Takafumi Hirata (The University of Tokyo, Japan) - Laser ablation for molecular analysis
Takafumi Hirata is a full professor at Geochemical Research Center at The University of Tokyo. After obtaining a Ph.D. from The University of Tokyo, he moved on to Geological Survey of Japan to explore the use of ICP-MS to study age of and to determine trace elements in minerals and geological samples. This was followed by an EU postdoctoral fellowship in 1993-1994, where he joined the research group of Professor Robert W. Nesbitt at University of Southampton to study LA-ICP-MS. During his stay in the UK, he attended the 1st EWLA in 1994 at Nottingham and presented the application of LA-ICP-MS to U-Pb dating of rocks and minerals. He returned to Japan in 1994, where he became assistant professor at Tokyo Institute of Technology and established his own research group. He was then promoted to associate professor and to full professor at Kyoto University in 2009. His research in the field of analytical chemistry is focused on instrumental and method development for LA-ICP-MS. Recently, his research group developed a new atmospheric pressure ion source for organic mass spectrometer, aiming at simultaneous imaging analysis of both elements and molecules using LA sampling. He aims to transfer the LA technique, originally designed for spatially resolved elemental and isotopic geoscience applications, to open new doors in biomedical research.