JAAS News

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.

JAAS is pleased to welcome Professor José-Luis Todolí to its Editorial Board!

José-Luis Todolí is a full Professor of Analytical Chemistry at the University of Alicante in Spain, head of the Applied Chemical Analysis research group and deputy vice chancellor for Knowledge Transfer.

In 1991 he graduated in chemistry and in 1994 obtained his PhD degree at the University of Alicante. The same year, he was appointed as an Assistant Professor at the Department of Analytical Chemistry, Nutrition and Food Science at the same institution. In 1997, he was awarded with a European Marie Curie Grant and he performed one-year postdoctoral studies at the Université Claude Bernard in Lyon under the supervision of Professor Jean-Michel Mermet. In 2000 he obtained a permanent position as Associate Professor at the University of Alicante and, finally, in march of 2012 he gained the full professor position that he has occupied since then.

The goals of his research have been the development of ICP liquid sample introduction systems; the study of mechanisms of non-spectral interferences in ICP-based techniques and their further correction; the development of calibration strategies; the elemental analysis of petroleum products and biofuels, environmental, clinical and food samples. More recently he has been involved in projects related with laser ablation, development of new chromatographic methodologies and liquid-liquid extraction.

He has co-authored around 120 articles, several books and book chapters together with three patents. With around 300 contributions to international conferences, some of them awarded, he has given close to 40 invited lectures. More recently, in 2018, he was awarded by the Spanish Society of Researchers (dependent on the Spanish Research Council) for his contributions to the field of atomic spectrometry. He has collaborated with companies within the frame of more than 50 private contracts.

JAAS is pleased to welcome Dr Gerardo Gamez to its Editorial Board!

Dr Gamez obtained his B.Sc. at the University of Texas at El Paso, USA, where he performed research with Prof. Dr. Gardea-Torresdey in the area of environmental chemistry pertaining to the use of plant tissues to filter heavy metal contamination from aqueous media. He also obtained his M.Sc. in the Gardea-Torresdey group developing methods to recover noble metals from aqueous media and new processes to produce noble metal nanoparticles. He obtained his PhD in Analytical Chemistry at Indiana University-Bloomington, USA, with Prof. Dr. Hieftje, where he employed laser and optical emission diagnostic techniques in fundamental studies of plasmas used in analytical spectrochemistry. He also received the first Richard Payling Award for his work on the development of GDOES elemental mapping, co-developed a plasma based ambient mass spectrometry (AMS) source, and served as the chair for the Indiana Section of the Society for Applied Spectroscopy.

His postdoctoral work at ETH Zurich, Switzerland, with Prof. Dr. Zenobi, involved developing AMS methods and exploring the possibilities of near-field laser ablation techniques. He then worked as a Scientist in the Laboratory for Mechanics of Materials and Nanostructures at EMPA Thun, Switzerland, where he developed methods and instrumentation in glow discharge spectroscopy, and served as coordinator and manager for GLADNET, an EC FP6 program research-training network. In 2013, he joined the faculty at Texas Tech University Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry where his research focuses on developing instrumentation and methods for multi-dimensional analysis, based on plasma OES and AMS, as well as plasma fundamental studies.

He was awarded the inaugural Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry Emerging Investigator Lectureship in 2016, and received the 2020 Young Plasma Scientist Award at the Winter Conference for Plasma Spectrochemistry. He has coauthored more than 70 peer-reviewed publications.

The new Chair of JAAS has been announced as Heidi Goeanga-Infante, LGC, London, UK. We recently caught up with Heidi to find out a bit more about her.

What are you most looking forward to in your new role as chair?
I am delighted and feel honoured to be the new chair of JAAS. I am definitely looking forward to working more closely with a fantastic team of RSC editors and colleagues from the JAAS Editorial and Advisory boards.

