Emma Schymanski Explained

Emma Schymanski (born Emma Craven) is chemist known for her work identifying unknown organic compounds, particularly pollutants, and is an advocate for open science.

Education and career

Schymanski graduated with a B.Sc. in Chemistry and a B.E. in Environmental Engineering from the University of Western Australia in 2003.[1] While at the University of Western Australia, Schymanski combined chemistry and environmental engineering to study contaminated sites that required assessment and remediation. As an undergraduate, she participated in the 2002 Nobel Laureate conference which brings Nobel laureates and young scientists together; Schymanski and Pia Sappl were the first students from the University of Western Australia to receive this invitation and possibly the first Australians.[2]

After college, Schymanski spent three years at Golder Associates in Perth as an environmental engineer[3] and then joined the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research in Leipzig Germany where she finished her Ph.D. in 2011. Schymanski's subsequent postdoctoral position was at the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag) including a Marie Curie Intra-European Postdoctoral Fellowship. Schymanski is currently an Associate Professor at the University of Luxembourg where she is the head of the Environmental Cheminformatics Group.[4]

In 2021, Schymanski was interviewed by the Metabolomics Society article in MetaboNews and during the interview she describes her introduction to the field of metabolomics, the current strengths of the field, and potential future applications of metabolomics research.[5]

Research

Schymanski's first research publications were from her undergraduate work when she worked on developing new metal-containing polymers which resulted in three lead author publications.[6] [7] [8]

As a graduate student, Schymanski started using information on the fragmentation pattern of organic compounds as a means to expand the identification of unknown compounds.[9] Schymanski applied these novel methods to the identification of unknown organic compounds found in wastewater,[10] and used data collectively gathered by the NORMAN Association to define barriers to the identification of unknown organic compounds in water.[11] Identifying and tracking unknown organic compounds continues to be an avenue of research pursued by Schymanski[12] and she is a co-author on a 2014 textbook describing these methods.[13]

In 2012, Schymanski and Steffen Neumann started the Critical Assessment of Small Molecule Identification (CASMI) contest that provided researchers with information about unknown organic compounds and challenged them to use automated computational tools identify the unknown compounds.[14] [15] The Metabolomics Society highlighted the 2012 contest in their newsletter.[16] There have been multiple iterations of the contest, and Schymanski examined the results of the 2016 contest.[17]

Schymanski's research focuses on characterizing organic compounds found in wastewater[10] [18] and exposomics, or the science of compounds that people are exposed to over their lifetimes.[19] Schymanski has developed a subset of PubChem for exposomics, PubChemLite, which can be annotated to increase ability of researchers to identify unknown environmental compounds.[20] Within this field, Schymanski is working to automate the identification of a group of fluorinated compounds called ‘per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances’ (PFASs) in order to increase the ability of researchers to find unknown PFAS in the environment.[21] Schymanski is an advocate for open science and data sharing. Within the NORMAN network, a collaborative activity across Europe, North America, and Asia, Schymanski worked in 2011 with the team that established NORMAN MassBank,[22] which was a community-driven project to gather information about small molecules. In 2015, Schymanski expanded this type of data with the NORMAN Suspect List Exchange. Schymanski has also worked to develop computational tools that allow the processing of complex high resolution mass spectrometry data[23] and sought to establish standards to consider the quality of the mass spectrometry data.[24] Schymanski's 2014 publication in Environmental Science & Technology[25] establishes a means to estimate confidence in the quality of unknown organic compound identifications and, as of 2021, has over 1000 citations. In 2018, Schymanski considered this paper her greatest achievement because it established the standard for compound identification in metabolomics and encouraged community conversation about future of these tools.

Notable publications

Awards

Personal life

Schymanski is married to Stan Schymanski, an ecohydrologist.[32] and he has shared insight about dual career couples and their path to positions in Luxembourg.[33] They are the first dual career couple to both receive the FNR ATTRACT award.

