Scott D. Tanner

Scott Tanner is a Canadian scientist, inventor, and entrepreneur. His areas of expertise include mass spectroscopy, especially inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, and mass cytometry.
Tanner is best known for his work on the fundamentals of inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, for the invention of mass cytometry, and co-founding DVS Sciences in 2004, the company that first commercialized the instrument and reagents of mass cytometry.

Early life and education

Tanner was born and raised in St. Catharines, Ontario Canada. He bought his first chemistry set, from his brother, at age 6. Through his early teenage years, he was provided with laboratory space at Brock University, under the guidance of Dr. E.A. Cherniak and Dr. F.P. Koffyberg, where he attempted to replicate Geiger–Marsden experiments also known as Rutherford's experiment using various home-built instruments, including cloud chambers.
Tanner graduated with a BSc in chemistry from York University in 1976. During his undergraduate years, he became a nationally ranked gymnast. An injury at the Olympic trials ended his competitive gymnastics career, and he took up marathon running during graduate school. He received a Doctor of Philosophy from York University in 1980, having studied ion-molecule reaction kinetics and flame ion chemistry with Drs. D.K Bohme and J.M. Goodings.

Biography

Tanner joined SCIEX, which later became MDS SCIEX, in 1980 as a research scientist. He became principal scientist in 2000. In his 25 years at SCIEX, Tanner developed and helped to commercialize a string of mass spectrometry products.
Tanner published over 74 peer-reviewed scientific articles, and holds 22 US patents, including 13 patents on Mass Cytometry technology
Tanner was a co-founder of DVS Sciences and, as the president and CEO, saw the company through the development and commercial launch of its first products.
The products that DVS Sciences brought to the global market were originally developed at the University of Toronto where Tanner was a professor in the Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering and then in chemistry.

Career

Principal Scientist SCIEX - 1980-2005
Associate Professor at the University of Toronto, first in the Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering and then in Chemistry 2008–2013.
President DVS Sciences 2004 - 2015

Adjunct Professor at York University in the Department of Chemistry 2015–2018

Volunteer Work

Chair of the Three Churches Heritage Foundation in Mahone Bay - 2020–Present

Books

2003 - Plasma Source Mass Spectrometry: Applications and Emerging Technologies
2001 - Plasma Source Mass Spectrometry: The New Millennium
1999 - Plasma Source Mass Spectrometry: New Developments and Applications
1997 - Plasma Source Mass Spectrometry: Developments and Applications

Research

Detection of TCDD in soil and water, explosives, chemical agents.
Development of the ELAN 6000 ICP-MS
Development of the DRC Collision/reaction cell
Development of Mass cytometry see also CyTOF

Awards and honors

2024 York U Alumni Award for Outstanding Achievement
2020 Lifetime Achievement Award in Plasma Spectrochemistry
2019 HUPO Award
2014 Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering
2011 University of Toronto Inventor of the Year Award for Biomedical and Life Sciences
2011 Thermo Fisher Scientific Spectroscopy Award
2004 Elsevier / Spectrochimica Acta Atomic Spectroscopy Award for the most important paper published in Spectrochimica Acta Part B in 2002 in co-authorship with Dmitry Bandura and Vladimir Baranov
2003 from the Canadian Chemical Society of the Chemical Institute of Canada
2001 Manning Innovation Award, Award of Distinction Dr. Scott Tanner, together with Dr. Vladimir Baranov, received the Manning Award of Distinction from the Manning Innovation Awards Foundation for the remarkable invention of the ICP-MS Dynamic Reaction Cell.
1999 Pittcon Editors' Awards Perkin-Elmer Sciex for their ELAN 6100 DRC ICP-MS system.
Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry
Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering

Publications

Scott has published more than 75 peer-reviewed articles.
The 13 most cited include:

May 2011 - Single-Cell Mass Cytometry of Differential Immune and Drug Responses Across a Human Hematopoietic Continuum )
Sept 2010 - Highly Multiparametric Analysis by Mass Cytometry
Aug 2009 - Mass Cytometry: Technique for Real Time Single Cell Multitarget Immunoassay Based on Inductively Coupled Plasma Time-Of-Flight Mass Spectrometry
Sept 2002 - Reaction Cells and Collision Cells for ICP-MS: A Tutorial Review
April 2002 - A Sensitive and Quantitative Element-Tagged Immunoassay with ICPMS Detection
April 2002 - Detection of Ultratrace Phosphorus and Sulfur by Quadrupole ICPMS with Dynamic Reaction Cell
July 2001 - Reaction Chemistry and Collisional Processes in Multipole Devices for Resolving Isobaric Interferences in ICP–MS
Aug 2000 - A Dynamic Reaction Cell for Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry. Part III.
Nov 1999 - A Dynamic Reaction Cell for Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry. Part II. Reduction of Interferences Produced within the Cell
March 1999 - Theory, Design, and Operation of a Dynamic Reaction Cell for ICP-MS
Jan 1995 - Characterization of Ionization and Matrix Suppression in Inductively Coupled ‘Cold’ Plasma Mass Spectrometry
June 1992 - Space Charge in ICP-MS: Calculation and Implications
July 1988 - Nonspectroscopic Interelement Interferences in Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry

A more complete listing of his publications can be found on