How to Excel as an Analytical Lab Manager

In this “Pathways in Spectroscopy” episode, Saikat Banerjee, Senior Scientist and Analytical Lab Manager at DuPont, discusses the soft and technical skills needed to excel in his position.

Saikat Banerjee: Number one is, of course, technical depth. So having basic analytical chemistry training and foundations in science, but also beyond spectroscopy, you need to have understanding of the wide range of the tools that you could use to solve the problem. You need to understand chromatography. You might not be the expert in a particular chromatography, like liquid chromatography (LC) or gas chromatography (GC), but you need to understand what the different tools are that you could use to solve a particular problem.

At the same time, understanding the limitations of different instruments and knowing what instrument might not be the best to solve this problem is important. What the limits of detection and limits of measurement that you might have with a particular tool are is critical because you need to understand when a technique might mislead you. So having strong technical depth to start with, but then, as the lab manager, I think systems thinking is definitely something that could help us in these roles. Industrial problems are rarely clean, so translating often ambiguous business questions into testable hypotheses in the lab and translating problems from stakeholders that are facing customers into designing suitable experiments in the lab is important. And then, using that data to help solve that business problem by making the right decisions, so sample preparation becomes as important, if not more, than instrumentation. Understanding those is very critical.

And third, you need to be able to communicate across the board. The way you will explain an infrared (IR) spectrum to a technical counterpart, for example, is different than a non-technical person, so knowing how much to communicate is very critical as well because you need to focus on their attention. We all have busy days, so what the data means and how it can help them solve their problem is much more important than getting too bogged down into what the spectrum is telling us scientifically. So having cross-functional communication is really important. As a lab manager, you are a service-minded scientist, so you are working with a range of professionals and therefore need to have that cross-functional collaborator mindset.

You can view our previous segments on our “Pathways in Spectroscopy” page. This clip is the fourth part of our conversation with Banerjee. If you enjoyed this clip, you might be interested in hearing how a postdoctoral opportunity could help shape the skills necessary to take on the demands that an analytical laboratory manager requires.

References

1. Banerjee, S.; Wetzel, W. Saikat Banerjee Discusses His Career Journey in Spectroscopy. Spectroscopy. Available at: https://www.spectroscopyonline.com/view/saikat-banerjee-discusses-his-career-journey-in-spectroscopy (accessed 2026-03-27).
2. Banerjee, S.; Wetzel, W. A Day in the Life of an Analytical Laboratory Manager. Spectroscopy. Available at: https://www.spectroscopyonline.com/view/a-day-in-the-life-of-an-analytical-laboratory-manager (accessed 2026-03-27).
3. Banerjee, S.; Wetzel, W. The Importance of Postdoctoral Research in Career Progression. Spectroscopy. Available at: https://www.spectroscopyonline.com/view/the-importance-of-postdoctoral-research-in-career-progression (accessed 2026-03-27).