JAAS News

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 14^th 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 14^th June 2024.

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

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.

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.

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.