2025 JAAS Emerging Investigator Lectureship
2025 JAAS Emerging Investigator Lectureship
This year's awardee of the JAAS Emerging Investigator Lectureship for making a significant contribution in the area of atomic spectrometry in their independent academic career is Dr. David Clases.
David is an analytical scientist born in Paderborn, Germany. He completed his B.Sc. (2012), M.Sc. (2014), and PhD (2017) in Chemistry at the University of Münster under Professor Uwe Karst. After his doctorate, he received a DFG Fellowship and joined Professor Philip Doble’s group at the University of Technology Sydney, later becoming a lecturer in chemistry. In 2021, he returned to Europe to take up a tenure-track position at the University of Graz, Austria, where he founded and now leads the NanoMicroLab. Promoted to Associate Professor in 2024, he currently heads a team of eight researchers.
David is passionate about atomic spectroscopy, particularly ICP-MS in its many facets, ranging from fundamental principles and instrumentation to hyphenation with complementary techniques and real-world applications. His early work focused on LC-ICP-MS and LA-ICP-MS, while his current research centres on ICP-TOFMS and single particle approaches. His group develops new hyphenated techniques combining ICP-MS with orthogonal technologies such as optical traps and Raman spectroscopy to gain deeper insights into complex particulate systems.
With about sixty scientific articles published, his work has received broad recognition, including an ERC Starting Grant, the GDCh Analytical Chemistry Division Award, the ASAC Fritz Feigl Award, and the DGMS Mattauch-Herzog Award. He serves on the advisory boards of four journals and remains active as a reviewer, guest editor, and scientific committee member. His research has been featured at numerous international conferences through keynote and invited lectures, as well as short courses
NU Awards
NU Award for Pioneers in Inorganic Mass Spectrometry
The new “NU Award for Pioneers in Inorganic Mass Spectrometry” promotes both analytical developments and applications in inorganic mass spectrometry and is awarded for continued contributions (more than 10 years) in the field of inorganic mass spectrometry. This year's awardee is Dr. James Ranville.
Dr. James Ranville holds a BS in Chemistry from LSSU and MS/PhD degrees in Geochemistry from Colorado School of Mines. He performed postdoctoral work with Dr. Ron Beckett at Monash University, where he developed methods to interface field flow fractionation with ICP-MS. He is a Full Professor in the Department of Chemistry at Colorado School of Mines. His research focuses on metals in natural and human-perturbed aquatic systems. His research group has examined the occurrence, chemical speciation, and bioavailability of metals in mining impacted ecosystems, as well as in urban and natural environments. Much of his work has been dedicated to the development of analytical methods to collect and analyze colloids and nanoparticles in environmental systems. Since 2010, a large component of his research has been dedicated to advancing single particle ICP-MS as a practical tool for investigating engineered, incidental, and natural nanoparticles. He has graduated more than 45 MS/PhD students in total and 10 whose research was in single particle ICP-MS.
Dr. Ranville's will present: "Putting particles in plasmas: How single particle ICP-MS advances environmental geoscience".
NU Young Scientist Award for pioneering work in Inorganic Mass Spectrometry
The new “NU Young Scientist Award for pioneering work in Inorganic Mass Spectrometry” should honor and promote outstanding contributions of upcoming younger scientist at the beginning of their career for the work they carried out during their thesis or published as a postdoc (up to 5 years after their PhD) within the field of inorganic mass spectrometry. This year's awardee is Dr. David Clases.
Dr. David Clases is an Associate Professor of Analytical Chemistry at the University of Graz, where he founded and leads the NanoMicroLab. He studied and completed his PhD at the University of Münster in 2017 and subsequently spent several years as a postdoctoral researcher and independent lecturer at the University of Technology Sydney. In 2021, he joined the University of Graz and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2024. His research focuses on advanced elemental mass spectrometry, with an emphasis on single particle ICP-MS, ICP-TOFMS, and novel hyphenated techniques for nano- and microscale particle analysis. He develops tailored analytical strategies to expand the capabilities of elemental mass spectrometry beyond current limits. David has published about 70 papers and has recently received an ERC Starting Grant.
Dr. Classes will present "Gotta Catch ’Em All – Expanding the Grasp of Single particle ICP-MS"
2026 Emerging Leader in Atomic Spectroscopy Award Recipient
Dr. Sarah Theiner is the recipient of the 2026 Emerging Leader in Atomic Spectroscopy Award, recognizing her pioneering work in elemental bioimaging and mass spectrometry across interdisciplinary research. Now at Nu Instruments, she applies her scientific expertise to advancing instrumentation, building on nearly a decade of research at the University of Vienna’s Institute of Analytical Chemistry.
Her academic work focused on developing high-resolution imaging workflows using LA-ICP-TOFMS and multi-element analysis techniques for biological and clinical applications. She contributed to collaborative projects exploring the pharmacokinetics of metal-based anticancer drugs and single-cell analysis, resulting in over 45 peer-reviewed publications and multiple invited talks at international conferences.
Dr. Theiner holds a PhD from the University of Vienna and completed research stays at Ghent University and EPFL Lausanne. Her transition into a leadership role in the scientific instrumentation industry highlights her versatility and continued impact on atomic spectroscopy.
The Emerging Leader in Atomic Spectroscopy Award, presented annually by Spectroscopy at the Winter Conference on Plasma Spectrochemistry, honors early-career spectroscopists making significant contributions to the field. Nominations are accepted on a rolling basis and can be submitted directly to the editorial team.
2025 IASA Student Awardees
Mathis Athmer
Andrés Suárez Priede
Ilana Szlamkowicz
Ph.D. Student
University of Munster
Germany
Advisor: Prof. Uwe Karst
Ilana Szlamkowicz
Andrés Suárez Priede
Ilana Szlamkowicz
Completed Ph.D.
University of Central Florida
United States of America
Advisor: Assoc. Prof. Vasileios Anagnostopoulos
Andrés Suárez Priede
Andrés Suárez Priede
Andrés Suárez Priede
Ph.D. Student
University of Oviedo
Spain
Advisor: Prof. Jörg Bettmer