Mark Nitz received his BSc in Chemistry from the University of British Columbia in 1995. After earning his PhD with David Bundle at the University of Alberta in 2001, Professor Nitz worked as a postdoctoral fellow with Barbara Imperiali at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2001-2004). He started his independent career in the Chemistry Department at the University of Toronto in 2004 as an Assistant Professor. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 2009 and to Professor, in the same department, in 2014. Professor Nitz’s research program spans the areas of synthetic carbohydrate chemistry and chemical biology. Focusing on bacterial biofilm formation the Nitz lab has efficiently synthesized key carbohydrate adhesin’s that form the structure of the biofilm matrix. These compounds have served as substrates to elucidate the biochemistry and structure of the enzymes required for polysaccharide adhesin synthesis and biofilm formation. In addition to Professor Nitz’s work in the glycosciences his lab was part of the team that has developed reagents for use with Mass Cytometry, a technique that is revolutionizing multiparameter cytometric analysis. New chemistry in the Nitz lab is now exploring small molecule reagents for us with Mass Cytometry that will lead to probes able to report on enzyme activity, metabolic state and transporters.