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Life and Science Physical Careers. University of Western Australia.
  2. News: July 29, 2002. Two of our best join the best in the world. 21. UWAnews. 10.
  3. Web site: What is in our water? Identification of "known" and "unknown" organic contaminants - EPFL. 2021-05-21. memento.epfl.ch.
  4. Web site: Luxembourg. Université du. Emma Schymanski. 2021-05-21. University of Luxembourg.
  5. News: March 2021. Metabo Interview Dr. Emma Schymanski. 11. MetaboNews. 3.
  6. Craven. Emma. Abu-Shandi. Khalid. Janiak. Christoph. 2003. Correlation between Solution and the Solid State: The pH Dependent Composition in the Ternary System [Co(H2O)6]2+ or [Ni(H2O)6]2+/Piperazine/Phosphate]. Zeitschrift für anorganische und allgemeine Chemie. en. 629. 2. 195–201. 10.1002/zaac.200390031. 1521-3749.
  7. Craven. Emma. Zhang. Cungen. Janiak. Christoph. Rheinwald. Gerd. Lang. Heinrich. 2003. Synthesis, Structure and Solution Chemistry of (5, 5′-Dimethyl-2, 2′-bipyridine)(IDA)copper(II) and Structural Comparison With Aqua(IDA)(1, 10-phenanthroline)copper(II) (IDA = iminodiacetato). Zeitschrift für anorganische und allgemeine Chemie. de. 629. 1213. 2282–2290. 10.1002/zaac.200300223. 0044-2313.
  8. Craven. Emma. Mutlu. Esra. Lundberg. Daniel. Temizdemir. Savaş. Dechert. Sebastian. Brombacher. Horst. Janiak. Christoph. 2002. Thallium(I) complexes with modified poly(pyrazolyl)borate ligands—metal-ligand coordination and crystal packing. Polyhedron. en. 21. 5–6. 553–562. 10.1016/S0277-5387(01)01026-9.
  9. 2008-05-19. The use of MS classifiers and structure generation to assist in the identification of unknowns in effect-directed analysis. Analytica Chimica Acta. en. 615. 2. 136–147. 10.1016/j.aca.2008.03.060. 0003-2670. Schymanski. E.L.. Meinert. C.. Meringer. M.. Brack. W.. 18442519. 2008AcAC..615..136S .
  10. Schymanski. Emma L.. Singer. Heinz P.. Longrée. Philipp. Loos. Martin. Ruff. Matthias. Stravs. Michael A.. Ripollés Vidal. Cristina. Hollender. Juliane. 2014-02-04. Strategies to Characterize Polar Organic Contamination in Wastewater: Exploring the Capability of High Resolution Mass Spectrometry. Environmental Science & Technology. 48. 3. 1811–1818. 10.1021/es4044374. 24417318. 2014EnST...48.1811S. 0013-936X.
  11. Schymanski. Emma L.. Singer. Heinz P.. Slobodnik. Jaroslav. Ipolyi. Ildiko M.. Oswald. Peter. Krauss. Martin. Schulze. Tobias. Haglund. Peter. Letzel. Thomas. Grosse. Sylvia. Thomaidis. Nikolaos S.. 2015-08-01. Non-target screening with high-resolution mass spectrometry: critical review using a collaborative trial on water analysis. Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry. en. 407. 21. 6237–6255. 10.1007/s00216-015-8681-7. 25976391. 10234/147867. 29696368. 1618-2650. free.
  12. Escher. Beate I.. Stapleton. Heather M.. Schymanski. Emma L.. 2020-01-24. Tracking complex mixtures of chemicals in our changing environment. Science. en. 367. 6476. 388–392. 10.1126/science.aay6636. 0036-8075. 7153918. 31974244. 2020Sci...367..388E.
  13. Book: Kerber, Adalbert. Mathematical chemistry and chemoinformatics : structure generation, elucidation, and quantitative structure-property relationships. 2014. Reinhard Laue, Markus Meringer, Christoph Rücker, Emma Schymanski. 978-3-11-025407-5. Berlin. 865012006.
  14. Schymanski. Emma. Neumann. Steffen. 2013-06-25. The Critical Assessment of Small Molecule Identification (CASMI): Challenges and Solutions. Metabolites. en. 3. 3. 517–538. 10.3390/metabo3030517. 2218-1989. 3901296. 24958137. free.
  15. Schymanski. Emma. Neumann. Steffen. 2013-05-24. CASMI: And the Winner is . . .. Metabolites. en. 3. 2. 412–439. 10.3390/metabo3020412. 2218-1989. 3901266. 24957999. free.
  16. Web site: Forsythe. Ian. October 2012. Critical Assessment of Small Molecule Identification: A new contest series. 2021-05-23. www.metabonews.ca.
