Authors
Maria Papadimitraki is a PhD student at University of Southern Denmark, and she is member of the Danish Center for Hadal Research HADAL. Her work is currently focused on Arctic microphytobenthic primary production and its functional relationship to underwater spectral light quality. She has previously worked at Technical University of Denmark (DTU Aqua), focusing on dissolved organic matter optical properties in connection to Arctic Ocean circulation. Maria has worked in the past as research assistant in the University of Iceland’s Research Center in Husavik, University of Patras, Greece and Natural History Museum of Crete/University of Crete, Greece.
Minjung Son is an assistant professor of chemistry at Boston University, in Boston, Massachusetts. Son’s group investigates the fundamental photophysical processes that govern how energy and charge move through molecular, material, and biological systems. Using ultrafast optical spectroscopy and microscopy, the team studies the dynamics underlying these processes. Son’s group also develops advanced nanomaterials and hybrid photonic materials known as polaritons to uncover new photophysical phenomena and better understand structure–property relationships relevant to functionality and energy conversion applications.
Brett McGuire is an assistant professor of chemistry at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he runs and leads his own research group.
Brad Pierce was born in Loveland, Colorado, and moved to Sacramento, California, in 1989. He earned a B.S. in Chemistry with a minor in Biology from California State University, Chico, and began his scientific career as a research associate at Matrix Pharmaceuticals, where he contributed to the development of gel-based cisplatin formulations for cancer therapy. He went on to earn his Ph.D. in Chemistry from Carnegie Mellon University under the mentorship of Professor Michael Hendrich, employing advanced EPR spectroscopic methods to study transition metal complexes and metalloproteins.
Following his doctoral studies, Pierce conducted NIH-funded postdoctoral research with Professor Brian Fox at the University of Wisconsin, where he investigated the mechanisms of non-heme iron metalloproteins and the role of protein-protein interactions in modulating enzymatic reactivity. He launched his independent career in 2008 as an Assistant Professor of Chemistry & Biochemistry at the University of Texas at Arlington, where he was promoted to Associate Professor in 2014. In 2019, he joined the faculty at the University of Alabama, where he advanced to the rank of Professor in 2025.
Monica Arienzo is an Associate Research Professor in the Division of Hydrologic Sciences at the Desert Research Institute. In her research, Arienzo uses chemical tools to understand how humans have impacted the environment. After years of studying caves in the Bahamas and ice cores from Antarctica, now she studies microplastics from peak to tap. Her microplastic research focuses on microplastics found in snowy peaks, to downstream lakes and rivers, and in drinking water taps.
Lin Zhang, Ph.D., is an algorithm development manager at Thermo Fisher Scientific in Tewksbury, Massachusetts. His expertise includes chemometrics, multivariate calibration, and spectroscopic method development for process analytical technology and portable analytical instruments. He holds a Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry and an M.S. in Computer Science from Ohio University, as well as M.S. and B.S. degrees in Analytical Chemistry from Hunan University.
Johanna Nelson Weker is the Lead Scientist at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in Stanford, California.
Hunter Andrews is an R&D Staff Scientist in the Isotope Applications Research Group within the Radioisotopes Science and Technology Division, where his work focuses on developing in-situ, online monitoring tools for complex environments.
Tasruzzaman Babu is a Graduate Research Student at Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, Louisiana.
Maryam Shakiba is an Assistant Professor in the Aerospace Mechanics Research Center (AMREC) at the University of Colorado Boulder.
Fran Adar is the Principal Raman Applications Scientist for Horiba Scientific in Edison, New Jersey.
With a PhD in 1984 from l’Université de Montréal, Diane Beauchemin is a Full Professor in Chemistry at Queen’s University. Her research focuses on the fundamentals of ICP-MS and ICP-OES and on expanding their application to environmental analysis, risk assessment of food safety, characterization of nanoparticles, and forensic analysis. In recent years, she received the 2017 Maxxam Award and 2019 Clara Benson Award from the Canadian Society for Chemistry, the 2018 Gerhard Herzberg Award from the Canadian Society for Analytical Sciences and Spectroscopy, and the 2024 Environment Division Research and Development Dima Award from the Chemical Institute of Canada.
