ABOUT US
iGenTraX was founded 2009 by scientists with international reputation in the fields of physical and analytical chemistry.
Thorsten Benter and Oliver J. Schmitz hold tenured professorship at the University of Wuppertal and Duisburg-Essen (Germany), respectively. Klaus Brockmann is a senior physical chemist at the University of Wuppertal with outstanding knowledge in technical support and with great experience in API, particularly APLI.
Further information on the research strengths of iGenTraX both in physical and analytical chemistry are presented at the respective homepages of the Physical Chemistry at the University of Wuppertal and the Applied Analytical Chemistry at the University of Duisburg-Essen.
Professor
Dr. Thorsten Benter
He obtained his Ph.D. degree in Physical Chemistry in 1993 from the University of Kiel, Germany, where he also spent his post-doctoral time with developing laser based desorption and ionization methods for application in Atmospheric Research. In 1997 Benter joined the chemistry faculty at the University of California, Irvine, USA, for a tenure-track Professorship in the School of Physical Sciences, where he further developed laser ionization methods for analytical applications, e.g., breath analysis. It was in Irvine, where the initial in-depth investigations of ionization mechanisms at elevated pressure were performed.
In 2001 Benter was appointed "Ford Environmental Research Professor” at the University of Wuppertal, Germany, as full professor, where he also became chair of the Department of Physical Chemistry. Since 2006 he holds the chair of the Department of Physical and Theoretical Chemistry (PTC) in Wuppertal.
In 2009 he co-founded iGenTraX, with the aim of attracting high-performance applied mass spectrometry research to the region. In 2011 he co-founded the Institute for Pure and Applied Mass Spectrometry (ipaMS), an interdisciplinary research center at the University of Wuppertal. Since 2013 he is acting director of ipaMS.
Major research activities of the PTC group focus on comprehensive investigations on ionization mechanisms at elevated pressure, i.e. from atmospheric to the 10-3 mbar pressure regions. These studies include fluid- and electro-dynamical modeling coupled with chemical transformation simulation modules, a broad variety of complex validation experiments, quantum chemical calculations of ion-molecule interactions, as well as the computer aided design and construction of advanced ionization sources.
Benter is visiting professor at the University of California, Irvine, and the University of British Columbia, Canada, and is a long-term member of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry and editorial board member of the societies’ prestigious journal JASMS.