Pittcon Committee Honors Scientists

The Pittcon 2011 Program Committee has announced the recipients of 10 prestigious awards that will honor scientists who have made outstanding contributions to analytical chemistry and applied spectroscopy.

The awards, which will be presented at Pittcon 2011 (March 13-18 at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, Georgia) during a symposium, will recognize scientists from a diverse range of fields of study such as bioanalytical science, chromatography, electrochemistry, mass spectrometry, nanotechnology, separations science, and vibrational spectroscopy.

The Pittcon Heritage Award, which honors outstanding individuals whose entrepreneurial careers have shaped the instrumentation community, will be presented to the original founders of Thermo Electron, George Hatsopoulos, John Hatsopoulos, and Arvin Smith.

Other recipients of spectroscopy-related awards are as follows:

Pittsburgh Analytical Chemistry Award: Raoul Kopelman, Richard Smalley Distinguished University Professor of Chemistry, Physics, Biophysics, Biomedical Engineering, and Applied Physics, University of Michigan. This award is presented annually to recognize significant contributions to the field of analytical chemistry by the introduction of a technique, theory, or instrument, or by providing exceptional training or a fertile environment for analytical chemists. Kopelman invented optical nanosensors for single cell chemical and physical imaging and is the inventor of multifunctional targeted nanoplatforms for the imaging, therapy, and surgery of tumors, as well as of a nanoscale photon source, a nanoscale voltmeter, and a nanoscale viscometer.

Charles N. Reilley Award in Electroanalytical Chemistry: Richard Van Duyne, Professor of Chemistry, Northwestern University. Van Duyne is being recognized for his discovery of surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) in 1977. Today, SERS is recognized as the most sensitive form of spectroscopy capable of identifying single molecules. Van Duyne's continued work has led to the development of SERS-based sensors for glucose, lactate, anthrax, and chemical warfare agents.

Pittsburgh Conference Achievement Award: Lingjun Li, Associate Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Chemistry, University of Wisconsin-Madison. This award recognizes individuals who have made outstanding achievements within 10 years of completion of their Ph.D. work. Li is being recognized for the number and depth of her contributions in the field of mass spectrometric study of neuropeptides and functional peptidomics. Lingjun's research program is focused on the development of novel mass spectrometry (MS)-based tools in conjunction with microseparation techniques to study challenging neuroscience problems including the functional discovery of neuropeptides and biomarker discovery in neurodegenerative diseases.

Pittsburgh Spectroscopy Award: Adriaan Bax, NIH Distinguished Investigator, National Institutes of Health. Bax will be honored for his work on the development and application of a wide variety of advanced multidimensional NMR techniques to problems of biochemical and biomedical interest.

Williams-Wright Award: Howard Mark, Mark Electronics. This award is presented annually to an individual spectroscopist who has made significant contributions to vibrational spectroscopy while working in industry. Mark, who serves on the Editorial Advisory Board of Spectroscopy, created, designed and developed new algorithms for NIR quantitative and qualitative analysis and applied statistical and chemometric methods to optimize test procedures. He also was the first person to apply the concept of Mahalanobis Distance to spectroscopic analysis.

Bomem-Michelson Award from the Coblentz Society: Isao Noda, Scientist, Proctor and Gamble Company, Cincinnati, Ohio. This annual award honors a scientist who has advanced the technique(s) of vibrational, molecular, Raman, or electronic spectroscopy. Noda is being honored for his pioneering role in advancing 2-dimensional correlation spectroscopy, both theoretically and experimentally, and for the profound impact his work has had on our understanding of structure–property relationships in polymeric materials.

Young Investigator Award: B. Jill Venton, Assistant Professor of Chemistry at the University of Virginia. Venton's laboratory has developed a novel new methodology, using optogenetics and microelectrodes, to measure endogenous changes in the neurotransmitters dopamine and serotonin in the fruit fly brain. Her laboratory also has pushed fast-scan cyclic voltammetry and microelectrodes beyond traditional neurotransmitters, in particular for monitoring the neuromodulator adenosine.