JAAS Emerging Investigator Lectureship 2024 Winner

By Leo Curtis, Editorial Assistant.

We are delighted to announce Thibaut Van Acker as the recipient of the JAAS Emerging Investigator Lectureship 2024. This Lectureship aims to recognise and support an emerging scientist working in the area of atomic spectrometry in the early stages of their independent career.

Introducing Thibaut Van Acker, Ghent University, Belgium:

Dr Thibaut Van Acker

Thibaut Van Acker is a postdoctoral research fellow of the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) in the Atomic & Mass Spectrometry – A&MS research unit of Ghent University, led by Prof. Frank Vanhaecke, and a visiting postdoctoral researcher at The Günther Group – Trace Element and Micro Analysis group (ETH Zürich). His research is focused on both fundamental aspects of laser ablation – ICP-mass spectrometry and analytical method development to explore the capabilities of the technique for high spatial resolution elemental mapping applications in challenging interdisciplinary contexts. Based on a number of hardware improvements, Thibaut has brought elemental mapping – i.e. the revelation of the 2- and even 3-dimensional distribution of elements across a sample – to another level. This can currently be accomplished at a pixel acquisition rate up to 1,000 Hz and a laser spot size down to 1 μm. So far, Thibaut is (co-)author of 32 publications in peer-reviewed international journals and his work has been presented in > 70 lectures and posters on international conferences.

He was awarded the 2023 European Rising Star Award for Plasma Spectrochemistry at the European Winter Conference on Plasma Spectrochemistry in Ljubljana, Slovenia and recently, organized the 16th edition of the European Workshop on Laser Ablation (EWLA) in Ghent, Belgium with over 190 participants from 26 different countries worldwide.

 

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JAAS Emerging Investigator Lectureship 2024 – open for nominations

We are delighted to announce we are welcoming nominations for the next JAAS Emerging Investigator Lectureship. The lectureship is awarded to recognise and support an emerging scientist working in the area of atomic spectrometry in the early stages of their independent career. Submission deadline 14th June 2024.

 


Lectureship details
The recipient of the lectureship will present their research at a relevant high-profile international meeting (to be agreed with the Editorial Office) and receive a contribution of

£2000 to cover associated travel and accommodation costs. They will be awarded a certificate and asked to contribute a Primary Research or Review Article to JAAS.

Eligibility

To be eligible for the JAAS Lectureship, the candidate must:

  • Have completed their PhD
  • Have published in JAAS
  • Be working in a research area within the scope of JAAS
  • Be at an early stage of their independent career (typically this will be within 10 years of completing their PhD, but appropriate consideration will be given to those who have taken a career break or followed a different study path). Please contact the Editorial Office if you have any queries

Nominations

Nominations can be made by anyone and must be sent via email. Self-nominations are not permitted. All nominators will be asked to confirm that, to the best of their knowledge, their nominee’s professional standing is such that there is no confirmed or potential impediment to them receiving the Lectureship.

To nominate a candidate, please provide:

  • A recommendation letter, including the name, contact details and website URL of the nominee
  • A one-page CV for the nominee, including their date of birth, summary of education and career, a list of up to five of their top independent publications, total numbers of publications
  • A one-page statement of achievement with a lay summary, written by the nominee describing their best accomplishments
  • A supporting letter of recommendation from an independent referee. This could be for example the nominee’s post doc or PhD supervisor.

Selection

The Editorial Office will screen each nomination for eligibility and draw up a shortlist of candidates based on the nomination documents provided. The lectureship winner will be selected by the JAAS Editorial Board based on the originality, quality, impact and significance of the candidate’s research, as highlighted in their nomination.

Submit a nomination
To make a nomination please send the Editorial Office the requested documents by 14th June 2024.


For any queries, please contact the Editorial Office at jaas-rsc@rsc.org.

