Mass spectrometry: uncovering unknowns in chemicals

Born and raised in China, Shouxun “Shawn” Zhao came to the United States in the 1990s to pursue his Ph.D. studies. He joined BASF in 2009 and has forged a successful path in the company since then. Today, he leads the Structure Elucidation team in Analytical and Material Sciences out of BASF’s site in Wyandotte, Michigan. Learn about Shawn’s journey, the challenges he faces today and more below.

Where did your interest in chemistry come from?

In elementary school, I was fascinated by science. I was fortunate to have a wonderful chemistry teacher who showed me how chemical reactions work and how one thing changed into another through chemistry. That’s how I found my love for chemistry and it’s one of the reasons I chose to major in chemistry in Beijing, China.

How did you come to work at BASF in North America?

I went to Tsinghua University in Beijing and completed my bachelor’s and master’s degree in chemistry there, too. One of my English teachers was American, and we became friends. He taught me a lot, not only of English but also of the American culture. He encouraged me to go abroad to the U.S. to pursue my Ph.D. studies, helped me with a lot of processes and encouraged me to take the graduate record examinations (GRE) and the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL). My professors also encouraged me to go for my Ph.D. studies in the U.S.

In the eighties and nineties, the top universities globally were in America. I was fortunate enough to be awarded a scholarship plus a tuition waiver at the State University in New York (SUNY) for the bioanalytical and environmental toxicology Ph.D. program, where I first learned mass spectrometry. I came to the States in 1996 when I was in my twenties. I had two suitcases and $200 in my pocket and started my fellowship right away. 

In 2002, after I received my Ph.D., I went to Mount Sinai School of Medicine in Manhattan for my postdoctoral fellowship, where I focused mostly on bioanalytical methodologies for cancer research. In 2004, I started my first job in the industry at another chemical company. In 2009, the company where I was working for the past two years, became a part of BASF.

What is mass spectrometry and how did you get involved with this technology?

My Ph.D. thesis aimed to identify DNA adduct structures formed from polychlorinated biphenyls and their metabolites through different spectrometry technologies, including mass spectrometry. Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are environmental pollutants. Essentially, as PCBs get into human bodies, they can be metabolized by enzymes, which can cause a modification in the human DNA and can even trigger cancer in humans. So, I elucidated the unknown structures and how they modified DNA using mass spectrometry technologies. That's why I started in mass spectrometry technology more than 25 years ago. 

Mass spectrometry is a technology that can identify the molecular structures of chemicals. When we study unknown chemicals, we often want to know their structures because the structures can reveal their chemical and toxicological properties. It’s one of the advanced analytical technologies that can reveal the details of unknown structures. It also helps a lot, especially with new product synthesis and development. 

What is your position at BASF today?

My current position at BASF is Senior Principal Scientist, which is considered a global competency role as an appointed Expert. I am a part of the North America Core Expert team leading collaborations internally within BASF as well as externally with universities.

I'm also a technical manager leading the structure elucidation team. I have six team members, who are high-level scientists with expertise in different technical areas, including mass spectrometry. We use different technologies to elucidate or identify unknown structures to support BASF research, production and global product regulatory submissions. For example, if a BASF production site finds an unknown and unexpected impurity in one of its products, my team will jump in to help elucidate what the unknown impurity is so that we can help get the production back online. Impurities can come from anything, including side products or raw materials that aren’t pure enough.

As part of my work, I also lead the mass spectrometry technologies for the North American region and build up global collaborations with colleagues at BASF’s global headquarters in Ludwigshafen and in BASF Asia Pacific. We also collaborate with universities, mostly in North America, and work very closely with professors in the North America Open Research Alliance (NORA) network and other professors at local universities to solve challenges related to our work at BASF. I also lead the efforts in collaborations through the U.S. NSF, the National Science Foundation.

What are the biggest challenges and opportunities you see in your position today? 

Nowadays, as an Expert, one of my responsibilities is to introduce novel technology to BASF to solve challenges, so I frequently need to travel to find out what is new in the analytical technology areas and how we can bring novel technologies to BASF. I collaborate with professors for innovative projects, while also leading the analytical support to urgent projects for BASF. We always get a lot of urgent projects to support production, research and development (R&D) and new product development as well as BASF product global registration, and they can definitely be a challenge.

I see a lot of opportunities, especially nowadays, for novel and emerging technologies, mainly in using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) for chemistry. For example, I am currently leading a BASF collaboration with the National Science Foundation (NSF) for the Sustainable Polymers Enabled by Emerging Data Analytics (SPEED) Program. The goal of this program is to discover and manufacture new sustainable alternatives to replace existing polymers through state-of-the-art AI/ML data science. It’s very exciting to think that we could build up AI models to predict chemical structure and performance relationship, dramatically accelerating new product development at BASF.

You’re involved in the Asian Inclusion Network, an Employee Resource Group at BASF, and even founded and co-chaired the chapter at the Tarrytown site. What motivated you to get involved?

Yes, more than ten years ago, we started the Asian Inclusion Network (AIN) chapter in Tarrytown with some other members and folks from other BASF sites like Wyandotte, Florham Park and Iselin. There are a lot of Asian employees at BASF, especially in the technology and research area, and we wanted to build a network and help each other with knowledge sharing and career development.

 Today, we have eight chapters at various sites in the region, including Florham Park, BASF’s headquarters in North America. We have a lot of fun hosting cultural events but also helping recruit, develop, and retain Asian talent. It’s one of the things I’ve always felt most proud of.

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