Scott Tanner

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Innovative research on the fundamental theory and application of spectrometric techniques.

Scott Tanner is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Toronto , Canada. He is coordinating a multidisciplinary, multi-institute and multi-national project to develop instrumentation, reagents and methods for the multi-parametric determination of biomarkers in individual cells and particles. Following receipt of a PhD in physical chemistry from York University (Toronto) in 1980, he joined Sciex Inc. and stayed for 25 years. By the mid-1980's he was developing ion optics for, and querying the fundamentals of, ICP-MS. At the end of the millennium, Scott and his team began looking at applying the multiplex capability of ICP-MS to bioassays through element-tagging of antibodies. The team left Sciex in 2005 for the University of Toronto to develop the tools and reagents of mass cytometry, and formed DVS Sciences Inc. to bring these products to the market. Scott received the 2011 University of Toronto Inventor of the Year Award (Biomedical and Life Sciences), the 2011 ThermoFisher Scientific Spectroscopy Award, the 2003 W.A.E. McBryde Medal from the Canadian Society for Chemistry and the 2001 Manning Innovation Foundation Award of Distinction.