ACS Publications Webinar Series | Global Innovators: Breakthroughs in Mass Spectrometry Research
Join ACS Publications for a webinar on advances in mass spectrometry including the development of new lipid structure analysis techniques and new workflows combining mass spectrometry and machine learning predictions to identify known metabolites in complex systems. Hear from Prof. Xiaoxiao Ma, winner of the 2025 Early Career Investigator Award in Analytical Chemistry, and Prof. Facundo Fernández, one of the 2025 Advances in Measurement Science Lectureship Awards winners.
James R. Eiszner Family Endowed Chair in Chemistry, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, United States
AGENDA
TIME
SESSION
SPEAKER
11:00- 11:05 EDT
Opening Remarks
Prof. Jonathan Sweedler
Editor-in-Chief, Analytical Chemistry
11:05- 11:40 EDT
Keynote Lecture | Winner of the 2025 Advances in Measurement Science Lectureship Award
"Spatial Metabolomics Technologies: Ultrahigh Mass Resolution, Cyclic Ion Mobility, Single Cell Multimodal, Triboelectric Nanogenerators"
Prof. Facundo M. Fernández
Professor, Georgia Institute of Technology
11:40- 11:45 EDT
Q&A Session
Prof. Jonathan Sweedler; Prof. Facundo M. Fernández
11:45- 12:20 EDT
Keynote Lecture | Winner of the 2025 Early Career Investigator Award in Analytical Chemistry
Prof. Xiaoxiao Ma
Associate Professor, Tsinghua University
12:20- 12:25 EDT
Q&A Session
Prof. Xiaoxiao Ma; Prof. Jonathan Sweedler
12:25- 12:30 EDT
Closing Remarks
Prof. Jonathan Sweedler
Editor-in-Chief, Analytical Chemistry
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Regents' Professor, Vasser-Woolley Chair in Bioanalytical Chemistry
Georgia Institute of Technology, United States
Prof. Facundo Fernández is the recipient of the AMSLA for the Americas region and is recognized for his work in ambient mass spectrometry and metabolomics – specifically he recently developed a new workflow combining mass spectrometry and machine learning predictions to identify unknown metabolites in complex systems. This multi-omics approach was displayed in a recent study in Nature to understand and explore the multi-tissue molecular effects of endurance training.
Prof. Facundo M. Fernández is a Regents' Professor and the Vasser-Woolley Chair in Bioanalytical Chemistry in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He earned his BSc/MSc (Licenciatura) in Chemistry from the Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, in 1995, and his Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry from the same institution in 1999. From 2000 to 2001, he was a postdoctoral researcher in the group of Richard N. Zare at the Department of Chemistry at Stanford University. Between 2002 and 2003, he joined the research group of Vicki Wysocki at the University of Arizona, where he held roles as senior postdoctoral researcher and later research scientist.
Prof. Fernández is internationally recognized for his contributions to bioanalytical chemistry. His research focuses on developing new tools for analyzing small-volume samples, tissues, and single cells, and applying these methods to improve understanding of diseases such as cancer, cystic fibrosis, and inflammatory bowel disease. He is the author of 226 peer-reviewed publications, has delivered over 225 invited lectures, and has supervised the graduation of 33 Ph.D. and M.Sc. students. Additionally, he serves as the academic director of the Systems Mass Spectrometry Core (SyMS-C) at the Parker H. Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience at Georgia Tech, where he manages a portfolio of more than 10 mass spectrometers from leading vendors.
Prof. Fernández has received numerous prestigious awards, including the NSF CAREER Award, the CETL/BP Teaching Award, the Ron A. Hites Best Paper and Research Awards from ASMS, the ANACHEM Award, the Sigma Xi Sustained Research Award, and the Beynon Award from RCMS, among others. He was named one of the Top 100 Most Influential People in Analytical Science over the past decade by The Analytical Scientist in its 2023 Power List. He serves on the editorial board of The Analyst and as an associate editor for the Journal of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry. He has also delivered distinguished lectures, including the Bereman Lecture at NCSU, the Conover Lecture at Vanderbilt, and the Kolthoff Lecture at the University of Minnesota.
Prof. Fernández leads a research team of 15–20 members focused on metabolomics, the development of new ionization sources, MS imaging, machine learning, and ion mobility spectrometry. His work is supported by federal agencies such as the NIH, NSF, NASA, IARPA, and the Department of Defense.
In his spare time, Prof. Fernández enjoys camping and overlanding with his family, rock climbing, kayaking, and participating in Summits on the Air (SOTA) with his tiny ham radio.
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Prof. Xiaoxiao Ma
Winner of the 2025 Early Career Investigator Award in Analytical Chemistry
Associate Professor, Tsinghua University, China
Prof. Xiaoxiao Ma is the recipient of the 2025 Early Career Investigator Award in Analytical Chemistry and is recognized for his contributions to mass spectrometry, particularly in the development of new lipid structure analysis techniques. The structural lipidomics technologies he has developed has been successfully applied to third-party testing institutions for drug development, molecular physiology, molecular pathology, nutrition, environmental and health research. In clinical analysis, it has been applied to multi-scale samples of cells, body fluids, tissues and organs to reveal new potential lipid markers in disease samples of diabetes, breast cancer, liver cancer, lung cancer and other diseases, laying the foundation for promoting rapid clinical diagnosis.
Prof. Ma Xiaoxiao earned a B.S. in Environmental Engineering from Tsinghua University in 2007. He then spent 5 years as a graduate student to work in the field of mass spectrometry under the guidance of Prof. Xinrong Zhang and Prof. Sichun Zhang at the Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University. From 2012 to 2017, he has been conducting postdoctoral research at Purdue University under the joint supervision of Prof. Ouyang Zheng and Prof. Xia Yu. He began his independent career at the Department of Precision Instrument in Tsinghua University in 2017. At Tsinghua, he is now an associate professor.
Prof. Ma has authored more than 60 peer-reviewed papers including Nature Communications, PNAS, and Accounts of Chemical Research, and has contributed chapters to three monographs published by Springer and the Royal Society of Chemistry. He researches are primarily on mass spectrometry instruments and their biomedical applications, including technologies such as single-cell mass spectrometry and spatial lipidomics. He serves on the editorial boards of journals including Chinese Chemical Letters and the Journal of Analytical Testing. He has Led research initiatives such as the National Key Research and Development Project for young scientists by the Ministry of Science and Technology, as well as projects supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China. He is elected to the national high-level youth talent program and named in the list of global top 2% scientists (Stanford University).