Megan Evans

We present a brief review of this year's ASMS conference, which took place June 5–9, 2011, in Denver, Colorado.  

This year's conference was held at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver, Colorado, June 5–9, 2011. Sunday marked the opening of the conference with short courses going on during the day, tutorial lectures from 5:00 to 6:30 p.m., the plenary lecture from 6:45 to 7:45 p.m., and the welcome reception from 7:45 to 9:30 p.m. The tutorial lectures were given by Mark W. Duncan of the University of Colorado and James Jorgenson of the University of North Carolina. Duncan's lecture topic focused on good mass spectrometry (MS) and its place in good science. Jorgenson, who won the Lifetime Achievement award this year from 

, discussed liquid chromatography (LC) and MS. The session was very well received (see Figure 1). This year's opening plenary lecture, entitled "Our Stellar Origins Revealed by Stardust Grains," was given by Ernst Zinner of Washington University. The lecture addressed the MS analysis of tiny stardust grains from primitive meteorites and what that analysis reveals about stellar production of the elements.

 Figure 1: Photo of the speakers from Sunday’s tutorial session with the ASMS Vice President for Programs in the center. From left: James Jorgenson, Susan T. Weintraub, and Mark W. Duncan. 			

The schedule for the conference was consistent with previous years: Monday through Thursday featured oral sessions, poster sessions, workshops, plenary lectures, and corporate hospitality suites. Oral sessions took place daily from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. and 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. Poster sessions and exhibits were from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. daily. 

Two awards were presented at this year's conference: the award for a Distinguished Contribution in Mass Spectrometry and the Biemann Medal. The award for a Distinguished Contribution in Mass Spectrometry was presented to Robert J. Cotter, professor of Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (Baltimore, Maryland) on Monday, June 6. Cotter received the award for his invention and development of tandem time-of-flight (TOF-TOF) mass spectrometry, which utilizes high-energy collisions of up to 20 keV for collision-induced dissociation.  

The Biemann Medal was presented on Tuesday, June 7, to Dr. Béla Paizs, group leader of Gas-Phase Peptide Chemistry Group at the German Cancer Research Center (Heidelberg, Germany). Paizs was honored with this award for work that led to the detailed characterization of peptide product ion structures and dissociation mechanisms. His work has also demonstrated that the principal characteristics of peptide collision-induced dissociation spectra can be understood with basic physical and chemical laws.  

Three other awards were given out at this year's conference. Professor Scott A. McLuckey (Department of Chemistry, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana) received the Ron A. Hites award for outstanding research publication in the 

Journal of The American Society for Mass Spectrometry

. Judit Villen of the University of Washington and Brandon Ruotolo of the University of Michigan both received Research Awards that were sponsored by Thermo Scientific and Waters Corporation.  

The 60th Annual ASMS Conference will be held May 20–24, 2012, in Vancouver, Canada. Visit 

 for more information in the coming months.  

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We present a brief review of this year's ASMS conference, which took place June 5–9, 2011, in Denver, Colorado.

Review of the 59th Annual ASMS Conference

We present a brief overview of this year's ASMS conference, which takes place June 5–9, 2011, in Denver, Colorado. 

A popular theme song from the 1980s comes to mind when thinking about the 59th Annual ASMS Conference on Mass Spectrometry and Allied Topics — "Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name, and they're always glad you came." While the conference floor is a long way from the Boston-based Cheers bar, the sentiment of welcome and familiarity among friends and colleagues is always present at this show.  

This year's conference will be held at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver, Colorado, June 5–9, 2011. All oral sessions, poster sessions, and exhibit booths will be located in the convention center. Although the conference does not officially kick off until Sunday, there will be several two-day short courses starting on Saturday, June 4 but attendees must preregister for those.  On-site registration for the conference only will be from 2:00 to 5:00 pm on Saturday, 10:00 am to 8:00 pm on Sunday, and 7:30 am to 5:00 pm on Monday through Thursday.   

Sunday will mark the opening of the conference with short courses going on during the day, tutorial lectures from 5:00 to 6:30 pm, the plenary lecture from 6:45 to 7:45 pm, and the welcome reception from 7:45 to 9:30 pm.  The tutorial lectures will be given by Mark W. Duncan of the University of Colorado and James Jorgenson of the University of North Carolina. Duncan's lecture topic will focus on good mass spectrometry (MS) and its place in good science. Jorgenson, who is winner of the 

 Lifetime Achievement award this year, will discuss liquid chromatography (LC) and MS. This year's opening plenary lecture, entitled, "Our Stellar Origins Revealed by Stardust Grains," will be given by Ernst Zinner of Washington University. The lecture will address the MS analysis of tiny stardust grains from primitive meteorites and what that analysis reveals about stellar production of the elements.  

Staying consistent with previous year's schedule, Monday through Thursday will consist of oral sessions, poster sessions, workshops, plenary lectures, and corporate hospitality suites. Oral sessions will take place daily from 8:30 to 10:30 am and 2:30 to 4:30 pm. Poster sessions, exhibits, and lunch breaks will be from 10:30 am to 2:30 pm.  

There are so many interesting sessions to attend at this year's conference that it can often be difficult to choose which ones to attend. Some of 

 Editorial Advisory Board members offered recommendations to help our readers narrow it down. 

Tutorial Lecture by James Jorgenson, University of North Carolina, "LC and MS: A Match Made in Heaven"

Integrated Qualitative and Quantitative LC–MS for Elucidation of PK/PD

Protein Therapeutics in Drug Discovery and Development: LC–MS Quantification

Imaging MS: Instrumentation and Ionization Sources

Challenges in Quantitative Bioanalysis in a Regulated Environment for Biomarkers

Dried Blood Spot for Drug and Metabolite Analysis

Clinical Chemistry: Advances in Separation Technologies

Small Molecule Drug Discovery: Advances in Micro- and Nano-flow Separations

PK Assays: Novel Approaches to Increase LC–MS Throughput

Biomarkers of Drug/Metabolite Toxicity: LC–MS Methods

Workshops and interest group meetings will be held Monday through Wednesday from 5:45 to 7:00 pm. Topics include MS fundamentals, polymer mass spectrometry, mass spectrometry in drug target identification, MS-MS based protein identification and characterization strategies, LC–MS libraries, career development in MS, and a discussion to generate content to stimulate undergraduate student interest in MS.   

Two awards will be presented at this year's conference: the award for a Distinguished Contribution in Mass Spectrometry and the Biemann Medal. The award for a Distinguished Contribution in Mass Spectrometry will presented on Monday, June 6, during the plenary lecture scheduled from 4:45 to 5:30 pm. The Biemann Medal will be presented on Tuesday, June 7, during the plenary lecture scheduled from 4:45 to 5:30 pm. The award recipients were not announced as of press time. 

The conference will conclude on Thursday, June 9, with a plenary lecture from Arthur Shapiro of American University. Shapiro's presentation, titled, "Why Are We Surprised by Only Some of the Things that We See? Visual Illusions, the Brain, and Baseball," will present recently developed visual illusions and discuss the implications of our perceptive (in)abilities. After the lecture there will be a closing toast, officially ending the 59th ASMS Conference. 

Discounted pricing for ASMS attendees is available for travel from the airport to downtown hotels. Rates from the ASMS website are $32 round trip on the SuperShuttle and $70 one-way on the ExecuCar from the Denver International Airport; reservations are required. The ASMS room block features all major downtown hotels with very attractive conference rates, including: Crowne Plaza ($150), The Curtis ($169), Denver Marriot ($169), Embassy Suites ($179), Grand Hyatt ($174), Hilton Garden Inn ($169), Hyatt Regency ($189 single, $199 double), and the Sheraton ($157). 

Denver features several enjoyable attractions for attendees looking to do some sightseeing in their free time. The Denver area is often referred to as the "Napa Valley of Beer" and there are plenty of breweries and microbreweries for visitors to explore. For outdoor enthusiasts, Denver offers more than 850 miles of paved off-road trails that connect to hundreds of miles of dirt trails for hiking and biking. There is also Coors Field, home of the Colorado Rockies who will be facing the Los Angeles Dodgers toward the end of this conference.   

Advance conference registration fees are $150 for ASMS members, $300 for nonmembers, $75 for ASMS students, and $120 for student nonmembers. One-day registration is available onsite for $175 and includes a printed program, but no conference proceedings or access to webcasting.  

Advance registration for the conference and short courses will close April 30. Those who have not registered by April 30 may register onsite at the convention center beginning Saturday, June 4, 2:00–5:00 pm, Sunday, June 5, 10:00 am–8:00 pm, and Monday through Thursday 7:30 am–5:00 pm. An additional $50 will be charged for onsite registration. There is no onsite registration for short courses. 

For further information about the conference please contact: ASMS, Tel. (505) 989-4517, fax (505) 989-1073, email: 

A preview of the this year's ASMS Conference, taking place June 5–9 in Denver, Colorado.

