John Yates III

Meet John Yates III

Raising the field’s profile… We need to hammer on the fact that our lives are touched by analytical science in everything we do. It keeps our water, food and air safe, it helps us diagnose disease, and it helps drive innovations and discoveries.  

The decade’s most important development? This is an easy one – the Orbitrap. This mass analyzer delivered high resolution, high mass accuracy to the masses (pardon the pun).  

Book for scientists? I’ve got two: The Entrepreneurial State: Debunking Public vs. Private Sector Myths, by Mariana Mazzucato; and Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation, by Stephen Johnson. The first book puts forth the idea that only governments have the stamina and patience to fund high-risk, long-term research – not venture capitalists or industry. The second book studies the process of innovation with both examples and stories. Innovations are often the product of past experiences and prepared minds.