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Dr. Polite is the President and Founder of Axion Analytical Laboratories, Inc, and Axion Training Institute. Axion is the premier chromatography training organization in the US. In his position, Lee is responsible for all HPLC and GC method development, troubleshooting, consulting, and training. Axion Labs was founded by Dr. Polite in 1995, and specializes in all aspects of chromatography research including environmental tobacco smoke, detection of explosive vapors (bomb detection), carbohydrates, organic acids, basic compounds, high-speed HPLC, ion chromatography, and high-resolution gas chromatography.

He received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University under the direction of Professor Harold McNair (one of the top chemistry professors in the country). His studies included HPLC and Ion Chromatography. His Masters in Business Administration (MBA) was awarded by Northwestern University's Kellogg Graduate School of Management (rated #1 business school in the country during the years Dr. Polite was attending), with concentration in marketing and strategy. He received his Bachelor of Arts Degree (BA) in Chemistry, with a Physics Minor, from DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, where he was a Rector Scholar, a member of Sigma Pi Sigma (Physics honor society) and Sigma Xi (Chemistry honor society). Dr. Polite's high school years were spent at Culver Military Academy in Culver, Indiana where he was a member of the Blue Key Honor Society, competed internationally as the captain of the fencing team, and achieved the rank of First Lieutenant and served as executive officer.

Dr. Polite spent 9 years with Amoco Corporation, where he held a variety of positions related to chromatography, including group leader of HPLC research. He developed all new HPLC methods for Amoco Chemical Company (the worlds largest producer of terephthalic acid and other organic chemicals), Amoco Oil Company (the largest refiner and marketer of gasoline in the United States), Amoco Biotechnology Company (a research and development company specializing in medical diagnostics, and gene therapy), and Amoco Laser Company (the producer of chip-based laser systems). Lee also spent time as the supervisor of the Environmental Analytical Research Group where he managed all environmental analysis efforts for the Amoco Companies. Dr. Polite solidified his management experience as the Laboratory Manager of the Whiting Indiana Refinery. The Whiting refinery is one of the largest and oldest in the world, with a crude oil capacity of nearly 400,000 barrels per day, a laboratory operation consisting of 150 employees and a daily analytical throughput of over 1000 samples.

Dr. Polite has taught chromatography courses for more than 24 years to a variety of professionals throughout the world. Lee is presently professor in charge of the American Chemical Society's "Fundamentals of HPLC Course", taught several times each year at the national ACS meetings. He is also the sole supplier of the popular hands-on HPLC and GC courses to the ACS. He has also served as chromatography instructor for the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) Academy, the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA), the New York City Police Department's crime laboratory, Hewlett Packard, Agilent Technologies, Phenomenex, and pharmaceutical, petroleum, chemical and environmental companies in 15 nations. Dr. Polite has authored a number of publications, including 3 book chapters on High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC).