Nationality United States Role Professor Institutions Purdue University | Known for Mass Spectrometry Fields Chemist Name R. Cooks Academic advisor Peter Sykes | |
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Alma mater University of Natal
Cambridge University Doctoral advisor Frank L. Warren
Peter Sykes Education University of Cambridge, University of Natal | ||
Residence United States of America | ||
2013 Dreyfus Prize, R. Graham Cooks
Robert Graham Cooks is the Henry Bohn Hass Distinguished Professor of Chemistry in the Aston Laboratory of Mass Spectrometry at Purdue University. He is an ISI Highly Cited Chemist, with over 1,000 publications and an H-index of 94.
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Education
Cooks received a bachelor of science and master of science degrees from the University of Natal in South Africa in 1961 and 1963, respectively. He received a Ph.D. from the University of Natal in 1965 and a second Ph.D. from Cambridge University in 1967.
Research interests
Research in Cooks' laboratory (the Aston Laboratory) has contributed to a diverse assortment of areas within mass spectrometry, ranging from fundamental research to instrument and method development to applications. Cooks' research interests over the course of his career have included the following (citations are representative): the study of gas-phase ion chemistry (e.g., unimolecular reactions of activated radical ions, metastable decay, ion/molecule reactions, and charge exchange reactions ); early developments in tandem mass spectrometry (e.g., complex mixture analysis and instrumentation); Mass-Analyzed Ion Kinetic Energy Spectrometry (MIKES); kinetic isotope effects; the Kinetic Method for thermochemical determinations; Angle-Resolved Mass Spectrometry; Energy-Resolved Mass Spectrometry (ERMS); chiral analysis; ion activation/dissociation processes (collision-induced dissociation (CID), surface-induced dissociation (SID), and photodissociation (PD)); desorption/ionization processes (e.g., secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS), laser desorption ionization (LD), and desorption electrospray ionization (DESI)); preparative mass spectrometry (‘ion soft-landing’ and related phenomena); ionization techniques (Matrix-Enhanced Laser Desorption, DESI, Atmospheric Pressure Thermal Desorption/Ionization (APTDI), Low Temperature Plasma (LTP), Paper Spray, and Leaf Spray ); the development of quadrupole ion traps (QITs) and related technologies (e.g., ion injection into QITs, broadband isolation/excitation, resonance ejection, high mass resolution, ion cloud tomography, the Cylindrical Ion Trap (CIT), and the Rectilinear Ion Trap (RIT) ); trapped ion motion phenomena and simulations; Membrane Introduction Mass Spectrometry (MIMS); abiogenisis (also known as "the origin of life") via homochirality; chemical imaging; the development of portable mass spectrometers or miniature mass spectrometers and related technologies.