Scott D. Tanner

Scott Tanner is a Canadian scientist, inventor, and entrepreneur. His areas of expertise include mass spectroscopy, especially inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), and mass cytometry.

Tanner is best known for his work on the fundamentals of inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, for the invention of mass cytometry, and co-founding (with Dmitry Bandura, Vladimir Baranov and Olga Ornatsky) DVS Sciences in 2004,(acquired by Fluidigm in 2014 and then renamed to Standard BioTools in 2022) the company that first commercialized the instrument and reagents of mass cytometry.

Tanner was born and raised in St. Catharines, Ontario Canada. He bought his first chemistry set, from his brother, at age 6. Through his early teenage years, he was provided with laboratory space at Brock University, under the guidance of Dr. E.A. Cherniak and Dr. F.P. Koffyberg, where he attempted to replicate Geiger–Marsden experiments also known as Rutherford's experiment (scattering of alpha particles by gold foil) using various home-built instruments, including cloud chambers.

Tanner graduated with a BSc in chemistry from York University in 1976. During his undergraduate years, he became a nationally ranked gymnast. An injury at the Olympic trials ended his competitive gymnastics career, and he took up marathon running during graduate school (best time 2:47:13). He received a Doctor of Philosophy (Chemistry) from York University in 1980, having studied ion-molecule reaction kinetics and flame ion chemistry with Drs. D.K Bohme and J.M. Goodings.

Tanner joined SCIEX, which later became MDS SCIEX, in 1980 as a research scientist. He became principal scientist in 2000. In his 25 years at SCIEX, Tanner developed and helped to commercialize a string of mass spectrometry products.

Tanner published over 74 peer-reviewed scientific articles, and holds 22 US patents (with corresponding filings in other countries), including 13 patents on Mass Cytometry technology

Tanner was a co-founder of DVS Sciences and, as the president and CEO, saw the company through the development and commercial launch of its first products.

The products that DVS Sciences brought to the global market were originally developed at the University of Toronto where Tanner was a professor in the Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering and then in chemistry.