John Bennett Fenn was a distinguished American analytical chemist renowned for his revolutionary contributions to mass spectrometry and molecular analysis. Born in New York City in 1917, he earned his B.A. in chemistry from Berea College in 1937 and completed his Ph.D. in chemistry at Yale University in 1940 under Gosta Akerlof. After twelve years working in industrial research at companies including Monsanto and Experiment Inc., he transitioned to academia, serving as Director of Project SQUID, a Navy-funded research program at Princeton University focused on jet propulsion. At Princeton, he rose to become Professor of Mechanical Engineering and later Professor of Aerospace Sciences before his pivotal move to Yale University in 1967, where he established himself as a leading expert in molecular beam dynamics and supersonic expansions.
Dr. Fenn's most transformative contribution came late in his career when, at age 70, he developed the electrospray ionization technique in 1988, which revolutionized the field of mass spectrometry by enabling the analysis of large, fragile biological molecules like proteins. His method solved the longstanding problem of ionizing nonvolatile and thermally labile biomolecules, allowing them to be studied in vacuum conditions required for mass spectrometry. This breakthrough fundamentally expanded the applications of mass spectrometry from small molecules to complex biological systems, catalyzing advances in proteomics, drug discovery, and molecular biology. The electrospray ionization technique became so influential that it earned him the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2002, shared with Koichi Tanaka and Kurt Wüthrich, for work that enabled high-resolution analysis of biomolecules previously considered impossible to study.
Though initially met with skepticism and leading to patent disputes with Yale University, Fenn's electrospray ionization technique ultimately sparked what has been described as an 'electrospray revolution' in analytical chemistry and biomedical research. After retiring from Yale in 1987, he continued his impactful work as a research professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, where he became the institution's only Nobel laureate. His scientific legacy extends beyond his technical innovations to his interdisciplinary approach that bridged chemistry, molecular physics, fluid mechanics, and thermodynamics, inspiring generations of researchers to explore cross-disciplinary solutions. Dr. Fenn passed away in 2010 at age 93, leaving behind a transformative methodology that continues to underpin modern biomolecular analysis and remains one of the most widely used techniques in contemporary analytical laboratories worldwide.
