John H. Beynon the Swansea years 1974–1986

In 1988 Robert Boyd and I were guest editors of a special issue dedicated to John on the occasion of his 65th birthday. This was to honour his seminal contributions to mass spectrometry. At that time we only briefly reviewed John's Swansea years; now I have the opportunity to recall what I remember of his time at Swansea. Even though I joined his research unit in autumn of 1977 and spent a couple of years in industry, a record of these times was captured through the annual group photographs. The photographic record is incomplete; many visitors came and went without being immortalised in these pictures. This article is a brief account of my own recollections of working with John. Using this set of photographs, reproduced here, as a time line I recollect those years. His scientific achievements are in the literature for all to see, in this article I will look over those students and scientists who joined in his endeavour. Great care was taken during the week or two before a group photograph was taken to ensure that everyone was present for ‘the photograph’. This fitted in with John's sense of rigour, and ensuring a complete record was maintained. Thirteen people appear in the first Swansea group photograph in 1978 (see Fig. 1), but the story starts before. Royal Society Research Unit—1978. Back row: C. J. Porter, A. Mendez-Amaya, J. R. Gilbert (Essex), S. Howells, M. H. Bozorgzadeh, J. E. Szulejko. Middle row: G. W. Trott (Wollongong), M. H. Player, J. H. Beynon, J. A. Harris, A.G. Brenton, S. B. Davies. Front row: J. L. Wiebers (Purdue). After John's election as a Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1971 he was offered one of the newly created Royal Society Research Professorships, tenable at any UK university. This was a time of establishing and building a new research group, but where? John collaborated with many scientists, Keith Jennings (Warwick University) was one of John's oldest friends and they conducted collaborative experiments on the equipment Keith had at Warwick. However, Professors Howard Purnell and Andrew Pelter of the Chemistry Department, Swansea University, were very keen to get John to his alma mater in Swansea. Howard was a close friend of John's; both were born and brought up in the Swansea valleys. I also suspect there were other universities competing for John's talents but the Principal (Professor Robert Steel) and Registrar (Aneurin Davies) of Swansea University were keen to get their man. John frequently recounted the written offer from Aneurin Davies that “the University College of Swansea would assist in any way possible to ….”. This catch-all phrase was frequently hauled out on any occasion that merited more assistance. So John came to Swansea in 1974 but it took two years before he had laboratory space and a mass spectrometer. In 1976 the work began, space was made available in the rear of the chemistry building; in typical Welsh style it was referred to as ‘the extension’, where a laboratory was shared with Dr. Geoff Stedman. One of John's close friends in the department had also worked with him at ICI Manchester, Mr. John James; he was the superintendent of laboratories. Direct access to the management of the chemistry department ensured that progress would be fast. John set about building staff and research student numbers. In 1976 John's first mass spectrometer came into the laboratory. Varian MAT had been developing, for several years, an ultra-high-resolution mass spectrometer codenamed SM1 in their Bremen factory. John secured a deal by some means or other with Karl Maurer, of Varian MAT. Varian's development would not proceed to a commercial product and the spectrometer was up for grabs. It was a large double-focusing spectrometer and cost John around £20 000. During the year John had hired his first PhD student Janet Harris (from Kent) and later Stuart Howells (from Blackwood, South Wales) and Chris Porter (from Portskewett, South Wales), see Fig. 1. As much of the research was instrument-based it was essential to sort out technical support; a deal was cut with John James and one of the chemistry technicians, Sid Davies, was transferred to John's newly formed Royal Society Research Unit (RSRU). Sid was keen as mustard and quickly integrated into the RSRU; the SM1 soon became known as ‘The VARIAN’. Whilst this was a prototype electron impact double-focusing mass spectrometer it was rapidly modified to conduct ion kinetic energy spectrometry (IKES) experiments. Stuart Howells was assigned to the instrument, with Sid in tow building electronics as required, and within a short space of time results on IKES and peaks shape studies emerged. During these early days a young and keen visiting professor was attracted from Guelph, Ontario, one Dr. Robert K. Boyd (Bob). He worked with Stuart on the development of the IKES technique. In the meantime John had a major grant application in collaboration with Dr. Dudley Williams (Cambridge University) to purchase a ZAB mass spectrometer. As the story goes, VG Micromass (Manchester, UK) were developing a brand new high-resolution double-focusing mass spectrometer. The designers of the spectrometer at VG, Robert Bateman and Brian Green and their team, were wooed by John to deliver the first instrument to him and Dudley and also to construct the instrument as ‘revered geometry’ so that mass-analysed ion kinetic energy spectrometry (MIKES) could be undertaken. This enhancement of IKES had first been achieved by John and his group at Purdue University. After IKES this was the next important development of tandem mass spectrometry. As John was interested in complex experiments for the ZAB he persuaded VG to include a host of extra features for the instrument including collimating slits, variable z-restrictors, extra beam monitors, and a beam locking system for MIKES studies to minimise magnet drift during a long signal averaging process. The instrument was to be shared between the research groups of John (in Swansea) and Dudley (in Cambridge); the instrument was to be located in Swansea. Roger Morgan (originally from Hereford, and trained in University College London by Allan Maccoll) was hired in early 1977 as John's first postdoc to run the new ZAB. More students joined the group: Aaron Mendez-Amaya (Venezuela), Mohammad Bozorgzadeh and Jan Szulejko (Swansea). Ray Gilbert (Essex University) also started a collaboration with John and frequently visited the laboratory; apart from publishing research papers, John and Ray published a book Application of Transition State Theory to Unimolecular Reactions: An Introduction1 I joined the group in Sept 1977; I had just completed my PhD studies in Positron-Atom Collisions and knew of mass spectrometry as a useful method for determining the compositions of gas mixtures. I vaguely knew that it was of relevance to the chemical industry; I had much to learn. It was extremely exciting when I realised that a mass spectrometer, which I had previously thought had been built solely for the use of chemists, could be a physical laboratory in its own right. More than that, someone else built the instrumentation to very professional standards, which gave unheard of performance and sensitivity. John's laboratory was like Aladdin's cave as far as I was concerned. At the same time Maisie Player was hired as John's secretary and organised his work life until he retired. Maisie continued on after John, but missed the hustle and bustle. During 1978 Roger Morgan left to take up a post in mass spectrometry with Shell (Thornton, UK). Visiting scientists Geoff Trott (from Wollongong, Australia) and Joyce Wiebers (Purdue University, USA) came to the laboratory. Geoff Trott was an electronics engineer looking for a project; he turned to modifying the MIKES computer source code which resided in the VG PDP8e data system. He was also a dab hand at prototyping new circuits, which he called flying circuitry, and soon had projects up and running to fine tune the performance of the ZAB further. Joyce Wiebers (JL) started her studies on DNA which at that time were performed by pyrolysing the DNA on a solids probe into the electron impact ion source; this quickly dirtied the ion source! Mohammad Bozorgzadeh and JL conducted collision-induced dissociation mass-analysed ion kinetic spectrometry (CID MIKES) on her DNA samples. Research started to move on at a pace as we were all employed on research-only contracts. In 1979 the RSRU had expanded greatly; there were seven PhD students, four postdocs, five visiting scientists, and Frank Harris moved from the Physics department to the RSRU in 1979 (see the 1979 photograph in Fig. 2). It was not long before John had gently squeezed Geoff Stedman's group from the shared lab to make way for all the new equipment that was to come. Royal Society Research Unit—1979. Inset: U. P. Schlunegger (Berne), J. L. Wiebers (Purdue), J. E. Szulejko. Back row: E. S. Mukhtar, A. G. Brenton, M. H. Bozorgzadeh, E. A. Larka, A. Mendez-Amaya, C. J. Proctor, I. W. Griffiths, B. Krajl, C. J. Porter. Front row: F. M. Harris, S. B. Davies, W. Mead (BP Ltd.). M. H. Player, J. H. Beynon, Z. Zaretskii (Israel), J. H. Bowie (Adelaide), I. Howe. Ian Howe was hired to become an academic staff member, while Frank Harris brought his photodissociation project to the ZAB mass spectrometer.2 John Bowie did negative ion studies with Jan Szulejko and Ze'ev Zaretskii brought a large collection of unique steroids for which he wanted to characterise the stereoisomers by using CID MIKES scanning. Zaretskii, in fact, collaborated with the Swansea unit until the early 1990s and achieved his meticulous aim of being able to separate stereoisomers, eventually by CID MIKES and consecutive metastable ion scanning. A long-standing collaboration with colleagues in Yugoslavia continued and a young student, Bogdan Krajl from the Jose Sefan Institute, Ljubljana, came to study consecutive ion scanning. During that time we had several journeys to VG Micromass to further modify the ZAB for angle-resolved scanning and, with the addition of a second electrostatic analyser, for consecutive ion scanning and other more esoteric scans. Close ties were maintained between Swansea and Keith Jennings' group; once or twice a year a bus journey was organised and each group would make exchange visits, with a day of seminars. Additionally, a smaller group would visit Keith, and I remember one trip in 1978 when John, Maisie, JL, Roger Morgan and I visited Keith's lab. After a long day we returned on a rainy winter's night. John took us up in his red Range Rover; I became aware of John's fast driving as we got closer to Swansea. It was a Friday night and this was John's night out in the rugby club with his mates. In 1978 licensing laws were such that alcoholic drinks would stop being served at 10.30 pm