Jerome Workman, Jr.

Recent advances in Raman spectroscopy, specifically using surface enhanced spatially offset resonance Raman spectroscopy (SESORRS), which is a combination of surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS), and spatially offset Raman spectroscopy (SORS) are enabling noninvasive, real-time measurements of living tissue and multiple bacterial pathogens. In an interview with Karen Faulds, the 2019 recipient of the FACSS Charles Mann Award for Applied Raman Spectroscopy, we explore the latest developments in Raman spectroscopy for biomedical analysis applications. This interview is part of a series of interviews with the winners of awards presented at the SciX conference.

The 2019 Spectroscopy salary and employment survey extracted from calendar year 2018 trends shows an unexpected and marked decrease in salaries from previous survey years.

Serial femtosecond crystallography is a promising new technique for protein structure determination, where a liquid stream containing protein crystals is intersected with a high-intensity X-ray free electron laser beam that is 109 times brighter than traditional synchrotron X-ray sources. We were recently able to interview Prof. Alexandra Ros, a FACSS Innovation Award winner from the 2018 SciX conference regarding her research work on this subject.

The use of reference materials to align or test the wavelength–wavenumber axis for optical spectroscopy is essential for quantitative and qualitative methods. This article provides details for using reference materials with ultraviolet, visible, near-infrared, infrared, and Raman spectroscopy methods.

Click the title above to open the Spectroscopy February 2019 supplement, Molecular Terminology Guide, Volume 34, Number 2s, in an interactive PDF format.

We recently interviewed Benedikt Schwarz, Ph.D., a principal investigator at TU Wien, in Vienna, Austria, about his work in the integration of a bi-functional quantum cascade laser with detection capabilities for lab-on-a-chip mid-IR absorption spectroscopy. Schwarz won a FACSS Innovation award at the 2018 SciX conference for this work, and this interview is part of a series of interviews with the winners of awards presented at SciX.

This year’s Emerging Leader in Atomic Spectroscopy, Dominic Hare, is a forerunner in developing laser ablation–inductively coupled plasma–mass spectrometry methods for in situ analysis of trace elements in tissue to investigate the presence of biometals related to neurodegenerative diseases.

The challenge of tackling neurogenerative diseases like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s leads researchers to study the role of metals, for which atomic spectroscopy tools have become essential. Dominic Hare, the 2019 winner of the Emerging Leader in Atomic Spectroscopy award, presented by Spectroscopy, is a forerunner in the use of laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) to image metals in biological tissue as part of the work to improve our fundamental understanding of neurodegenerative diseases. He recently spoke to us about this work. The award will be presented to Hare at The European Winter Conference on Plasma Spectrochemistry (EWCPS), in Pau, France, February 3-8, 2019.

The 2018 Award winner discusses her career challenges and her research on the use of specially engineered proteins, combined with 2D IR spectroscopy, for investigating protein function dynamics.

On-capillary surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) is showing dramatic potential for analysis of human whole blood constituents using microsampling. A group of researchers has recently published a method to measure glutathione (GSH) in a 2 μL sample of human whole blood. This exciting development could lead to rapid point-of-care analysis of other essential blood components. We recently interviewed Julia Kuligowski of the Health Research Institute La Fe, in Valencia, Spain, and Guillermo Quintas, of the LEITAT Technological Center in Barcelona, about this research.

What are the steps to take once an outlier is discovered? There are several options.