John B. Fenn Distinguished Contribution in Mass Spectrometry Award

Today at 4:45 pm, John B. Fenn Distinguished Contribution in Mass Spectrometry Award recipient Evan R. Williams will give a plenary lecture. Williams is a Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Biophysics at the University of California, Berkeley.

Williams has made pioneering contributions that have improved the fundamental understanding of ion chemistry in aqueous nanodrops both inside and outside the mass spectrometer. His work has had tremendous impact and represents a cohesive and successful sustained effort to understand the chemistry occurring in aqueous solutions during the transition in the electrospray process from bulk solution to individual ions or solvated ions.

He has taken advantage of nanodrop chemistry to: 1) manipulate ion charging and desalting ions during the electrospray ionization process, 2) develop rapid mixing in electrospray droplets to investigate ultrafast chemistry (<1 to 100 microseconds) to track peptides and fast-folding proteins in the act of folding, 3) investigate how the organization of water around ions can pattern the hydrogen bonding network of water and how water can affect the structure of ions, and 4) develop thermochemical methods, including blackbody infrared (IR) radiative dissociation and ion nanocalorimetry, to probe the thermochemistry of processes, such as electrochemical reductions in mass selected aqueous nanodrops.

This collective theme has influenced not just the field of MS and ion chemistry but has also improved our understanding about the role of water on ion chemistry in a given solution, an outcome that impacts many areas ranging from biomolecule structure and folding to atmospheric aerosol chemistry.