Preview of the 59th Annual ASMS Conference

Raleigh, North Carolina is a city steeped in rich history and natural beauty, so it should come as no surprise that the Federation of Analytical Chemistry and Spectroscopy Societies chose it as the site for the 37th FACSS Conference. The conference will be held October 17–21, 2010, at the Raleigh Convention Center.  

(VISIONSOFAMERICA/JOE SOHM/PHOTODISC/GETTY IMAGES)			

As this year's slogan states, the 2010 FACSS Conference will deliver on the latest breakthroughs paving the way for future analytical scientists. The conference will begin on Sunday evening with the "What's Hot Presentations," from 4:40 p.m to 7:00 p.m.  

Monday, and each day after, will begin and finish with plenary sessions by internationally recognized speakers and FACSS award winners. Kicking off the lectures on Monday will be the Arthur F. Findeis Award for Achievement by a Young Analytical Scientist winner Christy L. Haynes, University of Minnesota (Minneapolis, Minnesota). Haynes' presentation is titled "Electroanalytical Eavesdropping on Cellular Communications." After the first lecture, attendees will have a vast pick of poster and oral presentations to attend. Finally, Uli Hacksell of ACADIA Pharmaceuticals will end the first day's events with his plenary lecture, "The Role of Analytical Chemistry and Spectroscopy in Drug Discovery and Development: Challenges and Opportunities." 

The remaining days of the conference will follow the same format, covering a variety of interesting topics and break-through presentations. Prizes will be awarded daily for outstanding poster presentations. 

A highlight at any conference is always seeing who wins the accolades of his or her peers and what these award winners are bringing to the forefront of analytical science. FACSS 2010 is just such a conference, boasting both student and professional awards. 

This year's student awards include the Tomas A. Hirschfeld Award and the FACSS Student Award. The Tomas A. Hirschfeld Award will be presented to Anil Kodali, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (Urbana, Illinois) and Ishan Barman Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) (Cambridge, Massachusetts). The FACSS Student Award will be presented to Jacob Shelley, Indiana University (Bloomington, Indiana).  

There are a number of professional awards to be presented at this year's conference, as well. The Charles Mann Award for Applied Raman Spectroscopy is presented to an individual who has demonstrated advancements presented at FACSS in the field of applied Raman spectroscopy or demonstrated dedication to the advancement of the FACSS Raman spectroscopy program or the ASTM Raman subcommittee. This year's recipient will be Richard L. McCreery, who is currently Professor of Chemistry at the University of Alberta (Alberta, Canada), with a joint appointment as a Senior Research Officer at the National Institute for Nanotechnology (Edmonton, Canada). 

Another award being presented is the Ellis R. Lippincott Award, which is given to someone who has made significant contributions to vibrational spectroscopy. These contributions may be theoretical, experimental, or both, as well as basic or applied. This year's recipient is Martin Moskovits, Professor of Chemistry at the University of California, Santa Barbara (Santa Barbara, California).  

Additional award listings and recipient biographies can be found at 

. There will be official presentations of these awards made at the conference. 

More than 50 companies will showcase their products in the exhibit hall during the week. The exhibit hall will open on Monday evening with a reception. 

For more information and to register online, please visit the FACSS website at 

. FACSS International Office, P.O. Box 24379, Sante Fe, NM 87502, Phone: (505) 820-1648, Fax: (505) 989-1073, Email: 

Spectroscopy offers a sneak peak into the 37th FACSS Conference taking place October 17-21, 2010, in Raleigh, North Carolina.

FACSS 2010 Preview: Tomorrow's Analytical Sciences Today

May brought a lot more than spring to the air this year as the scientific community geared up for the 58th ASMS Conference on Mass Spectrometry and Allied Topics, held at the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City, Utah from May 23 through May 27.

 (ROBERT GLUSIC/DIGITAL VISION/GETTY IMAGES)			

The conference began early for some attendees, with several one-and two-day short courses beginning on Saturday May 22, from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Sunday marked the official start of the conference with more short courses and informative tutorial lectures from 5:00 to 6:30 p.m.   

