9504091 Ortiz This Americas Program award will fund a planning visit by Dr. J. V. Ortiz to go to Ecuador to develop a collaboration between the computational chemistry group at the University of New Mexico and the mass spectrometry group of Dr. N. J. Medina at the Escuela Politecnica Nacional in Quito. They will use computational and experimental approaches to understanding ion chemistry which will be used in an investigation of the behavior of various matrix materials used in matrix-assisted laser desorption-ionization experiments. The latter technique is useful in the mass spectrometric characterization of large biopolymers such as proteins. Each group will use completely different methods, thus taking advantage of each other's expertise. Ab initio computational methods are not currently used in Ecuadorian research. The instrument to be used by Ecuador will provide the New Mexico researchers with a unique opportunity to obtain experimental tests of theoretical predictions. ***
