Jürgen Popp is the Scientific Director of the Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology (IPHT) in Jena, Germany, and a professor at Friedrich Schiller University Jena. His research applies laser-based spectroscopy and imaging — especially Raman spectroscopy — to infection research, oncology, and precision medicine, with a career-long focus on moving label-free, real-time photonic diagnostics from the bench to the clinic. Since 2006 he has built IPHT into an internationally recognized biophotonics center and established collaborative networks including the transatlantic Center for Biophotonic Technology and Artificial Intelligence and the Jena-Davis Alliance of Excellence in Biophotonics. The Ellis R. Lippincott Award, established in 1975 and jointly presented by Optica, the Coblentz Society, and the Society for Applied Spectroscopy, recognizes work that has significantly influenced other scientists' research in vibrational spectroscopy.
In this interview segment from SciX, Juergen Popp explains why molecular “twins” built from optical measurements could reach patients within a decade, provided the field builds the regulatory, computing, and standards ecosystem around the technology.
At SciX, Jürgen Popp explains how miniaturized optical spectroscopy could add molecular data to wearable health tracking, which could enable earlier disease detection and a shift toward prevention.
Jürgen Popp explains how head and neck surgeons in Jena use a Raman probe to locate tumor borders, why the technique could replace frozen section biopsies, and why optical tools must adapt to clinical workflows rather than the other way around.
At SciX, Juergen Popp explains why a new infection test must fit hospital workflows, outperform the gold standard, and cost about a euro or less per test. He also describes a host-response test that could change how emergency departments treat suspected sepsis.
The 2026 Ellis R. Lippincott Award recipient discusses the barriers to clinical adoption of photonic diagnostics and his vision for personalized optical digital twins.
Reliability, dynamic measurements, artificial intelligence, and real-world applications are reshaping Raman spectroscopy – while Molecular Photonics points toward new translational frontiers.
Jurgen Popp, Thomas Mayerhofer, and colleagues at Leibniz IPHT and Friedrich Schiller University Jena introduce the Personalized Optical Digital Twin (PODT), a Photonics21 contribution to Europe's Virtual Human Twin ecosystem that connects molecular photonics—Raman blood analysis, coherent Raman tissue imaging, and multimodal endomicroscopy—with longitudinal physiology and clinical data. Drawing on the published multicenter INTELLIGENCE trials, the authors argue that technical feasibility and clinical utility must be evaluated separately as the field moves toward Europe's FP10 research agenda.
Seven common mistakes in the analysis of Raman spectra can lead to overestimating the performance of a model.