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JAAS Emerging Investigator Lectureship 2023 Winner

We are delighted to announce Benjamin T. Manard as the recipient of the JAAS Emerging Investigator Lectureship 2023. This Lectureship aims to recognise and support an emerging scientist working in the area of atomic spectrometry in the early stages of their independent career.

Introducing Benjamin T. Manard, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, USA:

Headshot of Dr Benjamin T. Manard (a smiling white man with short, dark brown hair, and light stubble) wearing a black suit-jacket and pale blue dress shirt, against a black background.

Dr Benjamin T. Manard

Benjamin T. Manard received a B.S. in Chemistry from Georgia Southern University (2009) and a Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry from Clemson University (2014) under Professor R. Kenneth Marcus. After graduation, Ben was a Glenn T. Seaborg Postdoctoral Fellow at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) before transitioning into a Staff Scientist position. While at LANL, his research focus was on utilizing atomic spectroscopy for the analysis of bulk special nuclear materials (SNM). In 2018 Ben began working at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) within the Chemical and Isotopic Mass Spectrometry Group. Since joining ORNL, Ben has led efforts directed toward developing analytical methodologies in elemental/isotopic analysis by utilizing unique sampling mechanisms (e.g. laser ablation, single particle, and microextraction) and novel detection strategies (e.g. collision/reaction cell) to tackle challenging problems related to national security, advanced energy generation, biosciences, and environmental applications.

Ben has authored over 50 journal articles, been featured on 9 journal covers, authored 1 book chapter, and has received recognitions including The Department of Energy Secretary of Energy’s Achievement Award and The Analytical Scientist’s Top 40 Under 40 Power List. Additionally, he is on the Governing Board for The Society for Applied Spectroscopy and Editorial board of Applied Spectroscopy Practica.

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Professor Frank Vanhaecke wins Theophilus Redwood Prize

Professor Frank Vanhaecke

Congratulations to Frank Vanhaecke, JAAS Editorial Board Member, who has won the 2023 Analytical Science open Prize: Theophilus Redwood Prize for the development of inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) based methodologies for elemental, isotopic and single-event analysis.

Frank Vanhaecke received a PhD from Ghent University in 1992. He carried out postdoctoral research at Ghent University and at the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, Germany. Currently, he is Senior Full Professor in Analytical Chemistry at Ghent University, where he also leads the ‘Atomic & Mass Spectrometry – A&MS’ research group that is specialized in the determination, speciation and isotopic analysis of (ultra)trace elements via ICP-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). His group studies fundamentally-oriented aspects of the technique and develops methods for solving challenging scientific problems in interdisciplinary contexts. Specific topics of research include 2-D and 3-D elemental mapping by means of laser ablation (LA) – ICP-MS, high-precision isotopic analysis using multi-collector ICP-MS and single-event (single-particle and single-cell) ICP-MS. Frank is (co)author of more than 400 papers in peer-reviewed journals. In 2011, he received a ‘European Plasma Spectrochemistry Award’, in 2013, he was designated ‘Fellow of the Society for Applied Spectroscopy – SAS’ and in 2017, he received the ‘Lester Strock Award’ from SAS. Frank has been the chair of the editorial board of JAAS from June 2012 to June 2016 and has returned as a board member in 2020.

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JAAS Emerging Investigator Lectureship 2023 – open for nominations

We are delighted to announce we are welcoming nominations for the next JAAS Emerging Investigator Lectureship. The lectureship is awarded to recognise and support an emerging scientist working in the area of atomic spectrometry in the early stages of their independent career. Submission deadline 15th October 2023.

 


Lectureship details
The recipient of the lectureship will present their research at a relevant high-profile international meeting (to be agreed with the Editorial Office) and receive a contribution of £2000 to cover associated travel and accommodation costs. They will be awarded a certificate and asked to contribute a Primary Research or Review Article to JAAS.

