John Bennett Fenn (June 15, 1917December 10, 2010) was an American professor of analytical chemistry who was awarded a share of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2002. He shared half of the award with Koichi Tanaka for their work in mass spectrometry. The other half went to Kurt Wüthrich. Fenn's contributions specifically related to the development of electrospray ionization, now a commonly used technique for large molecules and routine liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Early in his career, he studied the field of jet propulsion at Project SQUID and focused on molecular beams. He finished his career with more than 100 publications, including one book.

Fenn was born in New York City, and moved to Kentucky with his family during the Great Depression. Fenn did his undergraduate work at Berea College, and received his PhD from Yale. He worked in industry at Monsanto and at private research labs before moving to academic posts including Yale and Virginia Commonwealth University.

Fenn's research into electrospray ionization found him at the center of a legal dispute with Yale University. He lost the lawsuit, after it was determined that he misled the university about the potential usefulness of the technology. Yale was awarded $500,000 in legal fees and $545,000 in damages. The decision pleased the university, but provoked mixed responses from some people affiliated with the institution, who were disappointed with the treatment of a Nobel Prize winner with such a long history at the school.

Early life and education

Fenn was born in New York City, and grew up in Hackensack, New Jersey. In the years preceding the Great Depression, Fenn's father worked several different jobs, including briefly working as a draftsman at the Fokker Aircraft Company. During this time, Charles Lindbergh's plane The Spirit of St. Louis was briefly stored at one of the company's hangars. Fenn recalled sitting in the cockpit as a ten-year-old, pretending to pilot the famous plane. When his family's fortunes took a turn for the worse with the advent of the Depression, they moved to Berea, Kentucky, because his aunt Helen Dingman, who was on the faculty of Berea College, agreed to help the family. Fenn completed his education at Berea College and Allied Schools, formally finishing his high school education at the age of 15, but he took extra classes for another year rather than start college at such a young age.

Research interests

thumb|right|The instrument Fenn and his colleagues used to develop ESI is on display at the Science History Institute Museum in Philadelphia, PA

While Fenn was working with Monsanto, the company's research was focused on the production of phosphoric acid and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). For large molecules like proteins, this often results in multiply charge species. Increasing the charge on the molecules, decreased the mass-to-charge ratio, which allows the mass to be more easily determined. The Science History Institute Museum in Philadelphia, PA has the instrument Fenn and his graduate students built while they were developing electrospray ionization on display, after receiving it as a gift from Fenn.

Lawsuit

Fenn's work with electrospray ionization was at the center of a lawsuit pitting him against his alma mater and former employer, Yale University. His initial dispute with the university began in 1987, when he turned 70 – Yale's mandatory retirement age. Per university policy, Fenn was made an emeritus professor, which resulted in a reduction to his lab space. In 1989, when Yale University inquired about the progress and potential about his electrospray work, he downplayed its potential scientific and commercial value. Fenn patented the technology on his own, and sold licensing rights to a company he partly owned – Analytica of Branford. In 1993, a private company seeking to license the use of electrospray technology traced its invention to Yale, when the university discovered that Fenn held the patent.

Awards and honors

Nobel Prize

thumb|Honor of Fenn's Nobel Prize award in the [[Berea College in Berea, Kentucky]]

Fenn shared the 2002 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Koichi Tanaka and Kurt Wüthrich "for the development of methods for identification and structure analyses of biological macromolecules." Fenn and Tanaka split half of the award for their work in developing ionization techniques for using mass spectrometry to analyze large biological molecules. Wüthrich was honored for his work in developing nuclear magnetic resonance techniques to analyze similar molecules in solution. Fenn's Nobel lecture after being presented with the award was entitled "Electrospray Wings for Molecular Elephants." He was surprised by his selection as a Nobel winner, saying "It's like winning the lottery, I'm still in shock." At the time of his award, Fenn was working at Virginia Commonwealth University. Margaret was killed in a car accident in New Zealand in 1992.

References

  • Interview where John Fenn discusses the history of the development of the Electrospray Ionization method
  • Annual Reviews Conversations Interview with John B. Fenn (video)
  • including the Nobel Lecture December 8, 2002 Electrospray Wings for Molecular Elephants
  • Dudley R. Herschbach and Charles E. Kolb, "John B. Fenn", Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences (2014)

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