed by UT-Battelle. —Amy Merrick