Mapping the Spectroscopy Research Landscape

In the final part of our conversation with Spiros Pergantis, an analytical chemist and Professor of Analytical Chemistry at the University of Crete, he discusses some of the top trends that spectroscopists should be paying attention to in 2026 (1,2).

Spectroscopy: Looking ahead to 2026, what are some major and emerging trends in spectroscopy heading into next year that experts should be paying attention to?

Spiros Pergantis: These conferences are very good because they give a direction to the community. We map the landscape of research that's been done in this area of plasma spectrochemistry, and we identify points or areas that need further improvement. But the science that has been reported at this conference is really outstanding. There have been really nice advancements in the detection of non-metals, for example, using combinations of both plasma spectrochemistry with molecular mass spectrometers, and they have really shown that we can tackle these very difficult types of analyses. Also, in microplastics and nanoplastic analysis, I'm seeing that developments and advancements are being made, and I really look forward to some of the research that will be reported in the near future.

Other types of advancements that I would expect to see are from the instrument manufacturers. The instrument manufacturers are really making tremendous advancements in terms of the instrumentation, and so I would like and expect to see new types of instruments, new combinations, and things like that in the near future. A lot has been shown in terms of time-of-flight mass spectrometers, especially for single-particle and single-cell analysis. These are all advancements that will develop and hopefully be presented next year in 2027 at the European Winter Conference for Plasma Spectrochemistry, which will be in Athens, Greece.

I am chairing this conference, along with my colleague from the University of Crete, Professor Demetrios Anglos, who's in the area of LIBS analysis. We look forward to a lot of these new advancements being reported at that conference. I'm very optimistic, judging from what I've seen at this conference, that we'll have a really successful conference in 2027. A lot of the applications have also been presented here, so it’s not just fundamentals or new techniques, but people taking these new techniques that have been developed over the years and applying them to very unique problems and solving these problems. This is another really nice aspect of these Winter Plasma Spectrochemistry conferences in that a lot of problems over the years have been solved through the interactions, research, presentations, and discussions that are conducted here every year.

This video clip is the final part of our conversation with Pergantis. To stay up to date on our coverage of the Winter Conference, click here.

References

1. IASA, Winter Conference on Plasma Spectrochemistry. IASA. Available at: https://iasa.world/winter-plasma-conference (accessed 2026-01-19).
2. University of Crete, Spiros Pergantis. University of Crete. Available at: https://www.chemistry.uoc.gr/wordpress/en/pergantis-spiros/ (accessed 2026-01-19).