On the 24th of August, 2021, Merit Oss successfully defended her PhD thesis titled “Ionization efficiency in electrospray ionization source and its relations to compounds’ physico-chemical properties” 

The thesis by Merit revolves around ionization efficiency in electrospray ionization (ESI) MS. The main aim was to gain a better understanding of the relations between different molecular properties of compounds and the signal intensities of their ions in ESI-MS. During this study, a large number of ionization efficiency values were obtained. Eleven molecular parameters were taken into account for estimating their importance for evaluating the compound’s ionization efficiency in ESI. It was concluded that in the studied solvent system, a compound’s ionization in the ESI source is determined by its basicity, molecular size, and hydrophobicity/lipophilicity. The results showed that the obtained models for estimating compounds’ ionization efficiency can be used for approximate prediction. 

Congratulations, Merit! We wish you all the best for your future.