Eligibility

To be eligible for the JAAS Lectureship, the candidate must:

  • Have completed their PhD
  • Have published in JAAS
  • Be working in a research area within the scope of JAAS
  • Be at an early stage of their independent career (typically this will be within 10 years of completing their PhD, but appropriate consideration will be given to those who have taken a career break or followed a different study path). Please contact the Editorial Office if you have any queries

Nominations

Nominations can be made by anyone and must be sent via email. Self-nominations are not permitted. All nominators will be asked to confirm that, to the best of their knowledge, their nominee’s professional standing is such that there is no confirmed or potential impediment to them receiving the Lectureship.

To nominate a candidate, please provide:

  • A recommendation letter, including the name, contact details and website URL of the nominee
  • A one-page CV for the nominee, including their date of birth, summary of education and career, a list of up to five of their top independent publications, total numbers of publications
  • A one-page statement of achievement with a lay summary, written by the nominee describing their best accomplishments
  • A supporting letter of recommendation from an independent referee. This could be for example the nominee’s post doc or PhD supervisor.

Selection

The Editorial Office will screen each nomination for eligibility and draw up a shortlist of candidates based on the nomination documents provided. The lectureship winner will be selected by the JAAS Editorial Board based on the originality, quality, impact and significance of the candidate’s research, as highlighted in their nomination.

Submit a nomination
To make a nomination please send the Editorial Office the requested documents by 15th October 2023.


For any queries, please contact the Editorial Office at jaas-rsc@rsc.org.

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Olivier Donard Elected to French National Academy of Sciences

Olivier Donard Elected to French National Academy of Sciences


JAAS is pleased to congratulate Olivier Donard, CNRS research director emeritus at the University of Pau and Pays de l’Adour and first director of IPREM laboratory, who was recently elected a member of the French National Academy of Sciences.

Olivier Donard studied analytical and environmental chemistry at the University of Bordeaux-I in France before becoming a lecturer at the University of Geneva, Switzerland, then completed a post-doctoral fellowship with the US Environmental Protection Agency and the National Science Foundation. He later became a CNRS research fellow and teacher at the University of Bordeaux-I.

Olivier Donard created the Laboratoire de Chimie Bioinorganique et Environnement (EP 132) in Pau in 1995, which in 2014 became the Institut des sciences analytiques et de physico-chimie pour l’environnement et les matériaux (IPREM), of which he was Director until 2017. From 2012 to 2020, he was also the director of the Mass Spectrometry for Reactivity and Speciation Sciences (MARSS) center, which is considered the largest mass spectrometry (speciation and isotope) center in Europe.

The French National Academy of Sciences provides a framework of expertise, advice and warning on the political, ethical and societal issues raised by science. The Academy of Sciences works to share science in order to enlighten citizens’ choices and formulates recommendations that can be used by government authorities. It also supports research, is committed to the quality of science education and promotes scientific life at the international level.

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New JAAS Advisory Board Members

JAAS is delighted to welcome five new members, C. Derrick Quarles Jr., Ewa Bulska, Dmitriy Malinovsky, Jacob Shelly and Alexander Gundlach-Graham to its Advisory Board


C. Derrick Quarles Jr. is a Senior Scientist working for Elemental Scientific, Inc. in the areas of automation for ICP and ICPMS, elemental speciation (LC-ICPMS and LC-ICP), and laser ablation (LA-ICPMS). His past experience also involved extensive work in the area of Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS). He received his PhD in Analytical Chemistry from Clemson University under the supervision of Dr Ken Marcus and did a post-doc at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) developing methods for the determination of metals in biological matrices. He was named one of the 2014 Young Analytical Scientists by the Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectroscopy, and received the 2018 Young Alumni Award from the college of science and mathematics at Augusta University where he also received his bachelor’s degree.

