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Nancy Pleshko (left) is a Laura H. Carnell Professor Emerita in Temple University's Department of Bioengineering. Petra A. Baylin (right) is a research assistant in the Tissue Imaging and Spectroscopy Lab at Temple University. Photo Credits: © Nancy Pleshko and Petra Baylin
As part of our coverage of the SciX 2026 Conference, Nancy Pleshko and Petra Baylin of Temple University sat down with Spectroscopy to talk about their recent study, explaining how Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) imaging of ultra-high weight molecular polyethylene (UHMWPE) implants permits oxidation evaluation throughout the sample yielding insight into failure.
FACSS 2026 Award Interviews ©  Erin -chronicles-stock.adobe.com
Eight FACSS award winners at SciX 2026, One LIBS trailblazer. Forty-eight questions. And not one of them is a softball. Award season in spectroscopy usually means polite applause, a plaque, and a photo. We're not completely interested only in the award sessions. The eight scientists honored at SciX 2026 in Sparks, Nevada, along with LIBS researcher Alessandro De Giacomo, are pushing Raman into operating rooms, flying LIBS on drones, reading chemistry off Mars, and tracing toxic metals downwind of industrial sites. Their work makes big claims. In the coming days, Spectroscopy will sit down with eight of these researchers and ask whether those claims hold up. The interviews that follow won't just celebrate. They'll press on the gaps between simulation and experiment, between the lab bench and the clinic, and between a clever paper and an instrument someone will actually buy and use.
Brandon E. Boor is the Dr. Margery E. Hoffman Associate Professor in the Lyles School of Civil and Construction Engineering at Purdue University. | Photo Credit: © Brandon Boor.
In the second part of our interview with Brandon Boor of Purdue University, he discusses how his team controls experimental variables during cleaning experiments in order to obtain interpretable data.