Following the tutorial lectures was the opening session and Plenary Lecture, which featured a talk from Leroy Hood, of the Institute for Systems Biology, entitled "Systems Medicine and Emerging Technologies: Catalyzing the Transformation from Reactive to Proactive (P4) Medicine." Dr. Hood received his M.D. from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in 1964 and his Ph.D. in biochemistry from the California Institute of technology in 1968. He has received many awards and accolades over the years, including the 2004 Biotechnology Heritage Award, the 2003 Association for Molecular Pathology (AMP) Award for Excellence in Molecular Diagnostics, the 2006 Heinz Award in Technology, the Economy, and Employment, and in 2007, he was elected to the Inventors Hall of Fame (for the automated DNA sequencer). 

A major highlight of ASMS was the award presentations. Each year, ASMS distributes some of the most prestigious awards in the industry, and these coveted honors attract a large number of applications and nominees. The three most prominent awards include the Award for a Distinguished Contribution in Mass Spectrometry, The Biemann Medal, and the Ron A. Hites Award. 

 The Award for a Distinguished Contribution in Mass Spectrometry was presented to Dr. Marvin L. Vestal, founder, CEO, and CSO of Virgin Instruments, on Monday, May 24. Vestal's development of the practical matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight (MALDI-TOF) and TOF-TOF mass spectrometers resulted in the first commercial MALDI-TOF instrument — the Voyagers series. More than half of MALDI-TOF instruments in use today are based on Dr. Vestal's designs.  

A significant accomplishment of his work is the development of a comprehensive theoretical model for the various components of a TOF analyzer with a view toward optimizing performance of a complete system for particular applications. Dr. Vestal implemented this theoretical approach to design a family of MALDI-TOF instruments that employed delayed extraction, and through further refinements, the construction of a tandem time-of-flight instrument. Advances in related technology have been combined with Dr. Vestal's theoretical predictions to provide MALDI-TOF MS and MS-MS systems that out-perform earlier instruments by orders of magnitude. The MALDI-TOF MS and MS-MS systems designed by Dr. Vestal have had and are continuing to have an enormously positive impact on many important areas of research, including proteomics, glycomics, cell signaling, structural biology, tissue imaging, and polymer science. 

The Biemann Medal was presented to Dr. David C. Muddiman, of North Carolina State University for his discovery that one strand of a PCR amplicon appears more intense than the complementary strand in an electrospray ionization (ESI) mass spectrum. Dr. Muddiman has developed alternative ion sources for FT-ion cyclotron resonance (ICR) MS, including the dual ESI source, MALDI-ESI, liquid MALDI-ESI, and an "air amplifier" for more efficient ESI. The significance of these advances is that they allow generation of multiple charged species, which are uniquely suited for FT-ICR-MS due to the inverse relationship between frequency and 

Dr. Muddiman has published over 150 papers in peer-reviewed journals and is recognized for his unusual combination of depth and breadth in the  vibrant field of biological mass spectrometry. He is currently Professor of Chemistry at North Carolina State University. 

The Ron A. Hites Award is given annually for an exemplary paper published in the previous two volumes of the 

Journal of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry

. The award recognizes a high quality presentation of outstanding original research, and papers may be nominated by anyone who reads 

This year's award was presented to Prof. Facundo Fernandez for the article "Direct Quantitation of Active Ingredients in Solid Artesunate Antimalarials by Noncovalent Complex Forming Reactive Desorption Electrospray Ionization Mass Spectrometry" (Leonard Nyadong, Sameer Late, Michael D. Green, Ajay Banga, and Facundo Fernández, 

 380–388 [2008]). Prof. Fernández is in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Georgia Institute of Technology. 

The award-winning manuscript was selected by a confidential committee. Selection was based on the committee's judgment of each paper's innovative aspects, technical quality, likely stimulation of future research, likely impact on future applications, and quality of presentation. Manuscript citations and impact factor may also be considered but are not the major determinants of selection. The author received a personal award of $2000 and all co-authors received certificates of commendation in addition.  

Finally, the recipients of the two 2010 ASMS Research awards were Hao Chen, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio; and Sarah Trimpin, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan. These prestigious awards were designed to promote academic research by young scientists in mass spectrometry, and are open to academic scientists within four years of joining the tenure track faculty or equivalent in a North American university. Awards of $25,000 each were made to the recipients' respective universities in their names and will be used exclusively to fund their work.  

ASMS gave the scientific community another hit this year with many superb sessions, posters, workshops, and hospitality suites. Next year's ASMS conference is scheduled to be in Denver, Colorado — we at 

can't wait to see what the Rocky Mountains and the 2011 program have to offer!  

LCGC and Spectroscopy review some of the highlights and award recipients from this year's ASMS conference, held May 23–27, 2010, in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Author | Megan Evans

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