FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - The Arkansas Statewide Mass Spectrometry Facility, which provides state-of-the-art research support for faculty and researchers, has hired Dr. Jackson O. Lay, Jr. as facility director and Dr. Rohanna Liyanage as senior scientific specialist in the High Performance Mass Spectrometry Laboratory.

Academic, government and industrial researchers in a variety of fields including chemistry, biochemistry, biology, food science, agriculture, and the medical sciences are using the leading edge analytical tools available at the facility for sensitive and accurate chemical analysis. Over $3 million dollars in advanced mass spectrometry equipment has been purchased with funding provided by the State of Arkansas and the National Science Foundation.

"We have a high performance mass spectrometry laboratory that is competitive with any research facility in the nation," said Charles L. Wilkins, Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry. "It will allow university researchers to employ the latest mass spectrometric techniques and remain in the forefront of today’s research in emerging fields such as biotechnology."

Lay joins Fulbright College following a 17-year career with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration at the National Center for Toxicological Research, where he directed the second largest mass spectrometry facility in the FDA. He has published over 100 articles on mass spectrometry and related topics and received numerous awards and citations from the FDA for his scientific accomplishments. While at the FDA, he developed methods to support bio-terrorism defense, cancer research, and the detection of metabolites, toxicants, and other carcinogens. Prior to working at FDA, Lay developed methods for detecting parts-per-trillion levels of dioxins in humans exposed to Agent Orange, including Vietnam veterans.

During his career as a federal scientist, he was a consultant for the Centers for Disease Control, the FDA and the FDA commissioner, as well as for the assistant surgeon general of the United States. He has served as the Chairman of the Central Arkansas Section of the American Chemical Society and as chair of the Biomedical Interest Group of the American Society of Mass Spectrometry. He is a member of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry and the Association of Official Analytical Chemists.

Liyanage joins Fulbright College after several years as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Utah, where he focused on understanding ion molecule reaction dynamics using guided ion beam tandem mass spectrometry. He holds a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Illinois, has published 15 articles, and is a member of the American Chemical Society.

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