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James L. Waters studied physics at Columbia University before serving as a naval officer in World War II. After the war Waters went to work for Baird Associates, an instrument manufacturer. At Baird he read U.S. government reports about instrumentation in Germany during the war and was inspired to set up his own company, J. L. Waters, to make infrared gas analyzers based on a design by a German scientist. In 1955 Waters sold this company to Mine Safety Appliance Company for $200,000 and fifteen years of royalties at 3 percent. The royalties from this sale enabled Waters to form another business, Waters Associates, in 1958.
At first Waters Associates manufactured made-to-order specialty instruments, but in 1968 the company decided to focus on chromatography, marketing its first liquid chromatograph in 1970. Nobel laureate Robert Woodward was just one eminent scientist to use a Waters Associates chromatograph. In 1980 Waters Associates merged with Millipore Company. The company was split off again in 1993 as Waters Corporation. The company remains a world leader in liquid chromatography, thermal analysis, and mass spectrometry, but Waters is no longer associated with the enterprise. Since 1982 he has focused on venture-capital opportunities. One company he invested in early was aaiPharma, now a successful pharmaceutical company with $300 million in annual sales of pain management medications. Waters is also chairman and CEO of Cetek Corporation, a drug discovery company. He lives in Framingham, Massachusetts. |
Photo courtesy of Roy Engelbrecht. 
Waters (second from left) and two employees from the early days of the company. Courtesy of Waters Corporation. |
