Congratulations to Rachel Bennett are in order; she has successfully defended her Ph.D..
Rachel joined the school in 2010 after earning her B.A. in Chemistry from The College of Wooster in Ohio. Her research focused on the development of chemical imaging by mass spectrometry, with advances in hardware design, sample preparation and ionization techniques, the use of mobility separation methods, and the development of a robotic sample probe to analyze irregular surfaces for three-dimensional imaging. Her outstanding and insightful work is described in the publications listed below.
Rachel has received multiple awards for both her research and academic achievements including Best Poster at the 2012 Origin of Life Gordon Research Conference and an Emerson Fellowship. Her collaborators include the Center for Chemical Evolution and Dr. Michelle LaPlaca in Biomedical Engineering. She has been a leader in Women in Chemistry and served as a Leadership Fellow for the LEAD Program as well as member of the Georgia Tech Advisory Board.
We are very grateful to Rachel for her many contributions to many of us as individuals and to the School as a whole, and very proud of her achievements. Congratulations, Rachel, and warmest wishes for continued success in your future endeavors!
Bennett, R. V.; Fernandez, F. M., Desorption Electrospray Ionization Imaging of Small Organics on Mineral Surfaces. In Mass Spectrometry Imaging of Small Molecules, He, L., Ed. Springer New York: 2015; Vol. 1203, pp 79-89.
E.M. Morzan,* R.V. Bennett,* F.M. Fernandez. Robotic Plasma Probe Ambient Ionization Mass Spectrometry Imaging (RoPPI-MS) of Non-Planar Surfaces. Analyst, 2014, 139 (11).
R.V. Bennett*, C.M. Gamage*, A.S. Galhena, F.M. Fernandez. Contrast-Enhanced Differential Mobility-Desorption Electrospray Ionization-Mass Spectrometry of Biological Tissues. Analytical Chemistry, 2014, 86 (8).
R.V. Bennett, C.M. Gamage, F.M. Fernandez. Imaging of Biological Tissues by Desorption Electrospray Ionization Mass Spectrometry. Journal of Visualized Experiments, 2013, 77, e50575.
R.V. Bennett, H.J. Cleaves, J.M. Davis, D.A. Sokolov, T.M. Orlando, J.L. Bada, F.M. Fernandez. Desorption Electrospray Ionization Imaging Mass Spectrometry as a Tool for Investigating Prebiotic Model Reactions on Mineral Surfaces. Analytical Chemistry, 2013, 85.
R.M. Parry, A.S. Galhena, C.M. Gamage, R.V. Bennett, M.D. Wang, F.M. Fernandez. OmniSpect: An Open Matlab-based Tool for Visualization and Analysis of Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization and Desorption Electrospray Ionization Mass Spectrometry Images. Journal of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry, 2013, 24.