Ewa Bulska is the Director of the Biological and Chemical Research Center at the University of Warsaw, Poland. She obtained her PhD at the University of Warsaw and has held a variety of international positions including at the University of Sao Paulo, Brasil, Darmstadt University of Technology, Germany and Laboratory of Bioinorganic Chemistry, France. Ewa has over 200 peer reviewed publications, with research interests in mechanisms of atomization in atomic spectrometry, analytical applications of atomic and mass spectrometry, analytical application of synchrotron radiation, speciation of biologically relevant elements, the study of selenium metabolism in living organisms, physico-chemical research of historic objects, the use of solid sorbents for concentration and speciation studies and laser microsampling in the study of solids

Dmitriy Malinovsky is a Science Leader in isotope ratio analysis at LGC Group, UK. He has made important contributions to the analysis and interpretation of the isotope data obtained by MC-ICPMS, particularly in the fields of analytical chemistry and biogeochemistry. Dmitriy received his PhD in the subject area of applied geology at Luleå University of Technology, Sweden, and has over 40 peer reviewed publications.

Jacob (Jake) Shelley is an Alan Paul Schulz Career Development Professor of Chemistry at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He completed his Ph.D. at Indiana University under Gary Hieftje where he studied novel plasma ionization sources for molecular mass spectrometry. Jake’s research interests lie in the development of new hardware and software tools for mass spectrometry, which enable rapid, sensitive detection and identification of analytes in complex matrices. In addition, his research group uses high-energy plasma-generated species to perform unique gas-phase synthesis. These research areas converge in studying chemical origins-of-life through the Rensselaer Astrobiology Research and Education (RARE) Center, where he is the Associate Director. Jake’s recognitions include a Humboldt Post-Doctoral Fellowship, Bunsen-Kirchoff Award (2017), The Analytical Scientist’s Top 40 Under 40 Power List, Spectroscopy’s 2020 Emerging Leader in Atomic Spectroscopy Award, 2021 EAS Young Investigator Award and 2021 JAAS Emerging Investigator Lectureship Award.

Alexander Gundlach-Graham is an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Iowa State University (ISU).  Research in the Gundlach-Graham group focuses on the development and application of single particle inductively coupled plasma time-of-flight mass spectrometry (spICP-TOFMS), as well as the investigation of novel plasma-source MS designs. In his career, Alex’s research has focused on atomic mass spectrometry, with significant contributions to the development of distance-of-flight mass spectrometry and quantitative elemental imaging by laser ablation ICP-TOFMS, in addition to spICP-TOFMS analysis. Alex won the 2022 JAAS Emerging Investigator Lectureship Award.

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Heidi Goenaga-Infante wins European Award for Plasma Spectrochemistry

Congratulations to JAAS Chair Heidi Goenaga-Infante on winning the European Award for Plasma Spectrochemistry!


The European Award for Plasma Spectrochemistry, which promotes analytical plasma spectrochemical developments and applications in Europe, is awarded for a single outstanding piece of work or for continued important contributions in the field.

The award, sponsored by Agilent Technologies, was presented to Heidi Goenaga-Infante at the recent European Winter Conference on Plasma Spectrochemistry in recognition of her substantial contributions to novel fractionation analysis techniques in the areas of elemental speciation, metallomics and nanomaterials characterization

Chief scientist at the National Measurement Laboratory (NML), Heidi is also a principal scientist and team leader of the Inorganic Analysis team with research focussed on trace element and speciation analysis, metallomics research, the characterisation of nanomaterials, high accuracy isotope ratio analysis, quantitative elemental bio-imaging and the characterisation of ‘speciated’ reference materials and standards.

Read Heidi’s latest article in JAAS here: A systematic study of high resolution multielemental quantitative bioimaging of animal tissue using LA-ICP-TOFMS J. Anal. At. Spectrom., 2023, Advance Article

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JAAS Emerging Investigator Lectureship 2022 Recipient

We are delighted to announce Alexander Gundlach-Graham as the recipient of the JAAS Emerging Investigator Lectureship 2022. This Lectureship aims to recognise and support an emerging scientist working in the area of atomic spectrometry in the early stages of their independent career.

Introducing Alexander Gundlach-Graham, Iowa State University, USA:

Alexander Gundlach-Graham is an assistant professor of chemistry at Iowa State University (ISU). Research in the Gundlach-Graham group focuses on the development and application of single particle inductively coupled plasma time-of-flight mass spectrometry (spICP-TOFMS), as well as the investigation of novel plasma-source MS designs.

