Dr. Ruth Marfil-Vega has 20+ years of expertise in environmental chemistry and engineering in the US and Europe. She has worked with the EPA and the utilities industry to design and execute comprehensive solutions for environmental and water quality issues, including PFAS, micro- and nanoplastics and other emerging and regulated contaminants.Ruth has continued working with environmental stakeholders since she joined Shimadzu six years ago to ensure that analytical instrumentation and workflows enable their success. She graduated from the University of Valladolid (Spain; BSc in Chemistry), and from the University of Cincinnati (PhD in Environmental Science and Engineering).

Caroline Jones graduated from the University of Leeds with a Bachelor’s degree in Genetics following which she worked on drug metabolism and pharmacokinetic studies of new pharmaceutical products using LC/MS-MS within a GLP environment. Two years later she returned to study at the University of Manchester, graduating with a Master’s degree in Immunology and Immunogenetics. Her research focused on the detection of peripheral dendritic cell concentrations using triple color flow cytometry and their potential as a predictor for post-transplant complications in patients. On graduation, she took up a position becoming a Senior Cytogenetic Technologist at St Mary’s Hospital in Manchester using techniques in cell culture and microscopy to identify and provide clinical interpretation of chromosome abnormalities in a variety of human samples. After a break from science to raise her family of 4 daughters, she returned to a position at Kratos Analytical in Manchester, UK where she is now a Global MALDI Applications Specialist. Here, she works within a team to develop MALDI-based applications to showcase the Shimadzu MALDI products with a focus on MALDI imaging. She also works alongside the R&D Department to support the development of new Shimadzu MALDI instruments and software.