How Difficult is the Transition from Chemical Engineering to Spectroscopy?

Ayush Agarwal, a postdoctoral researcher, is our featured guest for the next series of “Pathways in Spectroscopy” interviews. Over the course of the next several videos, Agarwal will address topics like career transitions, his current research, and what engineers should consider before making the same career transition he made.^1,2

Agarwal kicks off our conversation by describing his transition from chemical engineering to spectroscopy and explaining why he made this career move. This clip was the first part of our multi-part interview with Agarwal. In the second clip, Agarwal will talk about how his background in chemical engineering helped him make the adjustment to analytical spectroscopy and chemistry.

Spectroscopy: I’d like to start this conversation by talking about your career journey to this point. You had a chemical engineering background, and it was only during your Ph.D. studies that you chose to make the switch to analytical chemistry. Can you talk about what the transition from chemical engineering to spectroscopy was like? What led you to making this career decision?

Ayush Agarwal: The transition was quite smooth because of the group I was in. So, I'll start with a little background. I had my bachelor’s in chemical engineering. I worked as a process engineer for a couple of years, and then I did my master’s in chemical engineering. Now, up until my master's, I was one of those process engineers that press the button, get the number, and then if the instrument shows the same number three times, take it and move on. If not, call the technician. I was not, or I would say least, bothered about how the calibration works, how the method development works, and what goes behind the settings of the instrumentation. That was the kind of training I had as an engineer, but during my PhD, I was more involved into solving questions on energy and the environment, and I worked on biogas sampling and nanoparticles characterization. It was more understanding how we can measure something to make it better. During my PhD, the group that I was with, led by Professor Christian Ludwig, I got the right kind of support and infrastructure to really evolve and learn the skills of analytical method development. So overall, I would say the journey was quite smooth and natural.

References

1. Wetzel, W. Pathways in Spectroscopy Preview: Transitioning from Chemical Engineering to Analytical Chemistry. Spectroscopy. Available at: https://www.spectroscopyonline.com/view/pathways-in-spectroscopy-preview-transitioning-from-chemical-engineering-to-analytical-chemistry (accessed 2026-04-13).
2. LinkedIn, Ayush Agarwal. LinkedIn. Available at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ayush09/ (accessed 2026-04-13).