News Spectrum

Horiba Acquires Photon Technology International Business

Horiba Scientific (Edison, New Jersey) has acquired Photon Technology International (PTI) (Birmingham, New Jersey). PTI is a supplier of research spectrofluorometers, serving the university and research laboratories as well as industrial and biomedical markets.

The acquisition of PTI's worldwide business assets is aimed at increasing Horiba's market share in fluorescence spectroscopy through PTI's established network in the biomedical field and leadership position in techniques such as intracellular ion imaging. These techniques are considered crucial in areas such as understanding cellular processes for regenerative medical therapies and developing next-generation food and agricultural products. All of these application areas have expectations for rapid growth.

Eighth International Conference on LIBS to be held in Beijing, China

The Eighth International Conference on Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS 2014) will be held September 8–12, 2014, at Tsinghua University (Beijing, China). The conference is organized by the Chinese LIBS community, hosted by the Department of Thermal Engineering at Tsinghua University, and supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China.

As in previous international LIBS conferences, LIBS 2014 will provide a platform for scientists and researchers in the field, engineers from industry, and graduate students to exchange ideas, experiences, and achievements in the research, development, and applications of LIBS.

The conference will feature invited speakers, oral and poster presentations, and a technical exhibition of recent developments in LIBS instruments and related products. LIBS experts from around the world will be invited to deliver short courses before the opening of the conference.

Gabriel Orsinger Wins 2014 Ocean Optics Young Investigator Award

Ocean Optics (Dunedin, Florida) has named Gabriel Orsinger of the University of Arizona (Tuscon, Arizona) as the winner of the 2014 Ocean Optics Young Investigator Award.

The award is presented to a researcher who is a graduate student or has completed their graduate work in the last five years and is the primary author of the best juried paper submitted as part of the "Colloidal Quantum Dots for Biomedical Applications IX" conference at the 2014 BiOS/Photonics West Symposium. The honor includes a $1000 investigator reward and a company grant to the investigator's advisor.

Orsinger was honored for his work with advisor Marek Romanowski, a research assistant professor of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Arizona Cancer Center, as presented in the paper "Intracellular Light-Induced Release of Signaling Molecules from Gold-Coated Liposomes." Their work describes the use of gold-coated liposomes as a tool for studying cellular behavior as it relates to cancer and other diseases.