Sector Field Mass Spectrometry for Elemental and Isotopic Analysis

Thomas Prohaska is professor for analytical chemistry at the BOKU (University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna, Tulln, Austria). He studied chemistry at the Vienna University of Technology and received his PhD with summa cum laude in 1995. He became scientific researcher at the BOKU in the same year to build up a laboratory for elemental trace analysis. From 1998 to 2000 he was researcher at the EC joint research center IRMM in Geel, Belgium. He returned to the BOKU with a new focus on isotope research and became associate professor in 2002. In 2004, he received the START award for the setup of a new research laboratory (VIRIS). “I have dedicated my research to isotope science and metrology keeping the momentum of curiosity driven science.”

Johanna Irrgeher is currently postdoctoral researcher in the field of analytical chemistry at the VIRIS Laboratory for analytical ecogeochemistry at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna (BOKU). She holds a master degree in biotechnology from BOKU Vienna and obtained her PhD granted by the Austrian Academy of Sciences in 2013 with honours for her work on stable strontium isotope ratio analysis by (LA)-MC ICP-MS. During her PhD she was visiting researcher at the Institute of Isotopes in Budapest (Hungary), the National Cheng Kung University in Tainan (Taiwan) and the National Research Council Canada in Ottawa (Canada). Since 2014 Johanna is associate member of the IUPAC committee on isotope abundances and atomic weights as well as the IUPAC subcommittee on isotope abundance measurements. Her current research focuses on analytical method development for elemental and isotopic analysis in the field of analytical ecogeochemistry dealing with both aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems.

Andreas Zitek is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU) and a member of the VIRIS Laboratory for Analytical Ecogeochemistry in Tulln. He received his diploma degree in Landscape Architecture and Landscape Management in 1999 and his PhD degree in 2006, both at the Institute of Hydrobiology and Aquatic Ecosystem Management (IHG) at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna (BOKU) (AT). In 2008 he completed an additional MSc in Geographical Information Science and Systems at the Paris Lodron University of Salzburg (UNIGIS). His current research activities aim at the application of elemental and isotopic analyses to basic questions in the field of aquatic ecology (‘aquatic ecogeochemistry’), with a special focus on the chemical analysis of hard parts of freshwater fish. Another focus of his work is the application of GIS methods for chemical imaging from µm (small compartment) to km (landscape, isoscape) scale. “Elemental and isotopic analysis is able to provide the most basic information about the interrelation between the living and non-living world, why I predict the transdisciplinary research direction of analytical ecogeochemistry a great future!”.

Norbert Jakubowski is presently head of the division Inorganic Analysis at the BAM - Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing, Berlin, Germany. He studied plasma-physics at the University of Essen/Duisburg and received his PhD at the University of Stuttgart Hohenheim with summa cum laude in 1991. He started his scientific career at the Institute for Analytical Sciences in Dortmund. In 2013 he received the “European Award for Plasma Spectrochemistry” for his contribution in elemental mass spectrometry. His research interests are related to Analytical Chemistry in general with special interest in development of instruments, methods and problem-orientated procedures based on the use of plasma sources (inductively coupled plasma, glow discharge) for elemental mass spectrometry of solid and liquid samples. Recently he started a new research direction towards labelling of biomolecules with metals by use of chelating compounds for detection of biomarkers in clinical research. “Single cells are the most fascinating machineries on earth and it is my challenge for the rest of my career to make life processes visible”.