EDITORIAL

Mass Spectrometry: Fourth conference of the Spanish Societyof Mass Spectrometry (SEEM)

Félix Hernández & Juan V. Sancho & Damià Barceló

Published online: 25 June 2010# Springer-Verlag 2010

The Spanish Society of Mass Spectrometry (SEEM) heldits first conference in Madrid in 2002. The second and thirdconferences took place in Barcelona and Oviedo in 2004and 2006, respectively. Castellón was the city chosen tohost the fourth biennial conference of SEEM (4RSEEM)from 30 September to 2 October 2009. The meeting wasorganized by the Research Institute for Pesticides andWater (IUPA), from University Jaume I, under the auspicesof the President of the Organizing Committee, FélixHernández, Director of IUPA. SEEM is a rather youngsociety, but a very active one thanks to the numerousprestigious scientists with considerable experience in massspectrometry among its members. The series of confer-ences has become a meeting point for the growingcommunity of Spanish mass spectrometrists, fosteringdiscussions, exchanging experiences, and improvingknowledge of mass spectrometry.

The main objective of this conference series is topresent relevant applications and to illustrate the impactof mass spectrometry in different applied areas. Accord-ingly, there were sessions on environmental and foodanalysis, bioanalysis, proteomic and metabolomic studies,elemental analysis, speciation and isotopic analysis, andfundamentals. It is worth mentioning that the number ofinternational attendees is growing with every event.

The conference was attended by more than 150scientists, including about 50 young researchers (Ph.D.students and postdoctoral researchers) from about tencountries. The scientific program included a plenary lecturegiven by Emilio Gelpí (CSIC, Barcelona), who presentedan interesting overview entitled the “History of massspectrometry in Spain.” Eight keynote lectures were alsopresented by invited speakers: “Environmental mass spec-trometry” by Susan Richardson (EPA, USA); “Investiga-tion of phytoestrogens in food and water by LC-TOF MS”by Imma Ferrer (University of Colorado, USA); “Confidentassignment of post-translational modifications using top-down mass spectrometry” by Julian Whitelegge (UCLA,USA); “Detection of anabolic steriods in doping controlanalysis. Present and future of LC-MS/MS” by Oscar Pozo(University of Ghent, Belgium); “Applications of massspectrometry in metabolomics: from toxicology to diseasediagnosis” by Elizabeth Want (Imperial College London,UK); “LC-MS in drug metabolite identification” byWilfried Niessen (hyphen MassSpec, The Netherlands);“Organic isotope dilution analysis revisited: minimallabelling, heteroatom labelling and absolute determina-tions” by José Ignacio Garcia-Alonso (University ofOviedo, Spain); and “Theory and practice of orbitrap massspectrometry” by Alexander Makarov (Thermo Instru-ments, Germany). In addition, 20 oral presentations werealso selected, and around 80 posters were presented during

F. Hernández (*)Laboratorio de Análisis de Residuos de Plaguicidas (LARP),Instituto Universitario de Plaguicidas y Aguas (IUPA),Universitat Jaume I,12071 Castellón de la Plana, Spaine-mail: hernandf@qfa.uji.es

J. V. SanchoCatedrático de Química Analítica,Instituto Universitario de Plaguicidas y Aguas,Departamento de Química Física y Analítica,Universitat Jaume I Edificio de Investigación,Campus del Riu Sec,12071 Castelló de La Plana, Spain

D. BarcelóCatalan Institute for Water Research (ICRA),Parc Cientific i Tecnològic de la Universitat de Girona,Pic de Peguera 15,17003 Girona, Spain

Anal Bioanal Chem (2010) 397:2761–2762DOI 10.1007/s00216-010-3869-3

the conference. Three awards were presented in recognitionof specific research presentations: to J. Giner (University ofOviedo), A. Martínez-Villalba (University of Barcelona),and V. Casas (CSIC/UAB, Barcelona).

The pleasant venue for the meeting—the new auditoriumof University Jaume I—and the enjoyable social events(Wednesday night get-together party, conference dinner inthe Royal Castellón Yacht Club) complemented thesymposium. Moreover, during the conference dinner,various awards were presented: a special award for ourformer president, Emilio Gelpí, and three medals forrecently retired professionals from different mass spectrom-etry companies, F. Farré, L. Esteban ,and A. Vindel.

This is the first time that Analytical and BioanalyticalChemistry has included a collection of articles originatingfrom the works presented at a SEEM meeting. In this specialissue devoted to mass spectrometry, the articles presentedexemplify several key points that were discussed in thesessions. These works show that progress in mass spectrom-etry is crucial to study in important scientific fields. We verymuch appreciate this opportunity, and we are confident thatthis will be the principle of future collaborations betweenAnalytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry and SEEM.

The program for 4RSEEM, abstracts, and much moreinformation are still available at http://www.4rseem.uji.esand http://picasaweb.google.es/4rseem.

The fifth conference of SEEM will take place in Málaga,in spring 2011.

The first president of SEEM, Emilio Gelpí, and the three Spanishprofessionals from mass spectrometry companies whose accomplish-ments were recognized at 4RSEEM (from left to right, A. Vindel, E.Gelpí, F. Farré, and L. Esteban)

Félix Hernández is Professor ofAnalytical Chemistry at UniversityJaume I, Castellón, Spain. AsDirector of the Research Institutefor Pesticides andWater, he leads a30-strong research group in thefield of analytical chemistry. Hiswork is mainly focused on thedevelopment of advanced analyti-cal methodology for pesticide res-idue analysis in a variety of samplematrices. He is also Director of thegood laboratory practice (GLP)-certified Laboratory of PesticideResidue Analysis (LARP) at the

same university. LARP is the reference laboratory for GLP studies relatedto pesticide registration for the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture. Thedevelopment of analytical strategies for rapid screening of organicmicropollutants in the aquatic environment, making use of full-scanaccurate mass spectrometry, is one of the latest research developmentswithin his group.

Juan Vicente Sancho is Profes-sor of Analytical Chemistry atUniversity Jaume I, Castellón,Spain ,and is responsible for theMass Spectrometry University Fa-cility. His work is mainly focusedon the application of advancedmass spectrometry techniques inenvironmental analysis and foodsafety. Current research is focusedon the applications of ultra-high-performance liquid chromatogra-phy/tandem mass spectrometryusing both triple quadrupole andhybrid quadrupole time of flight)

for screening, quantitation, confirmation, and elucidation of organiccontaminants in different fields. The development of metabolomicapproaches in food authenticity and doping analysis is one of his latestresearch interests.

Damia Barceló is a full ResearchProfessor in the EnvironmentalChemistry Department at IDAEA-CSIC in Barcelona, Spain, andDirector of the Catalan Institute forWater Studies (ICRA) in Girona,Spain. He is also President of theSpanish Society of Mass Spectrom-etry.His research focuses onmethoddevelopment and the monitoringand fate of priority, new and emerg-ing pollutants, using gas chromatog-raphy and liquid chromatographytechniques coupled with advancedtandem and hybrid mass spectrom-

etry analysis combined with effect studies using bioassays and biosensors.

2762 F. Hernández et al.