Dmitry Kurouski is an associate professor of biochemistry and biophysics, and biomedical engineering at Texas A&M University. Kurouski’s work has focused on pioneering the development of innovative Raman spectroscopy–based sensing approaches that can be used for non-invasive, non-destructive analysis, including confirmatory diagnostics of biotic and abiotic stresses in plants. His findings demonstrate that Raman spectroscopy can be used for identification of viral, fungal, and bacterial diseases in a large number of plant species. He has also developed Raman methods for diagnostics of plant deficiencies in micro and macro element composition; his work has also demonstrated the potential for Raman spectroscopy–based phenotyping of plants.
Jerome Workman, Jr. is former Senior Technical Editor of LCGC. He is on the Editorial Advisory Board of Spectroscopy and is the current Assoc. Editorial Director. He is the co-host of the Analytically Speaking podcast and has published multiple reference text volumes, including the three-volume Academic Press Handbook of Organic Compounds, the five-volume The Concise Handbook of Analytical Spectroscopy, the 2nd edition of Practical Guide and Spectral Atlas for Interpretive Near-Infrared Spectroscopy, the 2nd edition of Chemometrics in Spectroscopy, and the 4th edition of The Handbook of Near-Infrared Analysis. He is the recipient of the 2020 NY/NJ SAS Gold Medal Award (with Howard L. Mark). Mark and Workman have written over 250 Statistics and Chemometrics columns for Spectroscopy. Direct correspondence to [email protected]
Eve Kroukamp, Ph.D. is a Strategic Value Pool Manager at Agilent with >16 years’ experience across market segment, program, product, and laboratory management. She brings multidisciplinary scientific expertise and has driven growth in Battery, Environmental, Food, and Semiconductor markets while contributing to standards bodies and leading cross‑functional strategic initiatives.
Igor Lednev is a Distinguished Professor and Williams-Raycheff Endowed Professor at the University at Albany, State University of New York. Lednev’s research concentrates on applying spectroscopic techniques and technologies for medical diagnostics and forensic analysis. Some of his other research interests include analytical chemistry, biochemistry, biophysics, and laser spectroscopy. Besides his role at the University at Albany, Lednev is the founder and CTO of SupreMEtric LLC, as well as the founding director of the Center for Biophotonic Technology and Artificial Intelligence (CeBAI).
Ken Marcus is a Robert Adger Bowen Professor of Chemistry at Clemson University. He is an internationally recognized analytical chemist with a distinguished career spanning education, research, and mentorship. Over nearly four decades on the Clemson University faculty, he has supervised the graduation of 44 PhD and 17 MS students and has served on the editorial advisory boards of three international journals. His scientific achievements have been widely honored, including the South Carolina Governor’s Award for Excellence in Science Research (2001), Fellowships in the Royal Society of Chemistry (2010), the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2012), the Society for Applied Spectroscopy (2016), and the National Academy of Inventors (2018). Marcus’ research centers on the development of advanced plasma-based techniques for atomic spectroscopic analysis.
Brian R. Strohmeier is currently serving as the President of Pittcon for the 2027 conference. He has had an extensive career in analytical spectroscopy, working with techniques such as X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), auger electron spectroscopy (AES), secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS), glow discharge optical emission spectroscopy (GD-OES), X-ray fluorescence (XRF), scanning electron microscopy/energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM/EDS), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). His research experience has spanned numerous application areas, including the study of adhesion, corrosion, oxidation, and wetting phenomena; chemical and plasma modification of material surfaces; and the surface characterization of aluminum and steel alloys, transition element metals and oxides, asbestos and related minerals, glass and fiberglass, ceramics, chemicals, polymers, vacuum-deposited thin films, organic coatings, and heterogeneous catalysts.