Introduction of Taiwan Society for Mass Spectrometry

History : Mass spectrometers today are among the most important and widely used analytic instruments. In principle can be used to detect the structure, composition, and characteristics of any given molecule. Mass spectrometers are used in physics, chemistry, biology, geology, environmental testing, quality control, diagnosis, forensic, and drug testing. Recently, MS approaches have played an important role in Taiwan, as evidenced by upsurge of researches and applications, such as environmental monitoring, medical analysis, biochemical development (genomics, metabolomics, and proteomics), and instrumentation, related to mass spectrometry. The Taiwan Society for Mass Spectrometry (TSMS) was formed in 2003 and dedicated to the promotion of the knowledge related to mass spectrometry and allied topics.


Aims of TSMS :
The aims of the TSMS are to advance the science and practice of mass spectrometry worldwide by the promotion and dissemination of knowledge.To this end, the specific aims of the TSMS include: • to organize annual conference, symposiums, and workshops in diverse areas in the field of mass spectrometry; • to organize training courses to improve education in the field of mass spectrometry; • to do all things that are, directly or indirectly, generally incidental to, or conductive to the attainment of these objects.
Organization : The active members of TSMS are around 500 scientists.They comprise academics or professionals from governmental institutions, universities and industry (full members) and full-time graduate students in academic institutions (student members).Every three year, the TSMS members elect 25 board members.Five acting board members will be subsequently elected by the board members.The president of the society will be elected from the acting members.Professor Guor-Rong Her from National Taiwan University, Taipei was elected as the first president of the society (2003−2005) aim to have the workshop is to provide students, researchers and scientists from different areas of mass spectrometry with an interdisciplinary forum for a better understanding of basic principle and applications of mass spectrometry.It will focus on mass spectrometry insights into proteomics, metabolomics, analytical chemistry, forensic studies, quantitative analysis, and span a wide area of applications.The workshop formats mainly include oral presentations and encourage informal discussion among conferees.We hope that the workshop will promote the communication and cooperation of scientists from different fields of Mass Spectrometry.
Until now, we have organized several workshops with various topics as following: Participation in international conferences : The TSMS members have actively attended the international conferences such as annual conference for American Society for Mass Spectrometry (ASMS), International Mass Spectrometry (IMS) conference, and Asia and Oceanic Mass Spectrometry Conference (AOMSC).Every year, more than 80 TSMS members attend the annual conference of ASMS, the largest mass spectrometry conference in the world.The graphic below shows the numbers of posters presented in the ASMS conference from several Asian countries during the period of 2005 to 2010.
• 2009 Winter Workshop (225 participants, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan), Topic: The Development and Principle of Mass Spectrometry in Quantitative Proteomic Analysis • 2010 Spring Workshop (83 participants, National Dong Hwa University, Hualien), Topic: Characterization of Microorganism and Application of Clinical Medicine • 2010 Summer Workshop (153 participants, National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu), Topic: Nanomatericals and Mass Spectrometric Method • 2010 Fall Workshop (95 participants, Institute of Nuclear Energy Research, Taoyuan), Topic: Mass Spectrometry for Pharmceuticals • 2010 Winter Workshop (180 participants, Biotechnology Research Center, Academic Sinica, Taipei), Topic: Application and New Development on Metabolomics • 2011 Spring Workshop (103 participants, National Chung Chang University, Chiayi), Topic: Mass Spectrometry and Toxicology Award : In 2010, TSMS created and launched Outstanding Research Award to encourage talented young (below age of 45) and senior MS researchers in Taiwan.The Award recognizes the achievements of outstanding young and senior investigators in the field of mass spectrometry.The candidates of the award can be nominated by two TSMS full members or by the members of the Award Committee.The award recipients will be determined by the Award Committee and will receive a medal and USD 2000.Prof. Yu-Chie Chen (National Chiao-Tung University, Hsinchu) received 2010 Award for her research achievement on applying different nanomaterials on mass spectrometric analysis.Publications : For the past seven years, the researchers and scientists in Taiwan have dedicated to work related to mass spectrometry in earnest.A large number of significant research papers concerning the developments of mass spectrometric techniques, methods, interfaces and applications of various fields, such as proteomics, metabolomics, forensic science, environmental or material analysis, and biomedical diagnosis reflect strong research energy in mass spectrometry in Taiwan.A number of published papers related to mass spectrometry in Taiwan from Jan 2005 to May 2011 (ISI web of knowledge, Keywords: mass spectrometry & Taiwan) The number of poster presentations in the annual ASMS conference from mass spectrometry societies in Asia -2005 to 2010.
The annual conference is held in various cities in June or July each year.Four workshops with different and novel topics are held each year since 2009.Each year, the TSMS offers three training courses in Northern, Central, and Southern Taiwan to the members and publics, which introduce mass spectrometric principles, operations, and its applications both in basic and in advanced courses for new juniors or seniors of mass spectrometry.Annual Conference : The annual conference of the TSMS takes place in different cities in Taiwan.Usually more than 400 experts from academics, industrials and governmental institutions attend the conference.Nearly 200 papers including orals and posters are presented.New developments in mass spectrometry are always discussed during the period of conference.Moreover, in order to improve the research quality of mass spectrometric technologies in Taiwan and to assist the researchers to have more connections to the world, TSMS have invited the scholars from abroad (such as United States, Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, Germany, Research highlights of TSMS : Research in Taiwan revolves around mass spectrometry with a special focus on new analytical methods, techniques, interfaces, instrumentation, materials, and applications.Scientists and researchers commit themselves to develop novel topics of mass spectrometry and the research highlights mainly include:• developing new methods for gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC/MS) and liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LC/MS) to improve their analytical that are relevant to mass spectrometry and other activities at the initiation or request by the societies.Joint events may be organized with universities, societies, and relevant corporations.Mass Spectrom.Lett.2011 Vol. 2, No. 2, 29-32 China, Korea, and Switzerland) to join with TSMS conferences as speakers.The followings show the invited speakers and topic of plenary lectures since 2004: • Annual conference in 2004, TAIPEI Mr. Koichi Tanaka, (Shimadzu Corporation, Japan; Nobel Laureate in Chemistry) Topic: The Origin of Topic: MS of Clycopeptides for Glycoproteomics Dr. Detlef Gunther, (ETH Zurich, Switzerland) Topic: Workshop : Since 2009, TSMS has organized the workshops with different novel topics of mass spectrometry.The primary Introduction to Taiwan Society for Mass Spectrometry Mass Spectrom.Lett.2011 Vol. 2, No. 2, 29-32 31