Renato Zenobi

Key takeaways

Renato Zenobi belongs to chemistry; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Renato Zenobi to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Renato Zenobi from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Renato Zenobi (born 1961 in Zurich) is a Swiss chemist. He is Professor of Chemistry at ETH Zurich. Throughout his career, Zenobi has contributed to the field of analytical chemistry.

Biography Zenobi received his M.Sc. degree from ETH Zurich (Switzerland) in 1986 and a Ph.D. from Stanford University (United States) in 1990. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Pittsburgh (United States; 1990–1991) and at the University of Michigan (United States; 1991). In 1992 he worked as Werner Fellow at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (Switzerland). He became assistant professor at the ETH Zurich in 1995, was promoted to associate professor in 1997, and to full professor in 2000. Between 2010 and 2021, he was one of the associate editors of the journal Analytical Chemistry (ACS).

Research and achievements Zenobi's research areas include: laser-based analytical chemistry, electrospray and laser-assisted mass spectrometry, laser-surface interactions, near-field optical microscopy / spectroscopy as well as Single-Cell Analysis. He has made contributions to the understanding of the ion formation mechanism in matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) mass spectrometry (MS) and to the development of analytical tools for the nanoscale, most notably by inventing tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS).

Awards 2015 Fresenius Prize (German Chemical Society / GDCh) 2014 RUSNANO Prize 2014 Thomson Medal (International Mass Spectrometry Foundation) 2012 Fresenius Lectureship (German Chemical Society / GDCh) 2010 Honorary Professorship, Chinese Academy of Sciences (Changchun / CIAC) 2010 Honorary Professorship, Changchun University of Chinese Medicine 2010 Honorary Adjunct Professorship, Hunan University (China) 2010 Mayent/Rothschild Fellowship, Institut Curie (Paris, France) 2009 Honorary Lifetime Membership Israel Chemical Society (Israel) 2009 Schulich Graduate Lectureship Technion, Haifa (Israel) 2007 Honorary Professorship, East China Institute of Technology (Fuzhou, China) 2006 Michael Widmer Award (Novartis Pharma & Swiss Chemical Society) 2006 Hobart H. Willard Lectureship (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor) 2006 Michael Widmer Award (Novartis Pharma & Swiss Chemical Society) 2005 Theophilus Redwood Lecturer (Royal Society of Chemistry) 1998 H.E. Merck Award for Analytical Chemistry 1993 Ruzicka Prize, awarded by ETH Zürich 1991 Alfred-Werner Fellowship 1990 Andrew Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship 1989 Thomas Hirschfeld Award (Federation of Analytical Chemistry and Spectroscopy Societies, USA)

Key Publications

In the area of Near-Field Optics & Tip-enhanced Raman Spectroscopy:

R. M. Stöckle, C. Fokas, V. Deckert, R. Zenobi, B. Sick. B. Hecht, and U. P. Wild, High Quality Near-Field Optical Probes by Tube Etching, Appl. Phys. Lett. 75, 160-162 (1999). R. Stöckle, Y. D. Suh, V. Deckert, and R. Zenobi, Nanoscale chemical analysis by Tip-enhanced Raman Scattering, Chem. Phys. Lett. 318, 131-136 (2000). B. Hecht, B. Sick, U. P. Wild, V. Deckert, R. Zenobi, O. F. Martin, and D.W. Pohl, Scanning Near-Field Optical Microscopy and Spectroscopy with Aperture Probes: Fundamentals and Applications, J. Chem. Phys. 112, 7761-7774 (2000). W. Zhang, B.-S. Yeo, T. Schmid, and R. Zenobi, Single Molecule Tip-enhanced Raman Spectroscopy with Silver tips, J. Phys. Chem. C 111, 1733-1738 (2007). B.-S. Yeo, J. Stadler, T. Schmid, and R. Zenobi, Tip-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy – its Status, Challenges, and Future Directions, Chem. Phys. Lett. 472, 1-13 (2009), “Fontiers” article.

In the area of Mass Spectrometric Analyses of Complex Samples:

M. Kalberer et al., First Identification of Polymers as Major Component of Atmospheric Organic Aerosols, Science 303, 1659-1662 (2004). R. Zenobi, Single-Cell Metabolomics: Analytical and Biological Perspectives, Science 342, 1243259 (2013).

In the area of Mass Spectrometric Studies of Noncovalent Interactions:

J. M. Daniel, S. D. Friess, S. Rajagopalan, S. Wendt, and R. Zenobi, Quantitative Determination of Noncovalent Binding Interactions using Soft Ionization Mass Spectrometry, Int. J. Mass Spectrom. 216, 1-27 (2002). V. Frankevich, K. Barylyuk, K. Chingin. R. Nieckarz, and R. Zenobi, Native Molecules in the Gas Phase? The Case of Green Fluorescent Protein, ChemPhysChem 14, 929-935 (2013).

In the area of MALDI Mass Spectrometry:

R. Knochenmuss and R. Zenobi, MALDI Ionization: In-Plume Processes, Chem. Rev. 103, 441-452 (2003). R. J. Wenzel, U. Matter, L. Schultheis, and R. Zenobi, Sensitive Analysis of Megadalton Ions using Cryodetection MALDI Time-of-flight Mass Spectrometry, Anal. Chem. 77, 4329 -4373 (2005).

In the area of Ambient Mass Spectrometry:

H. Chen, A. Wortmann, W. Zhang, and R. Zenobi, Rapid in-vivo Finterprinting of Non-volatile Compounds in Breath by Extractive Electrospray Ionization Quadrupole Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry, Angew. Chem. Internat. Ed. 119, 580-583 (2007). H. Chen, S. Yang, A. Wortmann, and R. Zenobi, Neutral Desorption Sampling of Living Objects for Rapid Analysis by Extractive Electrospray Ionization Mass Spectrometry, Angew. Chem. 119, 7735-7738 (2007); Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 46, 7591-7594 (2007). H. Chen, G. Gamez, and R. Zenobi, What can we Learn from Ambient Ionization Techniques? J. Am. Soc. Mass Spectrom. (Critical Insight) 20, 1947-1963 (2009) L. Zhu, G. Gamez, H. Chen, K. Chingin, and R. Zenobi, Rapid Detection of Melamine in Untreated Milk and Wheat Gluten by Ultrasound-assisted Extractive Electrospray Ionization Mass Spectrometry (EESI-MS), Chem. Comm. 559-561 (2009).

See also Electrospray ionization Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization Micro-arrays for mass spectrometry

References

Sources http://www.loc.ethz.ch/people/professoren/zenobi_EN http://pubs.acs.org/page/ancham/editors.html

External links Official website

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Renato Zenobi

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Renato Zenobi claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In chemistry, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Renato Zenobi before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Renato Zenobi ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Renato Zenobi

In research: Renato Zenobi appears in chemistry research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Renato Zenobi in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Renato Zenobi is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1961 births, Academic staff of ETH Zurich, ETH Zurich alumni, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Renato Zenobi outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

How to study Renato Zenobi in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Renato Zenobi means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Renato Zenobi out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Renato Zenobi in simple terms?

Renato Zenobi (born 1961 in Zurich) is a Swiss chemist. He is Professor of Chemistry at ETH Zurich.

Why does Renato Zenobi matter?

Because it connects several chemistry ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Renato Zenobi?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Renato Zenobi.