Kevin Glenn Owens

I am an analytical chemist deeply trained in the areas of mass spectrometry and laser spectroscopy. My research group at Drexel has focused on improving three broad areas in the analysis of biological and synthetic polymer systems using mass spectrometry: 1) understanding fundamentals of the matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization (MALDI) process; 2) development of improved time-of-flight mass spectrometry (TOFMS) instrumentation; and 3) development of chemometric methods, particularly correlation analysis techniques, for the automated analysis of mass spectral information.

Early success included development of the electrospray deposition technique as a means to prepare samples for quantitative analysis via MALDI. Our most recent efforts have focused on: 1) development of improved methods for the application of matrix for MALDI mass spectral imaging experiments; and 2) the development of improved methods for the identification of micro-organisms at the strain level using mass spectrometry (using both MALDI and high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with electrospray ionization (ESI)-mass spectrometry). Our latest chemometrics work involves development of 2-dimensional correlation analysis techniques to enable the strain-level identification of micro-organisms.