Paul Willetts is an analytical chemistry researcher associated with studies of laboratory performance and analytical sampling. The recovery-information report lists him at the MAFF Food Science Laboratory in Norwich, establishing the identity independently of unrelated authors with the same name.[ref]
With Michael Thompson, Sharron Anderson, Paul Brereton and Roger Wood, Paul Willetts studied collaborative sampling of wheat and green coffee from bulk lots. Multiple samplers allowed the study to distinguish variation under different sampling conditions. Between-sampler variation contributed significantly for two wheat analytes; the coffee results showed significant sampling-repeatability variation without a detected significant sampling-reproducibility contribution.[ref]
The measurement begins before material reaches the instrument. For an original illustration, two perfectly repeatable preparations might contain and because the collected portions differ. Repeating each instrument reading a hundred times would not make those portions identical. Measurement repeatability within a portion and measurement reproducibility across the relevant procedures therefore cannot be inferred from the same replication design.
Paul Willetts also coauthored the recovery-information guidance. Together these contributions emphasize that sample matrix, material selection, preparation loss and stated measurement uncertainty belong in the interpretation of an analytical result. They cannot all be assessed by repeatedly reading a single prepared solution.
Sharron Anderson 2026-11-05
Sharron Anderson is an author of research on analytical sampling and laboratory measurement of food. The primary byline of the2002 collaborative sampling study identifies her with Michael Thompson, Paul Willetts, Paul Brereton and Roger Wood.[ref]
The team had multiple samplers collect portions of wheat and green coffee from bulk material. Its findings separated variation under different collection conditions, showing that the variability observed for one food could not simply be assumed for the other.[ref]
An original example illustrates the experimental logic. Repeated readings of one extract might give10.0,10.1 and9.9 concentration units, while a second independently collected portion gives14.0,14.1 and13.9. Each extract is measured consistently, but the collection-to-collection difference is much larger. A study replicating only instrument readings would miss that component of measurement uncertainty.
Sharron Anderson's documented coauthorship concerns this joint experimental investigation. The scientific lesson is to replicate the stage whose variation is at issue: additional measurements of the same material cannot substitute for independent collections when assessing analytical sampling uncertainty.