John Bennett Fenn: a curious road to the prize

Abstract

John Bennett Fenn shared the 2002 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his development of electrospray ionization (ESI). There are several excellent, in-depth biographical reviews of Fenn's scientific career Fenn (Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. 42, 3871-3894, 2003) and Fenn (Annu. Rev. Phys. Chem. 47, 1-41, 1996). The focus of this report is to trace the random walk nature of Fenn's career path and to highlight those critical events along that path that led him to the important work for which he was recognized, the development of ESI as a means of ionizing large molecules and interfacing the liquid chromatograph to the mass spectrometer. In addition, this report should hopefully convey something of the curious, generous, kind, and outgoing nature of the man.