Asher Newsome, PhD, Physical Scientist for the Smithsonian

The Department of Chemistry Presents:  Dr. Asher Newsome, Physical Scientist, Smithsonian Libraries and Archives

Physical and chemical analysis is needed to support all manner of research at the Smithsonian. The Museum Conservation institute has a variety of technologies at its disposal, including mass spectrometry; FTIR, Raman, and XRF spectroscopy; scanning electron microscopy; and x-ray scanning, as well as in-house expert conservators for all types of materials. Depending on the context of the project and the rare, precious, or sensitive nature of the item to be studied, destructive or non-destructive analytical techniques may be called for. As the sensitivity of modern mass spectrometry instrumentation grows, the amount of sample that must be collected, perhaps to the point where it becomes debatable whether the amount removed constitutes “destructive” analysis. Ambient mass spectrometry methods offer particular opportunities for sensitive object analysis because they can theoretically be performed without cutting material from a whole or preparing the surface, expanding capacity toward accession objects previously accessible only by spectroscopy. I will present several recently-developed instrumental methods used with different forms of minimally-invasive sampling from materials such as wood, parchment, textiles, and synthetics, among others.

BIO

Asher Newsome received his PhD from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill in 2009. He has worked at the FDA Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition and the US Naval Research Laboratory, but since joining the Smithsonian in 2017 he has used mass spectrometry for cultural heritage and conservation science applications. Much of his current research involves developing instrumental methods for analyzing intact objects which are both too sensitive for microsampling and too dimensionally large to be positioned immediately adjacent to a mass spectrometer for conventional ambient sampling techniques. This technical challenge of analyzing sensitive, intact objects also involves close work with curators, conservators, and other interested parties to determine an acceptable level of “invasiveness” for the sampling.