Ian R. Lewis to Receive FACSS Distinguished Service Award at SciX 2018

Ian R. Lewis of Kaiser Optical Systems will receive the FACSS Distinguished Service Award from the Federation of Analytical Chemistry and Spectroscopy Societies (FACSS) at the SciX 2018 conference, which will be held October 21–26 in Atlanta, Georgia. The FACSS Distinguished Service Award is presented to an individual who has demonstrated exceptional long-term service to the FACSS organization. The organization typically chooses a person who has served with excellence in many different capacities and who has contributed to the continuing success of FACSS through consistent dedication and sacrifice.

Ian R. Lewis

Lewis, who is the Director of Marketing and Product management at Kaiser, started volunteering for FACSS in 1995. He organized his first session as part of the Raman symposium at the Kansas City conference in 1996. Lewis has held many positions in FACSS since then. He has served as the Raman session organizer (1996–present), the Raman symposium chair (2000, 2002–2012), the SciX Raman symposium co-chair (2013–present), the FACSS Awards chair (2006), the FACSS Program chair (2007), the FACSS Past Program chair (2008), The FACSS Governing Board Chair Elect Elect (2009) and Elect (2010–2011), the FACSS Governing Board Chair (2012–2013), the FACSS Past Governing Board Chair (2014–2015), the FACSS Past Past Governing Board Chair (2016–2017), the FACSS Executive Committee (2009–2017).

Additionally, Lewis has served as the FACSS Site Selection Committee member (2017–present), the FACSS Site Selection Chair (2018–present), the FACSS Treasurer-elect (2018) and Treasurer (2019–2021), a member of the FACSS Charles Mann Award Committee (2002–2006, 2009–2010, and 2016–2018), a FACSS Workshop Instructor (2006-2011), a FACSS/SciX Poster Judge (a few times), a FACSS/SciX Long Range Planning Committee Member, a FACSS Governing Board delegate on many occasions representing ANACHEM, the Coblentz Society, the Royal Society of Chemistry Analytical Division (RSC AD), and the Society for Applied Spectroscopy (SAS), and as an Organizational Representative to SpringSciX (Glasgow 2018).

In his work with FACSS, Lewis collaborated with many other FACSS and SciX volunteers and officers as well as representatives of the member organizations of FACSS. Some examples are given below. Lewis edited the program chair guide (originally created by Mark Hayes) and co-wrote with Doug Gilman the awards chair guide to train future award chairs in their roles and responsibilities. He co-founded the Charles Mann award (with Mike Carrabba) to recognize achievements in analytical Raman spectroscopy and secured funding for the first six years of the award. He overhauled the organization’s bylaws regarding disbursements (in conjunction with Jim Rydzak) and subsequently regarding surplus (with Becky Dittmar) to produce clear guidelines on surpluses, forms, and how a FACSS surplus can benefit the member organizations. He also participated in the FACSS retreats to address the needs of member organizations, promote organizational growth, address changes in the scientific conference community, and chart a future course for FACSS and its conference. In conjunction with Mark Hayes, Gilman, and the organization’s marketing partner (Ignite Media), Lewis participated in the successful rebranding of the conference from FACSS to SciX, including the pitch, launch, and initial marketing of the SciX conference. With Hayes and Cindi Lilly, Lewis participated in the transitioned to a new website provider including design and content creation for two new websites for the SciX conference and FACSS. In 2012 with the leadership team of Brandye Smith-Goettler, Steve Ray, Carrabba, Luisa Profeta, and Hayes, he helped execute the first SciX meeting. In his first year as Governing Board Chair, Lewis started an appeal for old FACSS material, which allowed FACSS, within a year and in time to celebrates FACSS’s 40th anniversary, to archive all of the old FACSS conference programs and make them available for prosperity (based on major contributions from Paul Bourassa, Keith Olson, and Gary and Susan Heiftje).

Lewis currently contributes to FACSS/SciX by chairing the three-member site selection committee, acting as an advisor to the current executive committee, and co-chairing the Raman symposium at SciX.

Ian R. Lewis obtained his degree in Chemistry and Chemical Technology at the University of Bradford (UK) in 1989, his PhD in 1992 under Professors Anthony Johnson and Howell Edwards, and was appointed an Honorary Visiting Researcher in 1992. He conducted postdoctoral research with Professor Peter Griffiths while also consulting on Raman spectroscopy to industry. In 1996 he joined Kaiser Optical Systems, an Endress+Hauser Company, and is currently director of marketing and product management there.

In addition to his work for FACSS and SciX, Lewis currently serves on the boards of several scientific organizations, three editorial boards (including the editorial advisory boards of Applied Spectroscopy and Spectroscopy magazine), chairs the ASTM sub-committee on Raman spectroscopy (E13.08), has served on ASTM committees E13.10 (imaging) and E55 (pharmaceuticals), is the 2019 Program Chair for the 10^th ICAVS meeting in Auckland, New Zealand, and has served as president of both the Coblentz Society (2009-2011) and SAS (2014). Lewis currently serves on the Executive Committee as the Secretary for SAS and as the treasurer for the Coblentz Society.

Lewis received the 2008 Charles Mann award in Analytical Raman spectroscopy from FACSS, was made a Fellow of SAS in 2011 and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry in 2017. In addition to the FACSS Distinguished Service award, Lewis will also receive both the Coblentz Society’s award of Honorary Membership and the Society of Applied Spectroscopy’s Distinguished Service award at the SciX conference in 2018.

Lewis co-edited the Handbook of Raman Spectroscopyfrom the Laboratory to the Process Line in 2001, has authored or co-authored seven book chapters, co-authored the initial USP chapter on Raman spectroscopy (USP <1120>), co-authored 49 refereed journal articles and many refereed, published conference proceedings.