Michael (Mickey) Barber, FRS (3 November 1934 – 8 May 1991) was a British

chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties. Chemists carefully describe ...

and mass spectrometrist, best known for his invention of

fast atom bombardment Fast atom bombardment (FAB) is an ionization technique used in mass spectrometry in which a beam of high energy atoms strikes a surface to create ions. It was developed by Michael Barber at the University of Manchester in 1980. When a beam of high ...

ionisation.

Biography

On 3 November 1934, Barber was born at his family's home in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

at 166 Lodge Lane in Newton. His family were

working-class The working class (or labouring class) comprises those engaged in manual-labour occupations or industrial work, who are remunerated via waged or salaried contracts. Working-class occupations (see also " Designation of workers by collar colo ...

and underprivileged. Barber was one of two boys; his brother Peter was born in 1927. His father, Joseph Barber, was a

carpenter Carpentry is a skilled trade and a craft in which the primary work performed is the cutting, shaping and installation of building materials during the construction of buildings, ships, timber bridges, concrete formwork, etc. Carpenters tra ...

. He went to

Manchester Grammar School The Manchester Grammar School (MGS) in Manchester, England, is the largest independent day school for boys in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1515 as a free grammar school next to Manchester Parish Church, it moved in 1931 to its present site at ...

and was then educated at

the Queen's College, Oxford The Queen's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford, England. The college was founded in 1341 by Robert de Eglesfield in honour of Philippa of Hainault. It is distinguished by its predominantly neoclassical architecture, ...

, obtaining his

B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four ye ...

in 1958 and his

B.Sc. A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

in 1959. There he worked with Jack Linnett and they designed and built a

mass spectrometer Mass spectrometry (MS) is an analytical technique that is used to measure the mass-to-charge ratio of ions. The results are presented as a '' mass spectrum'', a plot of intensity as a function of the mass-to-charge ratio. Mass spectrometry is u ...

for the analysis of flames. He married Joan Gaskell in 1958, the coupled had three children. In 1961 he returned to Manchester to work at the Scientific Instruments division of Associated Electrical Industries. There, he and Martin Elliott developed a method to study the fragmentation of ions with a mass spectrometer and started to work on

X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) is a surface-sensitive quantitative spectroscopic technique based on the photoelectric effect that can identify the elements that exist within a material (elemental composition) or are covering its surface, ...

. In 1973 he took up a lectureship position at

UMIST , mottoeng = By Knowledge and Work , established = 1824 , closed = 2004 (merged into newly formed University of Manchester in 2004) , affiliation = , endowment = , officer_in_charge = , chairman ...

and was promoted to Professor in 1985. In the same year, 1985, he was also elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathematic ...

. He remained at Manchester until his death.

Fast atom bombardment

Fast atom bombardment Fast atom bombardment (FAB) is an ionization technique used in mass spectrometry in which a beam of high energy atoms strikes a surface to create ions. It was developed by Michael Barber at the University of Manchester in 1980. When a beam of high ...

(FAB) is a method of

ionization Ionization, or Ionisation is the process by which an atom or a molecule acquires a negative or positive Electric charge, charge by gaining or losing electrons, often in conjunction with other chemical changes. The resulting electrically charged a ...

used in

mass spectrometry Mass spectrometry (MS) is an analytical technique that is used to measure the mass-to-charge ratio of ions. The results are presented as a '' mass spectrum'', a plot of intensity as a function of the mass-to-charge ratio. Mass spectrometry is u ...

that uses a beam of high energy atoms strikes a surface to create

ion An ion () is an atom or molecule with a net electrical charge. The charge of an electron is considered to be negative by convention and this charge is equal and opposite to the charge of a proton, which is considered to be positive by conven ...

s. An energetic beam of atoms or ions will destroy an

organic molecule In chemistry, organic compounds are generally any chemical compounds that contain carbon-hydrogen or carbon-carbon bonds. Due to carbon's ability to catenate (form chains with other carbon atoms), millions of organic compounds are known. The ...

under conditions typically used to create secondary ions. Barber realised that mixing the compound of interest with a vacuum compatible low-volatility liquid such as

glycerol Glycerol (), also called glycerine in British English and glycerin in American English, is a simple triol compound. It is a colorless, odorless, viscous liquid that is sweet-tasting and non-toxic. The glycerol backbone is found in lipids know ...

effectively protected the organic molecule and allowed it to be ionized and detected. The protecting liquid "matrix" allowed compounds as large as 10,000 Da

molecular mass The molecular mass (''m'') is the mass of a given molecule: it is measured in daltons (Da or u). Different molecules of the same compound may have different molecular masses because they contain different isotopes of an element. The related quant ...

to be detected. The concept of a protecting matrix was later used in

matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization In mass spectrometry, matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) is an ionization technique that uses a laser energy absorbing matrix to create ions from large molecules with minimal fragmentation. It has been applied to the analysis of b ...

. The FAB technique was employed by Barber,

Howard Morris (biochemist) Howard Redfern Morris FRS is a British biochemist. He worked at Imperial College as a lecturer from 1975 to 1978, as a Reader in Protein Chemistry from 1978 to 1980, and as Professor (later Emeritus) of Biological Chemistry, from 1980. He ...

and co-workers for early peptide sequencing experiments.

Honours and distinctions

* Royal Society of Chemistry Award for analytical chemistry and instrumentation (1979) *

(1985) *

American Society for Mass Spectrometry The American Society for Mass Spectrometry (ASMS) is a professional association based in the United States that supports the scientific field of mass spectrometry. As of 2018, the society had approximately 10,000 members primarily from the US, b ...

– The Distinguished Contribution in Mass Spectrometry Award (1991) The Michael Barber Centre for Collaborative Mass Spectrometry, based at the

University of Manchester The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The university owns and operates majo ...

, is named in honour of him.

References

External links

*
Michael Barber Centre, University of ManchesterAdvances in Mass Spectrometry (Waldron, J. D)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Barber, Michael 1934 births 1991 deaths Alumni of The Queen's College, Oxford British chemists Fellows of the Royal Society Mass spectrometrists People educated at Manchester Grammar School Scientists from Manchester