Dr. Scott A. McLuckey, the John A. Leighty Distinguished Professor in the Department of Chemistry at Purdue University, and Dr. Marcos M. Eberlin, Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Campinas, Brazil, were awarded the 2016 Thomson Medals during the 21st International Mass Spectrometry Conference held in Toronto, Canada, August 20-26, 2016. First awarded in 1985, and sponsored by the International Mass Spectrometry Foundation (IMSF), the Thomson Medals are named after Sir J.J. Thomson, who was responsible for the first mass spectrograph and was the recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1906 for his discovery of the electron. Award winners are selected based on their accomplishments in both of the following areas: (a) Outstanding achievements in mass spectrometry, and (b) Distinguished services to international mass spectrometry societies.
2016 IMSF Thomson medal awardees Scott McLuckey (left) and Marcos Eberlin (center) with 2016 IMSF Curt Brunnée award winner Yuri Tsybin (right). See October 2016 News & Views for feature on Yuri Tsybin’s award.
Prof. McLuckey received a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from Westminster College in 1978, then earned his PhD in Chemistry at Purdue University in 1982, in the laboratory of Prof. R. Graham Cooks. He carried out postdoctoral research at the FOM Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics, Amsterdam, The Netherlands from 1982-1983 prior to joining Oak Ridge National Laboratory in 1983. At Oak Ridge, he was a member of the Research Staff in the Analytical Chemistry Division from 1983-1988, Task Leader in the Organic Mass Spectrometry Group from 1988-1992, Group Leader of the Organic and Biological Mass Spectrometry Group from 1992-1994 and Section Head of the Analytical Spectroscopy, Chemical and Analytical Sciences Division from 1992-1999. In 2000, he was appointed as a Professor of Chemistry at Purdue University and was named the John A. Leighty Distinguished Professor in 2008. Prof. McLuckey has received numerous honors and awards, including the American Society for Mass Spectrometry (ASMS) Distinguished Contribution Award (2016), an NIH MERIT Award – National Institute of General Medical Sciences (2014), the American Chemical Society (ACS) Field and Franklin Award in Mass Spectrometry (2012), the Royal Society of Chemistry “Theophilus Redwood Award in Analytical Chemistry” (2012), the ANACHEM Award from the Federation of Analytical Chemistry and Spectroscopy Societies (2008), the ACS Division of Analytical Chemistry Award for Chemical Instrumentation (2007), the Curt Brunnée Prize from the IMSF (2000) and the ASMS Biemann Medal (1997). He was named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in 2011. Scott has served on the IMSF Governing Board (2012-present), as Vice President for Programs, President and Past-president of the ASMS (2008-2014), as an Associate Editor of Analytical Chemistry (2016-present), as Editor of the International Journal of Mass Spectrometry (IJMS) (1998-2016), and as an Advisory Board Member of Analytical Chemistry (1994-1996), Journal of Mass Spectrometry (1995-present), Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry (1995-present), Journal of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry (1996-1998), International Journal of Mass Spectrometry and Ion Processes (1996-1998) and Mass Spectrometry Reviews (2006-present). He was Program Co-Chair in 1995 and was a member of the Governing Board of the Asilomar Conference on Mass Spectrometry from 1996-2001. He has also served as an Instructor of the ASMS Courses ‘Fundamental Aspects of Gaseous Ions’ (1992-1994) and ‘Quadrupole Ion Trap MS and Tandem MS’ (1997-2003) and was a member of the ASMS Program Review Board (1989-1992, 1994, 1997, 2004, 2007).
McLuckey’s research emphases have been placed in the areas of gas-phase ion chemistry and instrumentation for organic and biological mass spectrometry. Current projects include the development of novel methodologies for the identification and characterization of proteins in complex mixtures (i.e., proteomics), the characterization of small nucleic acids, fundamental and applied aspects of ion/ion reactions, and the development of electrostatic ion trap tandem mass spectrometry. To date, this research has resulted in 340 peer reviewed publications, 12 books and book chapters, and 11 issued patents.
Prof. Eberlin earned his Bachelor (1982), Masters (1984) and PhD (1988) degrees in Chemistry from UNICAMP. He then completed postdoctoral training in the Aston Mass Spectrometry Laboratory with Prof. R. Graham Cooks at Purdue University from 1989-1991, prior to founding the ThoMSon Laboratory of Mass Spectrometry in the Institute of Chemistry at UNICAMP. In recognition of his achievements, Prof. Eberlin was named a member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences in 2002, and Commander of the National Order of Scientific Merit in 2005. He has also received the Zeferino Vaz Award for Academic Recognition (2002) and the Scopus-Capes Award (2008) for excellence in publications and staff training. He was deputy director of the Institute of Chemistry at UNICAMP from 1998-2002 and served as President of the IMSF from 2009-2014. Presently, he is chief executive of the Brazilian Society of Mass Spectrometry (BrMASS) and an Associate Editor of the Journal of Mass Spectrometry.
Major research areas of interest within the Eberlin laboratory include gas phase ion chemistry, membrane introduction MS (MIMS), API-MS applied to study the mechanisms of organic reactions in solution, isomer distinction via ion mobility coupled to mass spectrometry, petroleomics via high resolution and accuracy ICR, TOF and orbitrap MS, ambient desorption/ionization MS, natural products and forensic chemistry. To date, he has supervised about 180 Masters and Ph.D. students and post-docs, and has published about 800 scientific papers, with nearly 16,000 citations, in various scientific areas such as Chemistry, Physics, Biochemistry, Biology, Forensic, Pharmaceutical, Food, Veterinary, Medical Sciences and Materials.
The 2016 Fred P. Lossing Award, given by annually by the Canadian Society for Mass Spectrometry for distinguished contributions to mass spectrometry in Canada, and sponsored by Agilent Technologies Canada Inc., was presented to Professor Mel Comisarow, Department of Chemistry at the University of British Colombia.