Sunday 7 September 2025

09:00-09:30   Registration

09:30-10:00 SIMS – a jack of all trades(?)

Manuela S. Killian is Professor for Chemistry and Structure of Novel Materials at the University of Siegen,  Germany. She joined the ToF-SIMS community in 2008, and since then,  her mission has been to establish ToF-SIMS as analytical tool for a multitude of research questions – spanning from corrosion and electrospun bioactive fibres to catalysts for water splitting and building materials. She earned her PhD from FAU Erlangen in 2013 and held visiting research positions at the University of Cambridge, UK, and the University of Washington in Seattle, USA. Her research group specializes in nanoscale surface analysis and modification, with expertise ranging from tuning the surface chemistry of nanostructured metal oxides to their controlled electrochemical production and chemical analysis of hybrid nanomaterials. A particular focus of her research lies on the implementation of complex hybrid nanostructured oxides for use in building materials and implant technology. Manuela is a member of the executive committee of the Micro- and Nanostructure Facility Siegen, where she serves as an advocate for ToF-SIMS, and the International SIMS committee.    

10:00-11:00 SIMS approaches for materials characterization

Valentina Spampinato, currently assistant professor of Physical Chemistry at the Department of Chemical Sciences, University of Catania, Italy, is a materials scientist whose work mainly focuses on the preparation and physico-chemical characterization of different kinds of materials and surfaces with applications in microelectronics, optoelectronic and life science, by means of Time-of-Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (ToF-SIMS), Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS). Prior to her professorship at the University of Catania, Valentina worked as researcher in the Materials and Components Analysis department of the microelectronic research centre IMEC, Belgium, where she developed novel methodologies, such as correlative in-situ SIMS-AFM, hybrid ToF-Orbitrap-SIMS and “self-focusing” SIMS approaches, for the characterisation of a variety of advanced materials employed in the microelectronic field. Before that, she worked for the Italian National Research Council, where she developed methodologies for the efficient use of solar energy and H2 storage, and the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, where she supported the bio nanoscience group with the physico-chemical characterization of modified nanoparticles. Valentina earned her PhD in Materials Sciences from the University of Catania, with a thesis concerning the surface modification and characterization of systems with application in the optoelectronics. During her career, she has authored ~65 publications in international peer reviewed journals and has presented her research work in ~30 conferences.

11:00-11:30 Coffee break

11:30-12:30 ToF-SIMS Fundamentals: Best Practices for data collection and reporting

Dr. Bonnie Tyler is currently the director of the ToF-SIMS laboratory at the University of Münster Center for Soft Nanoscience. She has been involved in ToF-SIMS research for over 30 years with a particular emphasis on advanced data analysis methods.  She has used ToF-SIMS to study a wide range of systems including biomaterials, particles, and advanced materials. She received her Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Washington in 1992 and then went on to hold professorial positions at Montana State University, the University of Utah and the University of the West Indies. From 2012 to 2015 she did research the National Centre of Excellence in Mass Spectrometry Imaging (NiCE-MSI) at NPL. Since 2015 she has been researching at the University of Münster Institute of Physics and Center for Soft Nanoscience.    

12:30-13:30 Lunch

13:30-14:30 Practical applications of machine learning and artificial neural networks

Satoka Aoyagi is a Professor in Faculty of Science and Technology at Seikei University, Japan, and is also a Fellow of the Japanese Society of Vacuum and Surface Science. She obtained her Doctor of Engineering degree from Waseda University, Japan, in 2002 and studied biosensors and artificial organs. She started to work on secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) and machine learning from 2002. One of her main research topics is the application of machine learning to complex surface analysis data such as biological ToF-SIMS data. She conducted two VAMAS projects (TWA2 A26 and A31) as a project leader to investigate new machine learning applications. Through the VAMAS projects A26 “AI/Machine learning application to Static-SIMS spectrum data analysis” in 2019 and A31 “Evaluation of Matrix Effect Correction and Investigation of Interface Determination” in 2021, she has developed a peptide prediction system for SIMS spectra and a mass spectrum quantitative analysis system based on artificial neural networks, respectively.

14:30-15:30 SIMS analysis for complex samples (e.g. batteries)

Cécile Courreges is a research engineer in physical chemistry. She obtained her PhD in 2006 at the University of Bordeaux on the development and characterization of lipid bio-membrane models. After a first post-doctoral training at the Burnham Institute for Medical Research in La Jolla, CA, USA (characterization of membrane proteins by NMR) and a second one at the Institute of Analytical Sciences and Physico-Chemistry for Environment and Materials in Pau, France (surface analysis of micro-batteries), she obtained a fixed position at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) in 2009 as a research engineer. She began her career at the European Institute for Biology and Chemistry where she was in charge of a NMR platform including a high magnetic field affiliated to the CNRS national network of very large-scale facilities. In 2013, she joined IPREM where she specialized in surface analysis techniques, in particular ToF-SIMS and XPS. She has been technical and scientific manager of the ToF-SIMS platform at IPREM for over 10 years, and is developing various applications especially in the field of electrochemical energy storage (analysis of electrode/electrolyte interfaces in batteries) and in biology (functionalized nanoparticles/micro-organisms interactions, ecotoxicology…). Cécile Courreges has co-supervised 8 doctoral theses, 5 post-doctoral fellows and 12 master students. She is involved in academic (national and European) and industrial research projects and has published 36 scientific papers and book chapters. Since 2022, she has been responsible for the scientific, administrative and financial management of IPREM as Deputy Director.

15:30-16:00 Coffee break

16:00-17:00 Approaches to Challenging Biological SIMS Data

David J. Scurr is a Senior Research Fellow at The University of Nottingham who obtained a BSc in Materials Science (2002) and PhD focusing upon materials characterisation (2005) from The University of Manchester. David joined The University of Nottingham as a Research Fellow in 2007 and has pioneered the application of ToF-SIMS and OrbiSIMS in the field of pharmacy and other disciplines. David’s research has a focus upon the implantation of novel data processing strategies, such as molecular formula prediction (MFP) [Edney et al. Anal. Chem. 2022]. Research highlights include the characterisation of biological samples using ToF-SIMS and OrbiSIMS, for example, breakthrough research into the in situ analysis of unlabelled proteins [Kotowska et al. Nature Comms, 2020] forming the basis of novel research in the development of proteomics / metabolomics, diseased tissue analysis and biomaterials at The University of Nottingham. Additionally, David’s research has demonstrated the ability of SIMS to characterise skin tissue and understand permeation mechanisms of xenobiotic chemistries (pharmaceutical, cosmetic, agrochemical and antibacterial) within complex tissues such as skin [Starr et al. PNAS, 2022].