Research Interests: Analytical Chemistry, Environmental Analysis, Instrumentation

Dr. Godbey's research interests include the development and application of spectroscopic and chromatographic methods in the analysis of complex mixtures. In recent work, individual standards of the natural pyrethrin insecticides have been prepared by the HPLC semi-preparative scale separation of pyrethrum extract to obtain the six insecticidal components (pyrethrin I, cinerin I, jasmolin I, pyrethrin II, cinerin II, and jasmolin II). A stability study of these compounds is ongoing to determine the conditions needed to maintain the purity of these individual standards during storage. Further studies are planned to clarify the chemical and physical properties of the pyrethrins and future work may include studies of the bioaccumulation of these widely used natural insecticides.

Other ongoing work involves the analysis of environmental samples for common pesticides and for chemical markers (such as caffeine) that could assist in the indication of the sources of environmental contamination. Chromatographic and immunoassay methods are being utilized and compared in ongoing studies of Kentucky surface waters and may be extended to other types of environmental samples.