EJMS and the International Year of Chemistry

EJMS—European Journal of Mass Spectrometry and the Mass Spectrometry Division of the Italian Chemical Society are collaborating to celebrate the International Year of Chemistry in 2011. A mass spectrometer is an exercise in physics made possible by engineers and computer scientists. The ubiquity of mass spectrometry in 2011 is the consequence of many exercises in chemistry. The chemistry of the oil industry called for mass spectrometry in the 1950s and 1960s and defined requirements for high resolution. Organic chemistry’s love affair with mass spectrometry blossomed in the 1960s and 1970s. The chemistry of biology drives mass spectrometry in the twenty-first century. Mass spectrometry without chemistry would have been an indescribably poorer discipline.

EJMShas enjoyed the relationship with Italian Chemical Society through the Mass Spectrometry Division for many years. Together we wish to celebrate chemistry in mass spectrometry. To this end, it is planned that each issue of EJMS in 2011 will start with a review on a particular area of chemistry in which mass spectrometry has had a significant impact and written by an expert from the Italian Society.

The planned reviews are:

Tandem mass spectrometry and isotope dilution in the quality and safety control of foodstuffs
by Professor Giovanni Sindona

Some thoughts on the mechanisms of electrospray ionisation
by Professor Pietro Traldi

Mass spectrometry in hydrophobic proteins characterisation
by Dr Silvia Catinella

Mass spectrometry in the characterisation of milk and dairy products
by Professor S. Foti

Supramolecular surfactant aggregates and electrospray ionisation
by Professor Leopoldo Ceraulo