British Mass Spectrometry Society – Should you be a part? - Dr Susan Crosland

The British Mass Spectrometry Society has been representing the UK mass spectrometry (MS) community for over 40 years, and has many oversees members too. Its aim has always been to promote the education of scientists in MS - from the early days when it was just starting as an accessible technique, to today when the range of applications in which it is used is expanding dramatically. The Mass Spectroscopy Group (MSG) was set up in the UK in 1965, and its first meeting was that year at University College London with John Beynon as Chair. It set up its constitution three years later, and put forward that the Committee had to include one representative each from the Institute of Petroleum and the Mass Spectrometry Discussion Group (MSDG). This suggests a coming together of various MS interest groups, but also indicates the key users of the technique at time.

In 1974-75 the meetings were of the British Mass Spectroscopy Group, and shortly after this discussions began to set it up as a registered charity. However, it wasn’t until 1981 that the Group reorganised to become the British Mass Spectrometry Society (Chair: John Todd).

The Society hosted the 1985 International MS Conference in Swansea and used the proceeds to set-up the ‘Beynon’ studentships, which ran until 2003, funding a total of 7 PhD students in MS. However, by the time BMSS hosted the 2003 International Conference in Edinburgh this was not a cost effective means of funding. So instead, £150,000 was ring-fenced in an Education Fund to widen BMSS’ activities. As a result the Society has helped fund members travelling to conferences in the UK and abroad (ca. £15,000 pa); funded over 25 Summer Students since 2007 on MS related projects; and sponsored an annual BMSS lecturer, with nearly 30 lectures given at tertiary education venues.

There is also an introductory course on LC-MS which runs at the Society’s conferences, an MS lecture for members to present at schools, a book on MS for all new student members, career workshops and a small equipment grant.

In addition to educational activities BMSS provides the wider MS community with a high quality three Day Annual Meeting, which aims to bring together spectrometrists old and new from a wide range of application areas. These meetings are renowned for having informal social events that enable new practitioners to discuss their work with some of the biggest names in MS, some of whom will have been rewarded with the Society’s Aston or BMSS medals.

There are also excellent shorter meetings on specific areas, such as the ‘Data to Knowledge’ meeting 29-30 March 2011. These and other MS conferences are reported in the Society’s regular newsletter ‘Mass Matters’ along with scientific articles, book reviews, and BMSS news.

BMSS is also collaborating with related Societies in order to reach beyond its traditional membership. These days many users have not come from a formal MS background. They are chromatographers, biochemists, physical chemists and clinicians, but BMSS wants to ensure they have the same opportunities to get the best from their equipment. Some of this is done through Special Interest Groups (SIGs) run by enthusiastic members in areas of topical (or geographical) interest. The Society is also looking at customising its courses for particular application areas. The current SIGs are as follows and all welcome new members: