Armentrout received his B.S. degree from
Case Western Reserve University in 1975 and earned his
Ph.D. from the
California Institute of Technology in 1980. During these studies he determined that much of the published information on
thermodynamic states was not reliable, or was presented in differing formats. When he became a research professor he used this frustration as motivation to invent and construct the guided ion-beam tandem mass
spectrometer, which provided highly accurate thermodynamic measurements. With this instrument in hand, he went on to invent or improve tools to analyze those measurements, including advanced computer
algorithms. He has published much data on the properties of
transition metals, and has worked most recently on the thermodynamic properties of
biological systems. == Awards ==