sharp. At 8.30 pm we were over 40 miles from home, the narrow roads leading back to Swansea were not lit and cast in rain and shadows. John suddenly started to toggle his lights off then on so that he could see if any oncoming cars were present; this enabled him to cut all corners and speed our journey. The experience of fast driving on a cold and dark night unnerved me as a young postdoc; we were all silent and glad we made Swansea in good time for John's drink in the rugby club and us to safely make our way home! The large group in the RSRU almost exclusively wanted to work on the new ZAB, but surely this instrument could not support all these experiments. To solve this problem a 24 hr shift system was instituted. Each week the lab meeting would have a highly contested session where instrument times were booked and argued over. I did this job, amongst many others; apart from 24 hr work I was often called to help fix the machine at any time during the week or weekend. Papers flooded out at a rate of 20+ per year. Lab meetings were held twice weekly; one to discuss the state of each instrument and another to hear a paper presented to the whole group. These were stimulating meetings where much was said with often something learnt or discovered. John also made time to see each student, together with his postdoc lieutenants in tow. This was an effective system for generating results and enthusiasm. In early 1980 I left the RSRU to take up a post with Kratos Analytical Ltd. (Manchester) as a scientific engineer. However, I had overlapped with Carol Bradley (see Fig. 3), who came to study small peptide systems with Ian Howe whilst the rest of group concentrated on their physical mass spectrometry studies. Carol was focused on this field of biological mass spectrometry. The main thrust of the research in 1980 was towards photodissociation studies, and the experiment that Frank Harris brought was working extremely well and producing papers. It was a tedious experiment, ion signals were extremely low, but several groups throughout the world were copying this design and setting up their own photodissociation work. In 1980 visitors from Canada (Ray March), Brisbane (Russell Evans) and Belgrade (Ted Ast) were received. Royal Society Research Unit—1980. Inset: C. J. Proctor. Back row: F. M. Harris, I. W. Griffiths, E. A. Larka, E. S. Mukhtar, S. B. Davies, C. J. Porter, I. Howe. Front row: R. E. March (Trent), T. Ast (Belgrade), M. H. Player, J. H. Beynon, R. F. Evans (Brisbane), C. V. Bradley. In 1981 several members (See Fig. 4) left the group but were replenished by Chris Herbert as well as a visiting professor from Wollongong (Peter Bolton). An excellent workshop technician, Des Thomas, was brought on board to maintain and construct the equipment in laboratory. Des was a local councillor and magistrate as well as being a university technician, and spent a significant amount of his time on civic duties. However, this turned out to be a benefit, as Des would work rapidly whilst in the RSRU to ensure he could perform his outside duties. Des's ability became apparent and more instrumentation, often old and requiring attention, was brought into the lab at this time, e.g., an old MS9 was donated by BP Ltd. In 1982 Eric Kingston (see Fig. 5) came over from the laboratory of Jim Shannon (Sydney) to postdoc. Eric was a busy chap and interested in all lab activities, sometimes to the annoyance of others because he was very inquisitive. Eric refurbished the MS9 with Des and became involved with most of the work going on. Royal Society Research Unit—1981. Back row: E. S. Mukhtar, I. W. Griffiths, C. J. Porter, C. J. Proctor, I. Howe, C. G. Herbert. Front row: S. B. Davies, P. D. Bolton (Wollongong), M. H. Player, J. H. Beynon, F. M. Harris, D. W. W. Thomas. Royal Society Research Unit—1982. Back row: T. G. Morgan, C. G. Herbert, G. A. Keenan, D. W. W. Thomas, E. E. Kingston, F. M. Harris. Front row: S. B. Davies, M. H. Player, J. H. Beynon, M. Rabrenovic, T. Ast (Belgrade), R. K. Boyd (Guelph), A. G. Brenton. 1982 saw several new faces arrive early in the year. Mila Rabrenovic and Ted Ast came over from Belgrade to study CID MIKES of small hydrocarbons. Frank and John were awarded funding from the Paul Instrument Fund (Royal Society of London) to construct a hybrid mass spectrometer comprising a quadrupole coupled to an electrostatic analyser. This was a new tandem mass spectrometer. Bob Boyd (Guelph) returned to study linked scanning and angle-resolved mass spectrometry. In 1981 John had hoped Ian Howe would run his laboratory, but this was not to be the case and Ian moved on. John persuaded the university that he could not survive without a new academic post being created; he phoned me regularly in an attempt to persuade me to apply for the ‘new post’. I was reluctant for many reasons, but I was finally persuaded to attend for interview as it was an excellent position where I could devote my time to research. One hundred and twenty seven applicants applied for the post, but did they know what they were letting themselves in for? I was successful and quickly became involved with most of the work on the ZAB; other areas were left to Frank to organise and run. John always wanted maximum output and I was happy to help in his dream. That year, in the triennial meeting held in Vienna, Swansea was successful in its bid to hold the next international spectrometry meeting. John Todd was