Jane Thomas-Oates

Jane E. Thomas-Oates (born 16 May 1960) is a British chemist who is an emeritus professor at the University of York. Her research has considered the development of mass spectrometry for biological applications including proteomics, metabolomics, and glycomics.

Early life and education
Thomas-Oates' parents were both teachers. Her father was a physical chemist before teaching science and her mother was also a botanist. She has said that she can remember being excited by mass spectrometry during her chemistry lessons. Thomas-Oates studied biochemistry at Imperial College London, where she remained for a doctorate with Anne Dell. Her doctoral research considered atom bombardment mass spectrometry of oligosaccharides and glycopeptides. She then moved to the United States as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Colorado Boulder. She worked in the University of Colorado Complex Carbohydrate Research Center and the University of Georgia.

Research and career
In 1986, Thomas-Oates returned to Imperial College London. Her research considered the development of mass spectrometry for biological applications. She was appointed a Beit Memorial Research Fellow at the University of Dundee in 1989, where she spent two years before joining Utrecht University as a lecturer in mass spectrometry. In Dundee, she studied the structures of glycosylphosphatidylinositol anchors, and in Utrecht she developed the first mass spectrometry technique to determine glycan attachment to glycoproteins. In 1996, Thomas-Oates moved to University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology as a Senior Lecturer. She moved to the University of York as a Research Chair in 2002.

Thomas-Oates was made the British Mass Spectrometry Society lecturer in 2019.