Key Takeaways
- 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 this video, she explains why diversity is so valuable in mass spectrometry and other scientific fields.
- Diverse perspectives on how to handle scientific matters can provide unique advantages during research.
- It is important to acknowledge peoples' differences and the ability to come together to work on understanding the science behind our world.
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 penultimate section of our interview, she discusses the importance of diversity in scientific research and why acknowledging and pushing for diverse viewpoints is ultimately beneficial.
Please stay tuned for the final video from our time with Geddes-McAlister! If interested in other ASMS 2025 award winners, we also have interviews with other winners, including Vilmos Kertesz and Michael Shortreed!
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)
