Quantum Northwest | About Us - Quantum Northwest

The Company

The headquarters of Quantum Northwest, Inc. is located in Liberty Lake, a growing high tech community near Spokane on the eastern side of Washington State. The Spokane area is a land of ponderosa pine and rock outcroppings sculpted in recent geological times by the great Missoula floods. We have a dry climate with much of the 17 inches of annual precipitation falling in the form of about 5 feet of winter snow. Our region is blessed with hundreds of lakes and other recreational opportunities in all directions. The Spokane area is the main distribution site for the Inland Northwest, a huge region incorporating eastern Washington, Idaho, western Montana and parts of Oregon and southern Canada. The very best of materials and processing facilities are readily available to us. Quantum Northwest remains a small company, working with a close-knit group of local vendors. You can count on the very best quality and immediate personal care for any concerns regarding our products. Dr. Enoch Small incorporated Quantum Northwest, Inc. in May 1993 after 22 years of federally-funded research using spectroscopy. Dr. Small continues to work closely with Dr. Louis Libertini, his research colleague of many years and his wife, Dr. Jeanne Rudzki Small, a pioneer in pulsed-laser photoacoustics. Our products are made by people who know how to use them.

Enoch Small, Ph.D., President

Dr. Small received his B.S. degree from Cornell University, followed by a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Oregon. As a faculty member first at Oregon State University and later at Eastern Washington University, he spent 15 years managing a federally-funded research program using time-resolved fluorescence to elucidate the conformational changes of nucleosomes.

As a biophysicist, Dr. Small has published 54 scientific articles on pulsed-laser photoacoustics, time-resolved fluorescence, Raman spectroscopy, deconvolution methods and rotational diffusion theory. Dr. Small founded Quantum Northwest in 1993 and continues to enjoy the challenges of finding unique solutions to instrumental problems.

Jeanne Rudzki Small, Ph.D., Chief Information Officer (On Leave of Absence)

Dr. Small spent five years as a Program Director at the National Science Foundation (NSF), in both the Division of Undergraduate Education (DUE) and the Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR), managing grants and cooperative agreements across the U.S. She has experience in academia, both as a Professor of Chemistry & Biochemistry (at Eastern Washington University) and as the Managing Director of the NSF-funded Science and Technology Center on Materials and Devices for Information Technology Research (at the University of Washington). Dr. Small has served as an external evaluator for an NSF project at the University of Memphis and as an adviser to several other research and education projects. Dr. Small was awarded two U.S. patents and is a recipient of the Margaret Oakley Dayhoff award of the Biophysical Society for her work in pulsed-laser photoacoustics. She received the B.S. degree in Chemistry, summa cum laude, from Trinity University in San Antonio in 1980. She attended graduate school at Harvard University, where she received the A.M. and Ph.D. degrees in Chemistry in 1983 and 1985.

Louis J. Libertini, Ph.D., Senior Scientist

Dr. Libertini received his B.S. degree in Chemistry from the University of Arizona and a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from the University of Oregon, where he worked on spin resonance of nitroxides. He was elected to Phi Kappa Phi and Phi Beta Kappa and was the recipient of NDEA and NSF predoctoral fellowships. Dr. Libertini spent three years as a postdoctoral research associate with Professor and Nobel Laureate, Melvin Calvin, at the Chemical Biodynamics Laboratory of the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory in Berkeley, California. He spent the subsequent three years at the Children’s Hospital Medical Center in Oakland, California and then accepted a position as Research Associate with Dr. Enoch Small while at Oregon State University. Drs. Small and Libertini have worked together for over two decades, building instrumentation, solving instrumental problems and developing data analysis strategies. Dr. Libertini is the detail person in our company, capable of computer programming, instrument design, and scientific testing. Dr. Libertini is the person who makes things work.

Steve Turpin, General Manager

Steve Turpin is in charge of manufacturing operations at Quantum Northwest. His responsibilities run the full gamut, supervising employees, working with the design team, sourcing parts, cajoling vendors, maintaining a data base of parts and assemblies, and directing instrument fabrication. Before joining Quantum Northwest in October 1998, Steve worked on arc lamps, pulsed electric field generators (to 8 MV!), electron beam generators, vacuum systems, and HeNe and Argon lasers. Among his numerous abilities, Steve is trained and skilled on machine tools including lathes, mills, saws, drill presses, etc. Steve holds an A.S. degree in Electronics Engineering Technology from the ITT Technical Institute in San Diego, CA. The high quality of our product depends on Steve’s extraordinary attention to detail. Nothing is shipped from Quantum Northwest without his approval.

Steve Hart, Design Engineer

Steve Hart, Design Engineer, is in charge of mechanical design at Quantum Northwest. He joined us in October 1998 and helped us to upgrade our mechanical design team from 2-D AutoCAD to 3-D Solid Modeling methods.

Steve’s main expertise lies in the design of precision mechanisms. He is also an expert in manufacturing processes, parametric 3-D solid modeling, rapid prototyping, material properties, GD&T and ASME Y14.5 standards. Steve is responsible for the solid modeling design of our entire product line of temperature-controlled cuvette holders. Steve’s unique knowledge of the design of spectroscopic components, particularly involving Peltier temperature control, is responsible for the high performance and longevity of our products.

Kelcey Boss, Office Manager

Kelcey is in charge of our front office, coordinating the functions that keep our company in operation. She received her A.S. in Business Administration from North Idaho College. Kelcey will be happy to help you select the product you need and provide price quotations.

Bob DuBrock, Project Leader

Bob is the lead person on individual manufacturing projects. Before joining our team, Bob had 24 years of experience in project engineering and management, spending most of this time at KVB-Enertec, Inc., where as Senior Project Engineer, he constructed, designed and managed projects for continuous emission monitoring and data acquisition systems.

Chris Berg, Electronic Engineer

Electronic design is performed by Chris, an expert in temperature control and in the use of embedded microcontrollers for electronic interfacing with mechanical devices. Chris designs the circuitry, directs electronic fabrication and generates the required firmware.

Brent Hagen, Technician

Brent is in charge of temperature controller assembly and calibration.

Matt Springer, Technician

Matt builds our cuvette holders and custom products. His expertise is in mechanical and hydraulic assembly and electrical applications.

Dustin Gabel, Electronic/Mechanical Assembler

Dustin is an IPC-610 certified electronic assemblies specialist. He prepares the components and assemblies that are built into our cuvette holders and custom products.