John Langley
Prof. G John Langley, University of Southampton
Interviewed by Mervyn Lewis, Associate Editor
Originally published in April 2022
How did you first get involved in mass spectrometry and then the BMSS?
I first encountered chromatography and mass spectrometry in my final year project as an undergraduate student at Swansea University, under the supervision of Jim Ballantine – GC-MS of nutmeg. This was a seminal experience and set the initial foundations for my future career. I went to the School of Pharmacy, University of London in 1984 to study for a PhD with Mike Baldwin. My research was initially around fundamental fragmentation processes, following these with 13C labelled materials, tandem MS (MIKES) a key tool and this extended to kinetic energy release data and links to structure. Another part of my research was method development and application of thermospray to on-line monitoring for patent protection of Trimethoprim (my projected funded by Wellcome), this early LC-MS was extended to work with our pharmacognosy department investigating oestrogenic components in lupins. The fascination with fragmentation mechanisms, data interpretation and hyphenated techniques still burns today; our latest 2D GC-MS instrumentation is amazing and it’s still fun to get to sit and operate it, and to develop new methods and investigate new application areas.
Mike was a fantastic supervisor and was also BMSS Secretary, so I quickly became aware of BMSS activities and attended my first BMSS three day meeting in Heriott-Watt University within 6 months of being in Mike’s research group. I was Mike’s second PhD student, Frank Pullen his first and we struck up a great professional and personal friendship at that point until Frank’s sad passing earlier this year
I joined the BMSS committee in 1998 and spent 4 years as meeting secretary, was secretary for the next 4 years, then 2 years as Vice-Chair and 2 as Chair. Just when I thought I had ‘escaped’ I was invited to join the Advisory Board, a role I enjoyed and believe is the AB is a valuable resource for the Society, maybe one that is underutilised.
I was honoured to be awarded the BMSS lectureship in 2016-17, a role I took very seriously, giving 18 lectures across the UK and covering over 4500 miles (mainly by train!).
During your involvement with the BMSS, what do you think are the most significant changes you have seen in the Society and in the industry?
During my time as meetings’ secretary we moved to employing professional exhibition organisers and this aligned with BMSS employing a professional administrator (the wonderful Anna Upton). The Committee had recognised we needed to change the way we operated to keep pace with the changes across our science. More diversity of applications, users, instrumentation, added automation, LC-MS moving from a SIG to a core technology/tool. We also moved to engaging professional conference organisers for our Annual Meeting, many of us still remember that first event at Reading.
The use of MS has continued to grow and with it more and more users work with mass spectrometry every day, many of these probably still don’t see a nature home or link to BMSS, I think this is a challenge for us as a Society. Similarly, the hyphenation of Chromatography and MS is now ubiquitous, we need to ensure the MS doesn’t become ‘just a detector’, though already, in some cases that is rightly what it is.
It’s been interesting to follow the changing face of MS over the last 40 years. As a student I handed my sample over to the MS operator, Bryn Fussell, who returned the data some time later. That’s what we had at Southampton when I came here in 1988, 1 person manually analysing all samples. Now we have walk up and use system, used by undergrads, postgrad, PDRAs and even staff! Other changes reflect the growth in application areas and the different sciences and scientist that now need MS. With this had come a major change in diversity. MS users now reflect society, and not the predominantly ‘man in a basement with a precious, complicated spectrometer’ that I recall from the 80s.
How has the BMSS evolved to reflect and adapt to these changes?
We have adapted, often pro-actively changing, the employment of professional administrators and conference organisers allowed the committee to focus on the science and core BMSS business, e.g., ensuring the sustainability of the society, provision of travel grants (I think the best thing me do) to allow for attendance at meetings. The Committee model ensures there is always new blood joining, and there are always plenty of volunteers wanting to join, which I see as a great vote of confidence in the Committee and Society. Whilst churn can be high on occasions, the AB provides the legacy knowledge for the Society. Even when you are no longer an official member of this the odd phone call comes (you can never fully leave).
Where do you hope to see the future of the UK mass spectrometry community and how do you hope the BMSS can continue to support its members?
Education and providing a platform to share research (meetings), vibrant special interest groups to share topic specific knowledge and support have to be the future. For me, networking and passing on knowledge and experience are core activities. Friends and contacts made at meeting can last a lifetime. I still recall the first BMSS member (outside Mike’s research group) who came up and spoke to me at my first Annual Meeting, similarly I recall my first meeting with many of our younger members who I met at their first BMSS meeting.
Having a voice for mass spectrometry across the UK and with EPSRC is a challenge BMSS have picked up. This is going to be crucial for the future of our science, spreading to other UKRI funding. Making this work across the diversity of application areas and users is a massive challenge, one I believe we can meet as a body, but we need to make this as open and encompassing as we can. The political messaging to the funders must be there, the worth of MS to UK research and economy is huge, we must get that message across.
The future must be tackling the next challenges head-on, as we have in the past. Data is now a huge challenge, curating and using these data, processing, and extracting information, interpreting these data (we need better tools), maybe taking a step back and working across disciplines will help. It’s all complex data, also learning from the big data groups, my phone knows what I should buy next before I do, based on algorithm trawling data. Maybe one day I’ll have the answer to the MS/MS data interpreted for me and appear on my phone before I get back to the office from the lab. Now that would be cool.
What are your lasting memories of your time in mass spectrometry and of your time on the BMSS Committee?
Fun, just great fun, wonderful people, passionate about their science and wanting to give back to the Society. Definitely a work hard – play hard community, never forget the analgesics, these are essential to get you through MS conferences.
You have recently been awarded the BMSS Medal for 2021 - how does this make you feel?
It’s very rarely that I am speechless, this award is top of that list! So honoured, the medal and certificate have pride of place in my office. I had no idea this was in the offing, even when the preamble to the award was being delivered during a Zoom meeting, I was still blissfully unaware (apologies to anyone who was on-line who can lipread when the penny finally dropped).
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Prof. John Langley received a mass spectrometry PhD from the University of London, where he started his working career. He has been based at the University of Southampton ever since and is now a Professorial Fellow (Enterprise) and Head of SCAS Southampton Chemistry Analytical Solutions (SCAS).
His research interests are in the application of separation science and mass spectrometry for chemistry, chemical biology, agrochemical and petrochemistry as well as probing new applications and areas for research.
John has held many positions within BMSS, including service as Chair, Vice-Chair, General Secretary, Meetings Secretary and Advisory Board member. In 2016, he was awarded the BMSS lectureship and in 2020, the award of the BMSS Medal for his dedicated championing of mass spectrometry in the UK and further afield.