PNNL

Megan Nims has been at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory since 2012, beginning her career as a post-master’s research associate. Broadly, Nims’s research focuses on using mass spectrometry to address a wide variety of ecological, geochemical, environmental science, and chemical research questions. Her responsibilities have focused on using chemical markers to investigate questions of fish migration and habitat. She has experience in the preparation and analysis of various types of samples (e.g. fish otoliths, fin rays, scales, and tissue, water, algal mat) via solution and laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry and isotope ratio mass spectrometry. Nims’s work also includes the use of different elemental and isotopic systems to understand the origin and history of a variety of materials, including chemicals, nuclear materials, and agricultural products. Additionally, Nims works on PNNL’s VaporID team, which focuses on the development of ultra-sensitive vapor detection capabilities that can be used to detect explosives and drugs.

• Fish migration and habitat use
• Otolith microchemistry
• Geochemistry
• Mass spectrometry

• PhD in interdisciplinary studies, Washington State University
• MS in marine sciences, The University of Texas at Austin
• BA in ecology/evolution/organism biology, The Ohio State University

• American Chemical Society
• American Fisheries Society

• Early Career Invited Speaker, Chemical Weapons Demilitarisation Conference, 2023
• Geekwire Innovation of the Year Award (VaporID), 2020
• Outreach Volunteer of the Year Award, American Chemical Society – Richland Section, 2020
• National Science Foundation, GK12 Fellow, 2011 – 2012

U.S. Patent No. 11,043,370, June 22, 2021, "DEVICE AND SYSTEM FOR SELECTIVE IONIZATION AND ANALYTE DETECTION AND METHOD OF USING THE SAME"(Offsite link).

Nims, MK, EH Denis, GL Hart, NM Escobedo, SE Murphy, RS Addleman, I Novosselov, RG Ewing. 2024. Standoff trace explosives vapor detection at meter distances. Talanta, 270: 125562. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.talanta.2023.125562

Nims, MK, TJ Linley, and JJ Moran. 2023. Temperature-dependent oxygen isotope fractionation in otoliths of juvenile Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha). Applied Geochemistry: 155: 105723. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeochem.2023.105723

Bourret S.L., J.M. Janak, T.J. Linley, M.K. Nims, and G.A. Mcmichael. 2023. "Inadvertent hatchery Rainbow Trout Oncorhynchus mykiss discovered in native Westslope Cutthroat Trout Oncorhynchus clarkii lewisi habitat: A Cautionary Tale." Fisheries 48, no. 11:453-464. PNNL-ACT-SA-10716. doi:10.1002/fsh.10985

Ewing R.G., G.L. Hart, M.K. Nims, S.E. Murphy, S. Johnson, J. Chun, and E.H. Denis. 2023. "Reducing ion diffusion at atmospheric pressure through intermingled positive and negative ions." International Journal of Mass Spectrometry 492. PNNL-SA-185511. doi:10.1016/j.ijms.2023.117115

Dunnigan, JL, TJ Linley, JM Janak, MK Nims, L Garavelli, and GA McMichael. 2023. Otolith 87Sr/86Sr identifies natal origin, movement, and life history of Burbot Lota lota in the Kootenai River following 45 years of impoundment. Ecology of Freshwater Fish, 32: 618-632. https://doi.org/10.1111/eff.12712

Ewing R.G., M.K. Nims, K.A. Morrison, G.L. Hart, N.M. Avalos, and E.H. Denis. 2022. "Vapor detection and vapor pressure measurements of fentanyl and fentanyl hydrochloride salt at ambient temperatures." Analyst 147. doi:10.1039/d2an01149b

Denis, EH, JL Bade, RS Renslow, KA Morrison, MK Nims, Niranjan Govind, and RG Ewing. 2022. Proton affinity of fentanyl and fentanyl analogues pertinent to ambient ionization and detection. Journal of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry, 33: 482-490. https://doi.org/10.1021/jasms.1c00320

Nims, MK, AM Melville, JJ Moran, KH Jarman, and BW Wright. 2022. Compound specific stable isotope analysis of aromatics in diesel fuel to identify potential cocktailing. Forensic Science International, 334: 111244. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forsciint.2022.111244

Morrison K.A., E.H. Denis, M.K. Nims, A.M. Broderick, R.C. Fausey, H.J. Rose, and P.E. Gongwer, et al. 2021. Vapor Pressures of RDX and HMX Explosives Measured at and Near Room Temperature: 1,3,5-Trinitro-1,3,5-triazinane and 1,3,5,7-Tetranitro-1,3,5,7-tetrazocane. Journal of Physical Chemistry A 125, no. 5:1279-1288. doi:10.1021/acs.jpca.0c104092020

Morrison K.A., B.R. Valenzuela, E.H. Denis, M.K. Nims, D.A. Atkinson, B.H. Clowers, and R.G. Ewing. 2020. Non-Contact Vapor Detection of Illicit Drugs via Atmospheric Flow Tube-Mass Spectrometry. Analyst 145, no. 20:6485-6492. doi:10.1039/D0AN00691B

Moran, JJ, CG Fraga, and MK Nims. 2018. Stable-carb isotope ratios for sourcing the nerve-agent precursor methylphosphonic dichloride and its products. Talnta, 186: 678-683. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.talanta.2018.04.021

Chen, KY, SA Ludsin, MM Corey, PD Collingsworth, MK Nims, JW Olesik, K Dabrowski, JJ van Tassell, and EA Marschall. 2016. Experimental and field evaluation of otolith strontium as a marker to discriminate between river-spawning populations of walleye in Lake Erie. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, 74: 693-701. https://doi.org/10.1139/cjfas-2015-0565

Linley, TJ, EJ Krogstad, MK Nims, RB Langshaw. 2016. Geochemical signatures in fin rays provide a nonlethal method to distinguish the natal rearing streams of endangered juvenile Chinook Salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytscha in the Wenatchee River, Washington. Fisheries Research, 181: 234-246. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fishres.2016.04.004