Bierbaum, Veronica M.

McLafferty, Fred W.

Elsevier - Publisher Connector 

EDITORIAL
Focus in Honor of David E. Clemmer,
Recipient of the 2006 Biemann MedalThe 2006 Biemann Medal was presented to Profes-sor David E. Clemmer at the 54th ASMS Confer-ence for his pioneering contributions to the inte-
gration of ion mobility separations with a variety of
mass spectrometry technologies. This honor, as for so
many in his young career, reflects David’s incredible
productivity, creativity, and impact on the field of mass
spectrometry.
David received his Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry in
1992 from the University of Utah under the direction of
Peter Armentrout. He served as a JSPS Postdoctoral
Fellow at the Himeji Institute of Technology in Japan,
and then as a Postdoctoral Associate at Northwestern
University with Martin Jarrold. David joined the faculty
of the Department of Chemistry at Indiana University
in 1995, where he has risen to the rank of Full Professor
and appointed to the Robert and Marjorie Mann Chair
of Chemistry.
David has been exceptionally active in multiple scien-
tific dimensions. He has publishedmore than 125 refereed
papers, presented about 150 lectures, mentored 20 gradu-
ate students, and holds four patents. He has garnered
research support from NIH, NSF, ACS-PRF, the Sloan
Foundation, the Dreyfus Foundation, Eli Lilly, Indiana
University, and the ASMS. He is scientific cofounder of
Beyond Genomics (a systems biology company aimed at
© 2007 American Society for Mass Spectrometry. Published by Elsevie
1044-0305/07/$32.00
doi:10.1016/j.jasms.2007.05.004
(J Am Soc Mass Spectrom 2007, 18, 1161–1162)understanding the molecular origins of diseased states)
and founder of Predictive Physiology and Medicine (a bio-
technology company aimed at providing detailed analyt-
ical measurements for personalized medicine). David has
served the scientific community through many profes-
sional activities, including membership on the editorial
boards of Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry, Analyst,
Current Analytical Chemistry, The Protein Journal, and the
International Journal of Mass Spectrometry. David has been
honored by numerous prestigious awards, including the
ACS Findeis Young Investigator Award, the TR-100 Re-
search Innovation Award, the Phi Lambda Upsilon Na-
tional Fresenius Award, and the Pittcon Achievement
Award. He was named a member of Popular Science’s 10
Most Brilliant list and selected as a Fellow of the Royal
Society of Chemistry.
The editors of the Journal of the American Society for Mass
Spectrometry are pleased to dedicate this Special Focus
Issue on “From Mobilities to Proteomes” to David Clem-
mer. This issue highlights recent work from David’s
group as well as from eight other leading laboratories (it is
unfortunate that the long list of willing contributors could
not be accommodated in this issue). The first article, by
Herbert Hill of Washington State University, demon-
strates that electrospray ionization-ambient pressure ion
mobility spectrometry/time-of-flight mass spectrometry
is a rapid and effective analytical technique for the sepa-
ration of carbohydrate isomers. The contribution by Rich-
ard Smith of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratories
describes the development of a higher resolution ESI-IMS-
TOFMS instrument by utilizing electrodynamic ion fun-
nels and elevated drift gas pressures. The article by
Michael Bowers of the University of California, Santa
Barbara explores the B-DNA helix stability in a solvent-
free environment through a combination of circular di-
chroism, ESI-MS, ion mobility, and molecular dynamics
studies. The paper of Peter Armentrout of the University
of Utah describes the development of an ion mobility
source for guided ion beam experiments to study electron-
ically excited states of atomic transition-metal cations.
Joseph Loo of the University of California, Los Angeles
demonstrates the application of electrospray ionization
gas-phase electrophoretic mobility molecular analysis to
evaluate the size of large proteins and protein complexes.
The contribution from Evan Williams of the University of
California, Berkeley describes studies of hydrated divalent
clusters that are used as nanocalorimeters to measure the
internal energy deposited upon electron capture dissocia-
tion. David Russell of Texas A & M University presents a
database of collision cross-sections of singly charged pep-
