Chemistry exhibit at Clemson showcases historic instruments that drive modern innovation
January 8, 2026
Two Clemson faculty use mass spectrometry, a powerful analytical tool that provides detailed molecular information, in their research.
Mass spectrometry is a powerful analytical tool that provides detailed molecular information with high sensitivity and specificity. It is essential to modern forensics, pharmaceutical analysis, space exploration and more.
A new exhibit highlighting the development of mass spectrometry commissioned by the American Society for Mass Spectrometry will be on display at Clemson University until next summer.
The exhibit features replica instrumentation that helped scientists discover the building blocks, atoms and elements that make up the world around us.
The exhibit is currently on display outside of Hunter Auditorium. Anyone with building access can view the exhibit during normal business hours.
The Clemson University Department of Chemistry has two mass spectrometrists on its faculty — Robert Adger Bowen Professor of Chemistry Ken Marcus and Assistant Professor Christopher Chouinard. In their research, they use mass spectrometry in a wide range of applications from environmental analysis to drug development and detection.
“Clemson is well-positioned nationally in mass spectrometry,” Chouinard said.
The exhibit opens with J.J. Thomson’s discharge tube, the instrument that led to the discovery of the electron. Next is Francis Aston’s first mass spectrograph, followed by James Chadwick’s neutron chamber, which made the discovery of the neutron possible. Together, these breakthroughs laid the foundation for modern mass spectrometry, which over the past century has allowed scientists to understand the structure of atoms and the variety of molecules they form.
Drug forensics
Chouinard’s lab works on drug forensics, such as illicit recreational drugs like fentanyl analogs and synthetic cannabinoids. The lab also investigates performance-enhancing drugs through a fund from the Partnership for Clean Competition, which is a United States anti-doping agency focused on research. The lab is researching new mass spectrometry methods to detect performance-enhancing drugs like anabolic steroids.
The lab has recently begun research with the Clemson University Eukaryotic Pathogens Innovation Center (EPIC), a collaboration that focuses on the development of mass spectrometry to better understand how pathogenic infections progress. Chouinard’s work alongside James Morris, professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Genetics, could lead to the development of a therapeutic for brain-eating amoeba infections.
