The presentation will cover the fundamentals of mass spectrometry including the concept of nominal vs accurate mass measurements. Various types of mass spectrometers and their strengths and weakness will be discussed. The advantages of high-resolution, mass accuracy and isotopic fidelity in the identification of compounds will also be illustrated.

The speaker will be Jose Meza, Mass Spec Product Specialist in the Bay Area.

Jose grew-up and attended school in the Los Angeles Area – a proud graduate of the Compton Unified School District (Centennial Senior High School). After graduating from high school, he attended Long Beach State University where I got my BS degree in Biochemistry. Three months after graduating from college he started a PhD program at UC Berkeley in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology. Under the direction of Mary-Claire King he completed his PhD thesis in 1999 – his work was focused on the biophysical characterization of the BRCA1 protein. He continued to enhance his analytical and Mass Spec skills following graduate school with a 2-year post-doc in Al Burlingame’s lab at UCSF. In 2002 he joined Agilent as an application chemist and spent ~10 years engaging with our customers in an effort to help further develop their research. Currently he is a mass spec specialist where his primary responsibility is to help guide our customers with their research/application goals.