Richard Smith

Meet Richard Smith

Dick Smith’s career has been characterized by, in his words, a desire to “contribute to society by developing separation and mass spectrometry technologies that are applicable to routine applications, particularly in areas of biological and biomedical importance.” At a recent ASMS session held in Smith’s honor, Joseph Loo described Smith as a “master inventor of new analytical technologies,” which have included: the electrodynamic ion funnel in 1999, and more recently, structures for lossless ion manipulations’ (SLIM). Earlier this year, after more than 47 years at PNNL, Dick Smith announced his retirement. 

His innovation secret? “It is the step that follows the birth of the idea, concept, or invention, and achieving an effective balance between having confidence in it, and simultaneously being open to challenges to it, both from yourself and from others as it matures.”