2025 ASMS Award winners: Assistant Professor Varun Gadkari and undergraduate Arabella Garcia
MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (5/6/2025) – Assistant Professor Varun Gadkari and an undergraduate student from his research group, Arabella Garcia, have both recently earned awards from the American Society for Mass Spectrometry (ASMS). ASMS’ awards recognize outstanding efforts by chemists working in the area of mass spectrometry research.
Assistant Professor Varun Gadkari was honored with the 2025 ASMS Research Award. The award aims to promote the research of academic scientists within the first four years of their career. Gadkari’s application to ASMS outlined a bold strategy to advance RNA structural analysis by developing covalent labeling mass spectrometry methods. The development of new RNA analysis methods is an area of great interest due to the rapidly growing role of RNA therapeutics. The funding accompanying this award will enable the Gadkari group to embark on an exciting avenue of research which the group has been building towards since its beginning.
Gadkari joined the University of Minnesota–Twin Cities faculty in Fall 2022, and has since grown his research group to include six graduate students and one undergraduate. The group’s work – at the interface of bioanalytical chemistry and chemical biology – is aimed at developing novel mass spectrometry techniques for the structural analysis of proteins, nucleic acids, and their complexes. This work spans a range of sub-topics including biomolecular structure, neurodegenerative disease, and bioanalytical method development. In 2020, Gadkari was previously recognized by the ASMS as an Emerging Talent in Academia.
Arabella “Bella” Garcia, an undergraduate researcher in the Gadkari Research Group, was recognized with the 2025 ASMS Undergraduate Student Award. The award honors undergraduate students whose academic achievements and interest in mass spectrometry research display a high level of excellence and distinction. Garcia is an undergraduate senior with a major in chemistry. Prior to joining Gadkari’s lab in May 2024, Garcia completed research internships at the University of Pennsylvania and Washington University in St. Louis. She will continue her research in the Gadkari Research Group this summer with the help of the Chemistry Summer Research Fellowship, supported by the Graham N. Gleysteen Scholarship Fund in Chemistry. Garcia plans to finish her degree in Fall 2025.
About the American Society for Mass Spectrometry
The ASMS was formed in 1969 to promote and disseminate knowledge of mass spectrometry and allied topics. Membership includes over 8,500 scientists involved in research and development. Members come from academic, industrial and governmental laboratories. Their interests include advancement of techniques and instrumentation in mass spectrometry, as well as fundamental research in chemistry, geology, forensics, biological sciences and physics. (From the ASMS website)