Rachel R. Ogorzalek Loo Joins Spectroscopy's Editorial Advisory Board

Spectroscopy is pleased to announce the addition of Rachel R. Ogorzalek Loo to its editorial advisory board.

Loo is a researcher in the Department of Biological Chemistry at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). She is a member of UCLA's Department of Energy Laboratory for Genomics and Proteomics and an associate member of the UCLA Molecular Biology Institute.

Her research interests include the development of bioanalytical mass spectrometry (MS) methods for the structural characterization of proteins and the elucidation of ionization mechanisms for MS. She is also interested in developing the virtual 2D gel method, a matrix-assisted laser desorption and ionization (MALDI) MS-based surface scanning method in which proteins are desorbed directly from polyacrylamide gels for identifying and characterizing protein isoforms and for measuring protein expression profiles from complex biological samples.

Loo is an author of more than 85 scientific publications and currently serves as secretary for the American Society for Mass Spectrometry. She has been a member of various working committees with the Association of Biomedical Resource Facilities. Before joining UCLA, Loo was director of mass spectrometry for the University of Michigan Protein and Carbohydrate Structure Facility, Ann Arbor, Michigan, and later moved to Parke-Davis Pharmaceutical, now part of Pfizer Global Research, also in Ann Arbor, Michigan, as a research associate.

She received her B.S. degree in chemistry from the University of Wisconsin (Madison, Wisconsin), and her PhD degree in physical chemistry from Cornell University (Ithaca, New York). She carried out postdoctoral research at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Washington.

Rohit Bhargava Named 2013 Craver Award Recipient

The Coblentz Society has named Rohit Bhargava as the recipient of the 2013 Craver Award. The award will be presented to Bhargava, a professor of bioengineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, in recognition of his work in the area of spectral chemical imaging, including the development of the fundamental theory and modeling of Raman and infrared chemical imaging.

Bhargava's work has included the application of imaging to the study of polymeric systems and biological systems. He has researched instrumentation development and analysis, including the development of high definition and ultrasensitive IR imaging systems and of time-resolved IR imaging. He has also made advances in the design and fabrication of nanostructures for optical sensing, chemometrics, high-performance computing, and visualization.