Prof. Dr. Ron M.A. Heeren is one of the pioneers in mass spectrometry driven spatial omics. He obtained a PhD degree in technical physics in 1992 at the University of Amsterdam on plasma-surface interactions. He started to work on molecular imaging instrumentation and its application as a research group leader at FOM-AMOLF, Amsterdam. In 2001, he became professor at the chemistry faculty of Utrecht University lecturing on the physical aspects of biomolecular mass spectrometry. In 2014 was appointed as distinguished professor and Limburg Chair at Maastricht University. He is the founder and scientific director of M4I, the Maastricht MultiModal Molecular Imaging institute on the Brightlands Maastricht Health campus. He was awarded the prestigious 2019 Physics Valorization prize by the Dutch organization for scientific Research, NWO and the 2020 Thomson medal of the international mass spectrometry foundation. In 2021 he was elected as a member of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences, KNAW and in 2025 as a fellow of the Netherlands Academy of Engineering. He is the current president of the International Mass Spectrometry Foundation where he actively focusses on strengthening the international MS community. He established a focus group on imaging immune metabolism at the Technical University Munich as a Hans Fischer Senior fellow and was named TUM ambassador in 2024 for his academic and collaborative accomplishments. His academic research interests are mass spectrometry based translational research, molecular imaging across the “omics”, high-throughput bioinformatics and the development and validation of innovative molecular analytical imaging techniques across the scientific disciplines.