Testimonials
"Julie has nearly 10 years of in-depth knowledge and hands on experience in the cannabis industry, which is very rare considering how long legal cannabis has been around. This experience gives her not only the understanding of how testing labs actually work, but also how growing and processing cannabis needs to be partnered with data to ensure a safe and reliable product. She has a special ability to explain complex scientific concepts to non-experts and assist clients in understanding their process fully. She is not guided by trends or hype, but focuses on science, data and what actually works. I’ve known her for years and turn to her for all of my complex cannabis science questions."
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Amber Wise, PhD.
Scientific Director, Medicine Creek Analytics
"I am extremely impressed with Julie’s thoughtfulness. She is flexible and thinks about what
will work best for her clients. As an example, she approached me to ask about tailoring invoices so that they would work well with our accounting system. This kind of proactive, client first thinking is exemplary. I even shared this with my own team as an example of the kind of service oriented thinking that we intend to embed into our culture."
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Leo Welder
President, Veda Scientific
"Julie is one of the most knowledgeable analytical chemists I’ve ever worked with. She truly
helps raise the bar in the cannabis space. Not only does she know what she's talking about, she has access to a number of scientific resources to support her clients through any problem. Julie is a solution seeker aiming to use science to solve any problem. It's been a joy working with her and I can't recommend her enough!"
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Lo Friesen
Founder and CEO, Heylo
"I contacted Julie for advice and insight on the analytical method we are using for analyzing pesticide residues in cannabis and hemp. This type of analysis is quite difficult due to the variety of matrices you encounter when analyzing cannabis and hemp flowers, extracts, and products. She was extremely helpful and pointed me toward specific techniques that can be used to mitigate the matrix interference. It was obvious that she understood the analytical challenges and had first hand knowledge on how to address the challenges."
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Ben Armstrong
Laboratory Director, Juniper Analytics LLC
"BelCosta Labs has utilized Julie Kowalski's help on several difficult pesticides during our validation process. Julie was able to assist us with comprehensive experience driven answers and cut our research time down significantly. Julie is a wealth of knowledge about cannabis and the challenges of validating pesticide methodology."
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Myron Ronay
CEO, BelCosta Labs
"I couldn’t recommend Julie more; she has nearly two decades of expertise in analytical chemistry along with firsthand experience in the budding cannabis industry. While she is undoubtedly a well-respected authority in analytics within the cannabis industry and beyond, she’s approachable, down to earth, and an excellent educator. I worked with Julie for several years and she never passed up an opportunity to train individuals who expressed an interest in learning. She provided us with in-depth course materials during training sessions, as well as hands-on training in the lab.
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I learned so much from her including better scientific and data-handling practices, instrument maintenance and repair, and an enhanced understanding of chromatography. In my time working with her she improved standard operating procedures by standardizing practices, determining and implementing appropriate analytical quality controls, and ensuring that lab staff were adequately trained to not only perform assays but also to independently assess data quality. If you’re just starting out and don’t know where to begin, an established laboratory that wants to improve your methods and educate your staff, or somewhere in between, Julie is the best person to help you."
Gwen Bode
laboratory scientist and graduate student
"Julie has been exceptional in supporting all of our questions with simple to complex answers with cannabis testing. She can readily answer all questions and if not, then will quickly refer us to reputable scientific information, both peer reviewed and non-peer reviewed. Julie’s bench and data analysis skills with cannabis testing are highly evident particularly when we pose questions such as “can you please take us through the process of how to handle cannabis flower for sample homogenization”, or “when developing chromatography for resolution of THC, THC-A, CBD, CBD-A and CBN, can you highlight the path that will most likely succeed?”.
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Julie has an abundance of patience, carefully listens to our questions and is highly reflective and integrative of all information before presenting a response. The response, I can see, is highly tailored for what we need as analysts, not repeating what we already know. Julie supported all of our questions with examples from her work experience, which felt as though we were with her during those activities, such as managing extracts and carrying through with dilutions. This can only be realized because she truly has carried out all aspects of cannabis testing and was critical of all steps.
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I’ve known Julie for about 10 years and have always seen her professional scientific conduct is beyond reproach. I highly recommend Julie to anyone who is in need of training in cannabis target analyte analyses, without question."
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Perry Martos, Ph.D.
University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada