EMSL Scientist Recognized with Mass Spectrometry Award

Ljiljana Paša-Tolić, the lead scientist for visual proteomics at the Environmental Sciences Laboratory, is the 2024 recipient of the International Mass Spectrometry Foundation’s Jochen Franzen Award. The award is named after Jochen Franzen, a mass spectrometry pioneer who founded Franzen Analysentechnik GmbH, later Bruker-Franzen Analytik GmbH, specializing in the innovation and manufacturing of mass spectrometry instrumentation.

The award recognizes outstanding contributions to innovations in structural, spatial, and/or separation analysis with mass spectrometry.

Paša-Tolić, a Pacific Northwest National Laboratory Fellow, was nominated by the American Society for Mass Spectrometry (ASMS) and is the second recipient of the award since its inception in 2022.

“I am so incredibly honored and grateful to be the recipient of this award,” said Paša-Tolić. ”But of course, the credit goes to all of the amazing colleagues and friends that I have been privileged and honored to work alongside.”

In their nomination, ASMS highlighted Paša-Tolić’s significant contributions to high-performance mass spectrometry.

“Ljiljana’s research career is an exemplary example of someone who has made significant contributions to many aspects of high-performance mass spectrometry both as an individual and as part of a scientific team at PNNL,” according to ASMS President Joseph Loo in the written nomination. “In many ways, her career mirrors Jochen Franzen’s tremendous accomplishments and efforts with the team at Bruker. Ljiljana’s work spans across a wide array of mass spectrometry-related science, including instrumentation, separations, qualitative and quantitative ‘omics, informatics, imaging, and single-cell measurements.”

Paša-Tolić is widely regarded for her pioneering contributions to top-down mass spectrometry and high-throughput proteomics. At EMSL, Paša-Tolić participated and led efforts to design, build, and deploy a continuous line of consistently higher mass-resolution mass spectrometers, including EMSL’s 21T Fourier Transform Ion Cyclotron Resonance spectrometer (FTICR), which has the highest magnetic field available for FTICR and is one of only two in the world.

Paša-Tolić has authored more than 300 peer-reviewed publications; presented at more than 150 seminars, conferences, and workshops; and served on numerous editorial and advisory committees. She was one of the founding organizers of the Consortium for Top-Down Proteomics (CTDP), a nonprofit corporation focused on accelerating “the comprehensive analysis of intact proteins and their complexes,” and is serving on the CTDP Board. In July 2021, she was elected to the Washington State Academy of Sciences (WSAS) and is currently serving on the WSAS Board.

The International Mass Spectrometry Foundation will present Paša-Tolić with the Jochen Franzen Award during the 25^th International Mass Spectrometry Conference (Aug. 17–23) in Melbourne, Australia. Paša-Tolić will present her insights on high-resolution mass spectrometry during an invited talk at the conference on Aug. 21.