The term "soft laser desorption" has not been widely used by the mass spectrometry community, which in most cases uses matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) to indicate soft laser desorption ionization that is aided by a separate matrix compound. The term soft laser desorption was used most notably by the Nobel Foundation in public information released in conjunction with the 2002 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Koichi Tanaka was awarded 1/4 of the prize for his use of a mixture of cobalt nanoparticles and glycerol in what he called the “ultra fine metal plus liquid matrix method” of laser desorption ionization. With this approach, he was able to demonstrate the soft ionization of proteins. The MALDI technique was demonstrated (and the name coined) in 1985 by Michael Karas, Doris Bachmann, and Franz Hillenkamp, but ionization of proteins by MALDI was not reported until 1988, immediately after Tanaka's results were reported.