Pathways in Spectroscopy: The Interdisciplinary Nature of Science

In this “Pathways in Spectroscopy” episode, Janam Pandya, who is a Product Manager at Thermo Fisher Scientific, advises young graduates in the scientific instrumentation and spectroscopy fields to be adventurous and adapt to rapidly evolving technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), which are miniaturizing and expanding beyond traditional laboratory settings.

Pandya emphasizes the interdisciplinary nature of science, highlighting his own transition from food science to Raman spectroscopy and its applications in various industries like biopharma, oil and gas, and chemicals. Pandya encourages keeping an open mind and exploring diverse career paths to leverage spectroscopy skills across different fields.

Janam Pandya: I think that's a good question, and I think the advice that I would have for young graduates is to be adventurous. Be in sync with the market currently. It is evolving very fast. When we specifically talk about the scientific instrumentation field and the spectroscopy field, we're seeing lots of different new technologies coming out. The technology is getting miniaturized, and it's not traditional spectroscopy anymore, where you have a large footprint of instrumentation and it’s only used in the laboratory.

I think AI is going to make this development accelerate much faster every day. The landscape is is changing, so be in sync, understand what the market is doing currently, where the technologies are evolving, and try to you know pace yourself with that. I'd also say I would also mention here that the science is very interdisciplinary, so it's not necessary to limit yourself to the scientific field that you got the degree in. You can always venture off, and and as long as you have the skill set (in this case, I have it for Raman spectroscopy), you can apply it into many different fields.

That's where the value, and I think exciting part, of the spectroscopy is that the technique can be applied into so much different applications, and you get to learn a lot more about the different markets. This can be used in biopharma, oil and gas, and chemicals and polymers. That opens up a lot of different avenues and opportunities to build a career, and I've seen people using the spectroscopy skills and building careers in a variety of different fields and applications where they see the value. So keep an eye out, keep your options open, and try to be adventurous in considering different avenues to use your skills.