September 19, 2006

Open Letter to Herb Kenny, Vice President, Global Commercial 
Operations, Thermo Electron Corporation.

CC:  ISOGEOCHEM and Micromass User List serves

Dear Mr. Kenny,

The recent acquisition of GV Instruments Limited by Thermo Electron 
Corporation represents a major change in the landscape of 
instrumentation for stable isotope mass spectrometry.  The 
measurement community has received your letter of July 21, 2006 in 
which you announce the acquisition of GVI's product line and assure 
us that "during the integration period and beyond", Thermo will be 
dedicated to providing us with advanced solutions, robust products 
and world-class customer service.  We feel your letter deserves a 
response from the customer base into which you have placed 
yourselves, and hope that we can stimulate some discussion around 
this issue. 

As researchers who have developed measurement programs based on GVI 
mass spectrometers, there are a number of things that are of concern 
to us. 

First, while it may be true that there are other manufacturers of 
stable isotope mass spectrometers, the reality is that more than 95% 
of the research community uses either Finnigan or GVI mass 
spectrometers.  Some labs have used several brands of mass 
spectrometers, while others have chosen a single brand for simplicity 
of training staff, consumable costs, and development work. Both 
instrument lineages have played key roles in major advances in 
knowledge across numerous disciplines. Universities and governments 
have invested millions of dollars into research programs, utilizing 
Isoprimes. It is critical for many research programs that the support 
for both of these platforms continues well into the future. 

  Collaborating with end users on innovations has been a fruitful two 
way street for both manufacturer and researchers alike.  Our 
experience with GVI in particular has been that the Isoprime platform 
exhibits considerable flexibility in application and that the company 
as a whole has demonstrated a willingness to respond quickly and 
specifically to users needs.

One example is with the laboratory of Peggy and Nathaniel Ostrom at 
Michigan State University, where GVI modified the instrument after 
the order was placed to enable an Isoprime to simultaneously monitor 
all of the masses of interest for nitrous oxide isotopomers (30, 31, 
44, 45, and 46) and thus provided the first commercial instrument of 
this capability.  Furthermore, the MassLynx software was rapidly 
modified to meet this specific need.  Similarly, a close association 
between one of us (Ralph Keeling) and GVI resulted in the 
construction of a novel sample introduction system that enabled rapid 
and highly precise determinations of O2/Ar and N2/Ar in air, an 
important measure of global change, that would be extremely difficult 
to perform on other existing instruments (Keeling et al., 2004 Tellus 
56B: 322-338). 

The continued success of many research programs will rely on the 
ability of Thermo Electron to continue this level of support and 
flexibility. The importance of this issue is illustrated by the 
16-year-old and ongoing global monitoring of green house gases 
project at the University of Colorado that produces extremely 
valuable data to the global research community.  The methodology for 
this work has been built upon GVI mass specs, and it is critical that 
the level of engineering support from the manufacturer continue if 
the program is to have continuity and remain a cornerstone of our 
understanding of global climate change.

Together, we are hoping to hear from you a stronger message of 
commitment that you will continue to support this line of product. 
This would mean keeping key senior engineering personnel on board to 
deal with ongoing issues in both hardware and software. We are very 
concerned when we hear of possible lay-offs of GVI employees who have 
been fundamental to the success of our research by providing high 
quality customer support and individual attention.  Does Thermo have 
an effective and viable plan to assist in the maintenance of the 
large number of VG, Fisons, and GVI instruments that remain in 
operation?  Perhaps one of the greatest assets of GVI and its former 
companies was a willingness to provide service in a constructive 
manner and at reasonable prices, which is probably one of the most 
important contributors to customer loyalty. Will Thermo continue this 
standard?

Furthermore, we remain concerned regarding maintenance of software 
platforms. The majority of Isoprimes currently in operation run on 
the MassLynx software platform that has evolved into a powerful 
system, which puts great flexibility and information in the hands of 
users.  While some users have little interest in much of the 
capabilities of MassLynx, the many of us who are involved in 
technique development find it a wonderful platform for innovation. 
As noted above, this innovation has often fed back into new 
instrumentation (and sales) by GV.  While it is clear that MassLynx 
cannot be maintained for copyright reasons, it is our hope that 
capabilities of this software and personnel qualified to assist users 
will continue to be an integral part of the company. 

Stable isotopes have numerous up-and-coming applications for climate 
change studies, ecology, forensics, and many other fields, and we 
hope that Thermo will encourage the development of the use of 
isotopes in these fields by keeping the instrumentation affordable, 
despite the current lack of competition. We hope that your goals not 
be simply in dollar signs but will remain in step with those of most 
of your clients - serving science and society. 

We look forward from hearing more news and information from you and 
from Thermo concerning developments associated with the acquisition 
of GVI, and we look forward to working with Thermo in the future.

Signed:

Bruce H. Vaughn
Senior Scientist, INSTAAR, University of Colorado
Boulder, Colorado

Nathaniel E. Ostrom, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Zoology
Michigan State University

Ralph F. Keeling
Professor, Scripps Institution of Oceanography
University of California, San Diego

Eric Steig
Associate  Professor, Earth and Space Sciences
University of Washington

Carol Kendall
U.S. Geological Survey
Menlo Park, California
(Personal view may not reflect that of the employer)

Leonard I. Wassenaar
Research Scientist
Envionment Canada
(Personal view may not reflect that of the employer)

Leonel da S. L. Sternberg
Department of Biology
University of Miami

Stephen Macko
Professor, Environmental Sciences
University of Virginia

Valerie Claymore
GNS Science
Lower Hutt, New Zealand

Simon Poulson
Research Associate Professor
Dept. of Geological Sciences & Engineering
University of Nevada - Reno

Karl Kreutz
Associate Professor,Climate Change Institute and Department of Earth Sciences
University of Maine
Oreno, Maine

Pamela Gemery-Hill
Geologist, U.S. Geological Survey
Lakewood, Colorado
(Personal view may not reflect that of the employer)