Jennifer Geddes-McAlister has been given the ASMS 2025 Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility (DEIA) Mentorship Award, and will receive it at the ASMS conference in Baltimore.
In our final moments with Geddes-McAlister, she discusses what she would like future generations of mass spectrometrists to know most.
She advises researchers to say "yes" to opportunities that may come their way. While it may not lead to anything, there is potential for these experiences to positively affect how one conducts research and acts.
Being the difference one wishes to see in the world can also help build new communities.

Every year at the American Society for Mass Spectrometry (ASMS) conference, awards are presented to honor veteran and newcomer researchers making notable contributions in the field of mass spectrometry (MS). One example of these awards is the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) Mentorship Awards (1). These awards recognize ASMS members who demonstrate exceptional service in the STEM mentoring or recruitment of individuals from groups underrepresented in MS. One of this year’s recipients is Jennifer Geddes-McAlister of the University of Guelph.

Jennifer Geddes-McAlister is an associate professor at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada. She also serves as the director of the university’s Bioinformatics Graduate Program. She earned her undergraduate degree at the University of Lethbridge, where she investigated the impact of fungal pathogens on agricultural development and performed my first proteomics experiments. Her research applies MS-based proteomics and bioinformatics platforms to investigate host-pathogen interactions driving disease. This, according to Geddes-McAlister, can help “[discover] novel putative druggable targets within a pathogen using an anti-virulence strategy to disarm the pathogen and empower the host to clear the infection” (3).

Recently, we sat down with Geddes-McAlister to learn about her storied career and how she got to where she is now. In the last moments of our time with her, Geddes-McAlister shares the most important advice she would like future generations of mass spectrometrists to know.

Thank you for following our videos from our time with Geddes-McAlister! If interested in hearing from other ASMS 2025 award winners, we also have interviews with Vilmos Kertesz, Michael Shortreed, and more!

References

(1) Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Accessibility (DEIA) Mentorship Awards. American Society for Mass Spectrometry 2025. https://www.asms.org/about-asms-awards/diversity-equity-inclusion-and-accessibility-(deia)-mentorship-award (accessed 2025-5-19)

(2) Dr. Jennifer Geddes-McAlister. University of Guelph 2025. https://www.uoguelph.ca/mcb/people/dr-jennifer-geddes-mcalister (accessed 2025-5-19)

(3) Jennifer Geddes-McAlister. University of Guelph 2025. https://graduatestudies.uoguelph.ca/people/jennifer-geddes-mcalister (accessed 2025-5-19)