the UK representative on the international committee and had helped secure the meeting for Swansea. It was John's swan song. I was oblivious to the consequences of this decision which eventuality involved me in a tremendous amount of work, as the small group of local organisers in Swansea would end up doing everything! If I were immodest I would claim that the resurgence of the RSRU in 1983 (see Fig. 6) was due to my presence and the synergy created when working with John. Old friends visited again and new friends were made; Myung Kim came for a sabbatical from Seoul as a prelude to his purchase of a ZAB. He was full of energy and ideas, and Mila worked on problems involving multiple collisions with Myung. Michael Guilhaus moved from the lab of Jim Shannon, following Eric Kingston. He brought Aussie enthusiasm and integrated well into the group, bringing all the students along on their projects. At this time fast-atom bombardment (FAB) MS was in its prime and the RSRU worked on FAB-generated cluster ions, as did several others. Mila's husband, Zoran Lausevic, is a chemical engineer and was interested in glassy carbon, so we tried FAB on this compound but failed to notice (or overlooked) any ions at m/z 720, little did we know how important carbon would be. Royal Society Research Unit—1983. Back row: T. G. Morgan, M. Guilhaus, F. M. Harris, E. E. Kingston, S. Singh, D. W. W. Thomas, M. S. Thacker, A. G. Brenton. Front row: G. W. Trott (Wollongong), S. B. Davies, M. S. Kim (Seoul), M. H. Player, J. H. Beynon, M. Rabrenovic, T. Ast (Belgrade). John's research was booming; its funding was based on a rolling grant from EPSRC which gave continued funding over a four-year cycle. The time was approaching for a renewal; much of the work on the grant proposal had been done by John and Frank before I returned from sabbatical leave, but much consternation was occupying John whether the next submission would be successful. Whilst John's research was thriving the funding council in the UK was more fickle; the rolling grant would not be renewed! The disappointment could not be easily seen but lay beneath the surface; John shrugged it off, seeking funding in other ways. It could have been a struggle to survive; the Royal Society funding acted as a safety net, and in addition other applications to the funding councils were successful. But the die was cast and John could see the future ahead. Even so research went on at a pace. 1984 and 1985 were more and more consumed by the demands of organising the Swansea international mass spectrometry conference. Research still went on 24 hours a day on the ZAB. Collaborations were made with John Hasted and others, high-resolution ion studies on small molecules and charge exchange were made at high-energy resolution. At this time we hired Dr. Emmanuel Kamber as a postdoc and later Wilson Hormis as a student; both were Iraqi nationals (see Fig. 7). At that time the British government was close to the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein and Dr. Kamber was having difficulty with his visa. Both John Hasted and I saw the unfairness of this; Emmanuel was an Assyrian Christian, and subject to political harassment. The British government decided to try to deport Emmanuel back to Iraq, but both John Hasted and I fought it and eventually, after contesting this judgement in court, the British government backed off. A few years later the political climate reversed and Emmanuel was then a most in the meantime he had decided that the was for him and he went to to Royal Society Research Back row: T. G. Morgan, E. S. Singh, D. W. W. Thomas, E. E. Kingston, W. R. G. Kingston. Front row: H. R. M. Guilhaus, S. B. Davies, M. H. Player, J. H. Beynon, F. M. Harris, A. G. Brenton, M. S. 1985 was the year. It was organised by John and he the conference. In the we day and John, Maisie and I. It turned out to be a by over and had a successful held in an old on Even the was at the rugby as well as Welsh in the took its and John me a sabbatical in laboratory in the University of South John's year the RSRU concentrated on the work of visitors and on my in high-resolution energy and on our lab meetings a new design for a high-resolution energy spectrometer was During the years (see Fig. new students one of John's students, is a highly and took to the work on the ZAB In 1985 we again applied for from the Paul Instrument to the high-resolution spectrometer for kinetic energy spectrometry. from spent time with the group in and we a new which we called dissociation Royal Society Research Back row: F. M. Harris, P. R. G. Kingston, E. S. Singh, D. W. W. Thomas. Front row: K. S. B. Davies, M. H. Player, J. H. Beynon, R. K. Boyd (Guelph), A. G. Brenton. In John us with his decision to at the of As he left the lab in with continued funding for two postdocs, Dr. and Dr. (see Fig. who worked with Frank and John said he would he He moved on. He into a new project with and together they in which became one of the most successful mass spectrometry Royal Society Research Inset: A. G. Brenton. Back row: P. R. G. Kingston, W. J. Griffiths, D. M. P. D. W. W. Thomas, M. J. G. Front row: F. M. Harris, Z. M. H. Player, J. H. Beynon, Z. Zaretskii (Israel), D. S. B. Davies. This story is through a of lab group photographs. Each time I look at the which my they some and John's other been his in which I he is still

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