Fran Adar Wins NY/NJ Section of the Society for Applied Spectroscopy Gold Medal Award

Fran Adar

Fran Adar is the winner of the 2021 Gold Medal Award from the New York and New Jersey Society of Applied Spectroscopy (SAS). She will be presented with the award at the EAS Symposium taking place November 15–17, 2021, in Plainsboro, New Jersey. The annual EAS awards honor analytical chemists who have distinguished career achievements and who have advanced their fields by superior work in developing theory, techniques, or instrumentation.

Adar is a Raman applications scientist, manager, and principal scientist at Horiba Scientific in Piscataway, New Jersey, where she is a leader in Raman microscopy instrument and applications development. She received her BS, MS, and PhD degrees in Physics from the University of Pennsylvania. She has authored more than 220 publications, leading to more than 2500 citations.

Adar’s pioneering work in the field of Raman microscopy has led thousands of scientists worldwide to use Raman spectroscopy in their work. She has developed many instruments, including the LabRAM-IR combined Raman and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) microscope, which won the Gold Award at Pittcon in 2002 for the best new product at the conference.

The introduction of numerous sampling accessories and software capabilities, such as an internal on-axis neon source for precise frequency calibration, macro sampling options to adapt a microscope for cuvette measurements, immersion optics, and band-fitting improvements, are now industry standards and were the results of Adar’s ideas and development work.

Among the many awards Adar has received are the Career Award from the American Cancer Society, the Irene Dion Payne Award from the local Microbeam Analysis Society, the Charles Mann Award for Applied Raman Spectroscopy, the Williams Wright Award for Raman Spectroscopy in Industry from the Coblentz Society, and the Ernst Abbe Award from the New York Microscopy Society.

Adar is an elected Fellow in the Society for Applied Spectroscopy and holds a lifetime membership in the Coblentz Society. She is also a regular columnist for Spectroscopy, where she co-authors the “Molecular Spectroscopy Workbench” column, and a member of Spectroscopy’s Editorial Advisory Board