Headquartered in Columbia, Maryland, Shimadzu Scientific Instruments (SSI) is the American subsidiary of Shimadzu Corporation (Kyoto, Japan), a world leader in the development of scientific instruments. SSI was established in 1975 as a distribution center providing analytical solutions to a wide range of laboratories and lab services providers in the Americas. Today, SSI's focus has expanded greatly beyond distribution. SSI maintains a network of ten regional offices strategically located across the United States, with experienced technical specialists, service and sales engineers situated throughout the country; a state-of-the-art Customer Training and Education Center; and Shimadzu U.S.A. Manufacturing, which supplies HPLC, GC-MS/MS, LC-MS/MS, and other high-tech products to the U.S. market. In addition, SSI operates a Solution Center, designed to allow more collaborative research and enable more applications development, and an Innovation Center that houses a team of engineers and scientists whose goal is to develop close collaborations with universities, government agencies, and industry centers.Shimadzu's instruments are used by scientists throughout the Americas, and we count as customers some of the world's leading institutions as well as a long list of local, state, and federal government laboratories. In addition, SSI is a leader in the academic community with a robust grant program and a SPARQ (Shimadzu Partnership for Academics, Research, and Quality of Life) program designed to build long-term relationships between the company and colleges/universitiesShimadzu's growth throughout its history is a testament to experience, technological expertise and customer service/support. Moving forward, Shimadzu will continue to develop and manufacture instruments that deliver results faster and more efficiently than ever before to meet the needs of researchers, scientists, and manufacturers around the globe.