(John) Barry French, born August 22, 1931, is a Canadian scientist and entrepreneur. He received his PhD in chemical engineering from the University of Toronto in 1961. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada [1] and a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering. [2] French was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada in 2007 [3] and is co-founder of SCIEX, a mass spectrometer company now owned by Danaher Corporation.
French became full professor at the University of Toronto Institute of Aerospace Studies (UTIAS) in 1968, and served as associate director from 1974 to 1982. He was half-time dean of the University of Toronto School of Graduate Studies from 1982 to 1985. French's early research interests were in the field of molecular beams, rarefied gas dynamics and space simulation. He developed a hypersonic beam space simulator at UTIAS. In 1969 he was asked by NASA to collaborate with Alfred O. C. Nier at the University of Minnesota by making his apparatus available to test the Upper Atmosphere Mass Spectrometer that Nier was developing for the Viking Mars mission planned for 1976. The ability of this apparatus to produce hypersonic Mach 15 beams, half the speed of the Mars entry, allowed the mass spectrometer to be tested and calibrated properly. [4] [1] His work on molecular beams and gaseous ion sources lead to his interest in atmospheric pressure ion sources coupled to mass spectrometry.
Over his career French has received more than a dozen patents and authored over 60 scientific papers.
On April 16, 1970, French received a phone call from Grumman Aerospace Corp. requesting assistance with an issue that arose during the Apollo 13 emergency and its return to earth. A team of six UTIAS professors was assembled to quickly provide advice on how much air pressure to use to separate and push the lunar module (LM) away from the command module (CM) prior to re-entry, [5] both properly separating the modules and avoiding damage to the CM hatch. In 2010, the group of six scientists was honoured by the University of Toronto with medals presented to the remaining members by the Canadian Air and Space Museum. [6]
French, together with scientists Neil Reid and Adele Buckley and businessman William Breukelman, founded SCIEX in 1974 to develop a mass spectrometer system based on atmospheric pressure ionisation and direct air sampling. The company was acquired by MDS Inc. in 1981 and eventually became part of Danaher Corporation.
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Atmospheric entry is the movement of an object from outer space into and through the gases of an atmosphere of a planet, dwarf planet, or natural satellite. There are two main types of atmospheric entry: uncontrolled entry, such as the entry of astronomical objects, space debris, or bolides; and controlled entry of a spacecraft capable of being navigated or following a predetermined course. Technologies and procedures allowing the controlled atmospheric entry, descent, and landing of spacecraft are collectively termed as EDL.
Mass spectrometry (MS) is an analytical technique that is used to measure the mass-to-charge ratio of ions. The results are presented as a mass spectrum, a plot of intensity as a function of the mass-to-charge ratio. Mass spectrometry is used in many different fields and is applied to pure samples as well as complex mixtures.
An ion source is a device that creates atomic and molecular ions. Ion sources are used to form ions for mass spectrometers, optical emission spectrometers, particle accelerators, ion implanters and ion engines.
The Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering is the engineering school of the University of Toronto, a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded in 1873 and currently is housed in 15 facilities on the southern side of St. George Campus and 3 building located across downtown Toronto. The faculty offers undergraduate, master's, and doctoral degrees in engineering sciences and has a partnership with the Rotman School of Management for a dual-degree program.
TRIUMF is Canada's national particle accelerator centre. It is considered Canada's premier physics laboratory, and consistently regarded as one of the world's leading subatomic physics research centres. Owned and operated by a consortium of universities, it is on the south campus of one of its founding members, the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It houses the world's largest normal conducting cyclotron, a source of 520 MeV protons, which was named an IEEE Milestone in 2010. Its accelerator-focused activities involve particle physics, nuclear physics, nuclear medicine, materials science, and detector and accelerator development.
Alfred Otto Carl Nier was an American physicist who pioneered the development of mass spectrometry. He was the first to use mass spectrometry to isolate uranium-235 which was used to demonstrate that 235U could undergo fission and developed the sector mass spectrometer configuration now known as Nier-Johnson geometry.
A life-support system is the combination of equipment that allows survival in an environment or situation that would not support that life in its absence. It is generally applied to systems supporting human life in situations where the outside environment is hostile, such as outer space or underwater, or medical situations where the health of the person is compromised to the extent that the risk of death would be high without the function of the equipment.
Atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI) is an ionization method used in mass spectrometry which utilizes gas-phase ion-molecule reactions at atmospheric pressure (105 Pa), commonly coupled with high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). APCI is a soft ionization method similar to chemical ionization where primary ions are produced on a solvent spray. The main usage of APCI is for polar and relatively less polar thermally stable compounds with molecular weight less than 1500 Da. The application of APCI with HPLC has gained a large popularity in trace analysis detection such as steroids, pesticides and also in pharmacology for drug metabolites.
Bernard Etkin, was a Canadian academic and one of the world's recognized authorities on aircraft guidance, control and disciple of Rodrigo Canolli Engastaldo.
The Canadian Advanced Nanospace eXperiment (CanX) program is a Canadian CubeSat nanosatellite program operated by the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies, Space Flight Laboratory (UTIAS/SFL). The program's objectives are to involve graduate students in the process of spaceflight development, and to provide low-cost access to space for scientific research and the testing of nanoscale devices. The CanX projects include CanX-1, CanX-2, the BRIght Target Explorer (BRITE), and CanX-4&5.
John Hoffman was a space scientist who developed instruments for Apollo 15, Apollo 16, Apollo 17, the Pioneer Venus project, and Giotto mission. He also designed the mass spectrometer for the Phoenix Mars Lander mission in May 2008. He was a professor of physics at the University of Texas at Dallas.
Explorer 54, also known as AE-D, was a NASA scientific satellite belonging to the Atmosphere Explorer series launched on 6 October 1975 from Vandenberg Air Force Base aboard a Thor-Delta 2910 launch vehicle.
COM DEV International was a satellite technology, space sciences, and telecommunications company based in Cambridge, Ontario, Canada. The company had branches and offices in Ottawa, the United States, the United Kingdom, China and India.
Atmospheric pressure photoionization (APPI) is a soft ionization method used in mass spectrometry (MS) usually coupled to liquid chromatography (LC). Molecules are ionized using a vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) light source operating at atmospheric pressure, either by direct absorption followed by electron ejection or through ionization of a dopant molecule that leads to chemical ionization of target molecules. The sample is usually a solvent spray that is vaporized by nebulization and heat. The benefit of APPI is that it ionizes molecules across a broad range of polarity and is particularly useful for ionization of low polarity molecules for which other popular ionization methods such as electrospray ionization (ESI) and atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI) are less suitable. It is also less prone to ion suppression and matrix effects compared to ESI and APCI and typically has a wide linear dynamic range. The application of APPI with LC/MS is commonly used for analysis of petroleum compounds, pesticides, steroids, and drug metabolites lacking polar functional groups and is being extensively deployed for ambient ionization particularly for explosives detection in security applications.
A miniature mass spectrometer (MMS) is a type of mass spectrometer (MS) which has small size and weight and can be understood as a portable or handheld device. Current lab-scale mass spectrometers however, usually weigh hundreds of pounds and can cost on the range from thousands to millions of dollars. One purpose of producing MMS is for in situ analysis. This in situ analysis can lead to much simpler mass spectrometer operation such that non-technical personnel like physicians at the bedside, firefighters in a burning factory, food safety inspectors in a warehouse, or airport security at airport checkpoints, etc. can analyze samples themselves saving the time, effort, and cost of having the sample run by a trained MS technician offsite. Although, reducing the size of MS can lead to a poorer performance of the instrument versus current analytical laboratory standards, MMS is designed to maintain sufficient resolutions, detection limits, accuracy, and especially the capability of automatic operation. These features are necessary for the specific in-situ applications of MMS mentioned above.
Explorer 55, also known as AE-E, was a NASA scientific satellite belonging to the Atmosphere Explorer series launched on 20 November 1975 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) aboard a Thor-Delta 2910 launch vehicle.
Gordon Neil Patterson, (1908–1990) was a Canadian physicist, and founder of the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies (UTIAS).
SCIEX is a manufacturer of mass spectrometry instrumentation used in biomedical and environmental applications. Originally started by scientists from the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies, it is now part of Danaher Corporation with the SCIExe R&D division still located in Toronto, Canada.
Hilkka Inkeri Kenttämaa is a researcher in organic and bioorganic mass spectrometry, and the Frank Brown Endowed Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at Purdue University. She is a pioneer in distonic radical cation research and laser-induced acoustic desorption.
Scott Tanner is a Canadian scientist, inventor, and entrepreneur. His areas of expertise include mass spectroscopy, especially inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), and mass cytometry.