Published online May 13, 2007r Inc.
1162 BIERBAUM AND MCLAFFERTY J Am Soc Mass Spectrom 2007, 18, 1161–1162tide ions, determined by a combination of MALDI, IMS,
and TOF-MS. The article by Martin Jarrold of Indiana
University describes studies of folding and unfolding of
helix-turn-helix motifs in the gas phase utilizing ion mo-
bility measurements and molecular dynamics simula-
tions. In the final paper, David Clemmer describes map-
ping the human plasma proteome by SCX-LC-IMS-MS.
This collection of papers shows clearly that “IonMobility”
has come of age not only as a uniquely valuable new
method for characterizing gaseous molecules, but that it
can also dramatically improve specificity for routine qual-
itative and quantitative analysis.
David’s remarkable accomplishments result from
longer term research of truly exceptional creativity and
breadth. As long-time admirers of David’s career, we
note that his earlier research involved pioneering fun-
damental physical chemistry. With Peter Armentrout
he studied gaseous metal ion reactions with molecules,
while his postdoctorate in Japan investigated excited-
state metal atom reactions with gaseous molecules. His
postdoctorate with Martin Jarrold on metallofullerenes
could appear similar, but, most importantly, this work
introduced him to gaseous ion mobilities. David saw
the tremendous potential for fundamental research and
analytical applications, and his research program has
taken off from there. The sampling of high quality
papers and diverse topics in this issue is a very special
tribute to his vision. Ion mobility is now an established,
widely recognized field, and we mass spectrometrists
selfishly claim it as one of our own.
David’s own research first extended the pioneering
studies of his predecessors Mike Bowers and Martin
Jarrold that showed ion mobility to be a powerful new
tool for characterizing the conformations of gaseous
ions. This new field, proposed as of special importance
for insights into protein folding and enzymatic specific-
ity, inspired a variety of studies, but often of disparate
conclusions. David’s thorough studies of small proteins
such as ubiquitin established a fundamental relation-
ship between collision cross section values and postu-
lated structures. Not only did different charge states
have different structures, but he found conclusive evi-dence that a single charge state could exist in multiple
conformations. This is in direct contrast to the singular-
ity of a protein’s native conformation in solution, even
with varying pH.
Revolutionary instrumental methods key to the “An-
alytical Revolution” in science are the “hyphenated
techniques” such as GC/MS and 2D NMR. David
recognized and implemented such a combination of ion
mobility with mass spectrometry (IMS-MS), and this
truly has added another promising dimension to MS.
Two peptides can have the same exact mass value, even
with modern high-resolution MS capabilities; further,
with the best LC conditions, these peptides still may not
be separated. Clemmer’s unique LC-IMS-MS, as de-
scribed in this issue, provides even more specific infor-
mation for the on-line analyses of complex peptide
mixtures, a highly promising, powerful new tool for
proteomics.
It is especially appropriate that efficient, high sensi-
tivity peptide characterization is an important accom-
plishment of the Biemann Medalist. At David’s age,
MIT’s Professor Klaus Biemann had already proposed
and demonstrated the unique capabilities of mass spec-
trometry in sequencing peptides in amounts far smaller
than seemed conceivable by the analytical standards of
the day. The Journal of the American Society for Mass
Spectrometry is privileged to present this issue to high-
light David Clemmer’s similar accomplishments. Ion
mobility spectrometry is now a field of growing impor-
tance, and we predict that it will demand an increasing
proportion of this journal’s pages.
Veronica M. Bierbaum
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
University of Colorado
Boulder, Colorado, USA
Fred W. McLafferty
Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology
Cornell University
Ithaca, New York, USA


Focus in Honor of David E. Clemmer, Recipient of the 2006 Biemann Medal 

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Focus in Honor of David E. Clemmer, Recipient of the 2006 Biemann Medal

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