  17. Schymanski. Emma L.. Ruttkies. Christoph. Krauss. Martin. Brouard. Céline. Kind. Tobias. Dührkop. Kai. Allen. Felicity. Vaniya. Arpana. Verdegem. Dries. Böcker. Sebastian. Rousu. Juho. 2017. Critical Assessment of Small Molecule Identification 2016: automated methods. Journal of Cheminformatics. en. 9. 1. 22. 10.1186/s13321-017-0207-1. 1758-2946. 5368104. 29086042 . free .
  18. Gago-Ferrero. Pablo. Schymanski. Emma L.. Bletsou. Anna A.. Aalizadeh. Reza. Hollender. Juliane. Thomaidis. Nikolaos S.. 2015-10-20. Extended Suspect and Non-Target Strategies to Characterize Emerging Polar Organic Contaminants in Raw Wastewater with LC-HRMS/MS. Environmental Science & Technology. 49. 20. 12333–12341. 10.1021/acs.est.5b03454. 26418421. 2015EnST...4912333G. 10795/3064. 0013-936X. free.
  19. Vermeulen. Roel. Schymanski. Emma L.. Barabási. Albert-László. Miller. Gary W.. 2020-01-24. The exposome and health: Where chemistry meets biology. Science. en. 367. 6476. 392–396. 10.1126/science.aay3164. 0036-8075. 7227413. 31974245. 2020Sci...367..392V.
  20. Schymanski. Emma L.. Kondić. Todor. Neumann. Steffen. Thiessen. Paul A.. Zhang. Jian. Bolton. Evan E.. 2021-03-08. Empowering large chemical knowledge bases for exposomics: PubChemLite meets MetFrag. Journal of Cheminformatics. 13. 1. 19. 10.1186/s13321-021-00489-0. 1758-2946. 7938590. 33685519 . free .
  21. Lim. XiaoZhi. 2019-02-06. Tainted water: the scientists tracing thousands of fluorinated chemicals in our environment. Nature. en. 566. 7742. 26–29. 10.1038/d41586-019-00441-1. 30728524. 2019Natur.566...26L. 59615914. free.
  22. Web site: 2016. 2016 Annual Report of the ETH Board.
  23. Stravs. Michael A.. Schymanski. Emma L.. Singer. Heinz P.. Hollender. Juliane. 2013. Automatic recalibration and processing of tandem mass spectra using formula annotation. Journal of Mass Spectrometry. en. 48. 1. 89–99. 10.1002/jms.3131. 23303751. 2013JMSp...48...89S. 1096-9888.
  24. Oberacher. Herbert. Sasse. Michael. Antignac. Jean-Philippe. Guitton. Yann. Debrauwer. Laurent. Jamin. Emilien L.. Schulze. Tobias. Krauss. Martin. Covaci. Adrian. Caballero-Casero. Noelia. Rousseau. Kathleen. 2020. A European proposal for quality control and quality assurance of tandem mass spectral libraries. Environmental Sciences Europe. en. 32. 1. 43. 10.1186/s12302-020-00314-9. 2190-4707. Fenaille. Damont. Emma L.. Schymanski. Marja. Lamoree. François. Annelaure. 212691912 . free . 10067/1676870151162165141. free.
  25. Schymanski. Emma L.. Jeon. Junho. Gulde. Rebekka. Fenner. Kathrin. Ruff. Matthias. Singer. Heinz P.. Hollender. Juliane. 2014-02-18. Identifying Small Molecules via High Resolution Mass Spectrometry: Communicating Confidence. Environmental Science & Technology. 48. 4. 2097–2098. 10.1021/es5002105. 24476540. 2014EnST...48.2097S. 0013-936X.
  26. Web site:
  27. Web site: admin. 2019-11-19. Past Europe Award Winners. 2021-05-21. SETAC Awards. en-US.
  28. Web site: 2018-12-13. Environmental Cheminformatics to Identify Unknown Chemicals and their Effects. 2021-05-21. FNR – Luxembourg National Research Fund. en-US.
  29. Web site: Luxembourg. Université du. Emma Schymanski awarded FNR ATTRACT fellowship. 2021-05-21. Université du Luxembourg.
  30. Web site: 2018-10-17. Emma Schymanski awarded FNR ATTRACT Fellowship. 2021-05-20. FNR – Luxembourg National Research Fund. en-US.
  31. Web site: 2018. The Power List 2018: Emma Schymanski. 2021-05-21. The Analytical Scientist. en.
  32. Web site: MEET A LEAF: STAN Schymanski. 2021-05-21. AGU Ecohydrology. en.
  33. Web site: 2018-11-22. FNR ATTRACT Fellows - the people behind the science: Stan Schymanski. 2021-05-22. FNR – Luxembourg National Research Fund. en-US.

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