Alex received a B.A. in chemistry from Earlham College in 2008 and a Ph.D. in chemistry from Indiana University under the supervision of Prof. Gary Hieftje in 2013. Following his doctoral studies, Alex joined the group of Prof. Detlef Günther at ETH Zurich as a Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellow. In 2018, Alex received the Ambizione award from the Swiss National Science Foundation to pursue research on spICP-TOFMS. Alex joined the faculty of ISU in August 2019.

In his career, Alex’s research has focused on atomic mass spectrometry, with significant contributions to the development of distance-of-flight mass spectrometry and quantitative elemental imaging by laser ablation ICP-TOFMS, in addition to spICP-TOFMS analysis. He has authored 37 peer-reviewed papers, one book chapter, and delivered over 20 invited lectures. Alex’s work has led to several awards, including the Ron Hites Award for best paper in the Journal of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry in 2013 and the Swiss Association for Spectrometry Award in 2018.

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In memory of Stanley Greenfield

The life and work of Professor Stanley Greenfield, CChem FRSC (25 March 1920 – 4 September 2019) was to have been commemorated at the 2020 Biennial National Atomic Spectrometry Symposium, but Covid got in the way. It was not until late June 2022 that the atomic spectrometry community were able to reflect on his contributions—at the 2022 BNASS.

Professor Greenfield

In the early 1960’s, multi-element determinations were a significant challenge. The only options available were arc/spark and flame emission spectrometries, both of which had serious limitations for the analyses of the various non-metallic samples encountered in Albright and Wilson’s phosphorus development department: contamination by electrode materials, matrix interferences, and inadequate detection limits. Stan’s research group realized that the way forward was to stimulate atomic emission from a source (a) whose temperature was sufficiently high to prevent stable compound formation, and (b) that could accept fluid samples (either acid solutions or powders). They had the resources to assemble three candidates: two types of DC arc plasma-jet and an ICP. In 1964, in what is considered a landmark publication, they showed the very considerable advances in analytical capability provided by the ICP source. A crucial feature of their plasma, not appreciated or achieved by contemporaneous researchers, was that it was annular, allowing sample aerosol to flow through a central channel into a spectroscopically useful ‘tail-flame.’ Right up until his retirement from A&W in 1980, Stan was an enthusiastic advocate for the ICP: he lectured extensively both in the UK and around the globe and maintained a steady output of both research papers and authoritative reviews.

The remaining problem of spectral interferences in AES could, he argued, be overcome by switching to atomic fluorescence spectrometry (AFS) and for the next 10 years or so, he investigated (first at Loughborough and then at Plymouth Universities) the analytical possibilities of AF stimulated by radiation from a (high-power) ICP (or hollow cathode lamp) in atoms generated in another (low-power) ICP. He presented a progress report in an invited lecture at the 1994 BNASS meeting in Hull. His last publication was in 2003 (at age 83).

Stan’s contributions to the AD/RSC were extensive. He served for many years on the Council, including as President of the Division (1982-1984), he was active in the running of (a) the Midlands Region, (b) the Special Techniques Group, (c) many SAC conferences, and perhaps most extraordinary of all, as a member of the Analytical Methods Committee whereby he oversaw, as founding chair of the Instrument Criteria sub-Committee, the creation and publication of some 27 reports over a 21 year-period that only ended in 2015 (at age 95).

The material presented at the 2022 BNASS held in Manchester, England on June 28th and 29th, can be found in a folder at Stanley Greenfield Tribute at 2022 BNASS containing (1) the entry for the conference program booklet, (2) two posters presented by Julian Tyson and Maryanne Thomsen (with co-authors, Michael Foulkes, Steve Hill, James Miller, Helen Reid, and Alan Townshend), (3) an obituary by Jim Miller and (4) a complete list of his publications.

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