Spectroscopy Interviews

Lasers have many different scientific uses. Some analytical scientists are advancing the use of laser-based techniques to analyze works of art and other ancient artifacts. Laser-ablation surface-enhanced Raman microspectroscopy (LA-SERS) can analyze art and artifacts to accurately identify the various components inside them. Spectroscopy recently spoke with Pablo Londero, an Associate Conservation Scientist at the Institute for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage (IPCH) at Yale University, and Marco Leona, the head of scientific research at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, about their work in this area.

Christian Pellerin, a professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Montreal in Canada, is using Raman spectroscopy and the most probable distribution method to quantify the orientation of polymers and electrospun fibers. Spectroscopy recently spoke with him about this work.

An interview with Allison Stelling, a recent PhD from Prof. Peter Tonge's group at Stony Brook University in New York, exploring the use of IR spectroscopy for use in intraoperative diagnostics during brain surgery.

Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy has been used to identify unknown materials, determine the quality or consistency of a sample, and determine the amount of components in a mixture. Gary Small, of the Department of Chemistry and Optical Science and Technology Center at the University of Iowa, spoke to Spectroscopy about his work using passive FT-IR remote sensing measurements.