PNNL

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) scientists Richard (Dick) Smith and Ljiljana (Lili) Paša-Tolić have been recognized by The Analytical Scientist magazine in its 2021 Power List of top analytical scientists worldwide.

Smith is among the top 20 of the 100-name list. Both Smith and Paša-Tolić were on the Power List in 2019.

A chemist and Battelle Fellow, Smith led the first development and applications of both high-resolution liquid chromatography separations and high-resolution/high-accuracy mass spectrometry for proteomics. He has invented ion separation technologies for mass spectrometry, including the ion funnel and Structures for Lossless Ion Manipulation (SLIM). In early August, Smith celebrated 45 years of service at PNNL.

In another life, he told the magazine, “I’d be working with a new technology of some sort. I am a hopeless technophile, and love problem solving—I’m endlessly fascinated by the challenges involved in everything from robotics to constructing a quantum computer.”

Paša-Tolić is a Laboratory Fellow and lead scientist for visual proteomics at the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL), a Department of Energy Office of Science user facility located at PNNL. Her research centers on developing and applying advanced analytical methods for high-throughput proteomics and metabolomics as well as native and top-down proteomics, which are techniques to measure proteins in their functional folded and modified states.

“The grand challenge in analytical chemistry is predictive understanding of molecular processes underpinning biological and ecosystem functions,” she told the magazine. “To address this challenge, we need to extract local molecular information within cells and at various interfaces. This will require quantum leaps in precision, accuracy, sensitivity, throughput, and the ability to make measurements in real-time and in situ.”