What are you most looking forward to in your new role as Chair? What are your aims?
Taking up the role of JAAS Chair is a great opportunity to ensure that the journal further builds on its long-standing tradition of publishing innovative research at the forefront of atomic spectrometry. I will have big shoes to fill as the previous Chairs have done a fantastic job but I am willing to learn from their experience and do my very best to take the journal to exciting new areas.

What direction do you see this research field moving in and what do you imagine will be the next big breakthrough?
I envisage that key developments will be driven by needs in life sciences applications with regards to diagnostics and advanced therapeutics. The establishment of multidisciplinary platforms for multiple biomarker quantification and imaging of tissue down to single cells will be invaluable in supporting medical research into the diagnosis and treatment of chronic diseases like cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, and Wilson’s disease. Also multi-modal approaches developed so far for nanomaterials will be extended to anisotropic materials in more challenging environments and towards applications in nanomedicine.

How do we encourage the next generation of analytical chemists?
I would encourage them to get themselves out there, be proactive in pursuing their dream career, seize new opportunities and last but not least enjoy the journey. Passion and dedication are keys to success.

Whose work do you think is really exciting at the moment?
To mention a group or a few groups in particular will be unfair as I am amazed by the breadth of high quality work in our community. Having said that, I find the advances made in improving sample introduction and instrument calibration for challenging applications of single particle and single cell multi-tag analyses very exciting. This, of course, is nowadays supported by instrumentation developments towards higher sample transport efficiencies, better spatial resolution and speed and, micro-second, quasi-simultaneous multi-element and multi-isotope detection. Also, the increasing use of atomic spectrometry in parallel with techniques such as molecular mass spectrometry and microscopy in the areas of imaging, nanomaterial characterisation and speciation analysis keeps my full attention.

Once again, we’d like to warmly welcome Heidi. We’re looking forward to her term as Chair of the JAAS Editorial Board.

Professor Gary Horlick

We are sad to report that Professor Emeritus Gary Horlick of the University of Alberta passed away on Thursday, November 1. For over 50 years, Gary Horlick was a leader in the field of atomic spectrometry, contributing to this field with many elegant experiments and a sharp interpretive insight. He will be remembered as a great teacher, mentor, colleague, and friend. – Steve Ray

Bernhard Welz (photo by Jorg Feldmann)

I am very saddened to report that last Saturday (June 2), Dr. Bernhard Welz passed away, after severe complications, as consequence of a car accident. Bernhard was cremated last Sunday in Florianópolis (Brazil), the city in which he chose to live for the last 20 years.

Born in Augsburg (Germany), Bernhard was without any doubt one of the driving figures in the development of atomic absorption. As a young doctor, he started doing research in what was then a very new field, when he joined Perkin Elmer in 1967. After more than 30 years working for such company, Bernhard, instead of opting for a peaceful retirement, decided to adventure overseas and became Visiting Professor at the Federal University of Santa Catarina, in Florianópolis. And so Bernhard became Bernardo, and started a new life, meeting his wife and co-worker, Maria. His presence and example invigorated atomic spectrometry in Brazil, to the point that it is one of the leading countries in the field now.

Bernhard was tireless and very active until the very end, traveling to conferences all over the world, and presenting his unique work. It is hard to resume his contribution to the field or overestimate his enormous impact. His work for the last 20 years focused on the development of high-resolution continuum source AAS/MAS, but that is only one of his many achievements. His “Bible” on Atomic Absorption Spectrometry, wrote together with M. Sperling in the last edition, still is the reference book in the field. And let’s not forget that he started organizing several successful conferences, such as the Rio Symposium on Atomic Spectrometry, or the German CANAS.

I remember reading his papers (his series on the use of palladium and magnesium nitrate as a universal modifier is certainly noteworthy) as a young Ph.D. student, meeting him as a young post-doc, and becoming his colleague and friend later on, as a not so young scientist. Bernhard was a true giant, and it was a privilege to share time with him, both personally and scientifically. He will be sorely missed, but his legacy certainly remains. A life well-lived, Bernardo. Rest in peace and many thanks!

Martín Resano
Chair of the JAAS Editorial Board