Previewing the Upcoming 2026 SciX Conference

From October 4^th to the 9^th, the analytical chemistry and spectroscopy community will once again return to Sparks, Nevada, for the annual SciX Conference. The SciX Conference is an annual conference known as “The Scientific eXchange,” and it features keynote presentations, oral symposia, and short courses that highlight the trends and developments in analytical science.¹

Where will the SciX 2026 Conference take place?

SciX returns to Sparks, Nevada, this year, having been the previous host of SciX back in 2023. Since that time, SciX has been held in Raleigh, North Carolina, and Covington, Kentucky. Just like in 2023, the show will take place at the Nugget Casino Resort.¹

What is the history of SciX?

SciX traces its roots back to 1974, when the Federation of Analytical Chemistry and Spectroscopy Societies (FACSS) first organized an international conference.²

FACSS itself is a nonprofit federation of scientific societies devoted to advancing analytical chemistry, and its member organizations, including the American Chemical Society's Division of Analytical Chemistry, the American Society for Mass Spectrometry, the Society for Applied Spectroscopy, and the Royal Society of Chemistry's Analytical Division, among others, jointly shape the conference's scientific program each year.^1,3

What should conference attendees expect in Sparks?

At SciX 2026, the technical program is expected to be similar to previous conferences. The technical program will contain analytical symposia and contributed sessions, plenary talks, poster sessions, short courses, and a technical exposition.

The exhibit hall opens October 5 with a welcome reception and runs through October 8, giving attendees several days to explore new instrumentation, software, and laboratory technologies from vendors across the field.⁴ Daily plenary sessions will be staged near the exhibits area, a layout intended to keep scientific programming and industry networking in close proximity throughout the week.⁴

Attendees can also look forward to the keynote address that will take place at the start of the conference. This year, the keynote address will be given by Jennifer (Jen) Dionne, who is a professor of materials science and of Radiology at Stanford University. Dionne, who also serves as deputy director of the Department of Energy–funded Q-NEXT quantum initiative and is a Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Investigator, will present a talk titled, "Nanophotonics and AI for Molecular Sequencing and Single-Cell Phenotyping."⁵ Dionne’s talk will cover work from her laboratory on silicon-photonic resonator sensor arrays, including deployments with autonomous underwater robots from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute for gene, protein, and metabolite detection.⁵

As part of the conference program, FACSS also will include sessions dedicated to recognizing some of the leaders in the field through its awards program. Some of the awardees set to give award talks at SciX 2026 include:

• Ji-Xin Cheng, Boston University (Charles Mann Award for Applied Raman Spectroscopy)
• Siddhartha Das, University of Maryland (AES Mid-Career Award)
• Sara Fraser-Miller, Flinders University (Peter Griffiths Award)
• Jay Kitt, University of Utah (Spectroscopy’s Emerging Leader in Molecular Spectroscopy)
• Jürgen Popp, Leibniz-IPHT / Friedrich Schiller University Jena (Ellis R. Lippincott Award)
• Marc Porter, University of Utah (ACS Division of Analytical Chemistry Award in Spectrochemical Analysis)
• Kevin Wilkinson, Université de Montréal (Lester W. Strock Award)

Why should you attend SciX 2026?

The annual SciX Conference remains one of the few opportunities for spectroscopists and analytical chemists to attend sessions that span the full breadth of the analytical chemistry and spectroscopy field.⁶ Given the ongoing trend of focusing more on applications-focused science instead of strictly on the techniques, attendees have the opportunity to explore talks in the application area of their choosing. Presentations at SciX span atomic and molecular spectroscopy, mass spectrometry (MS), chemometrics, bioanalysis, and analytical instrumentation.⁶

Registration for SciX 2026 is open through the conference website, with early-bird pricing having already passed its mid-August deadline. As October approaches, attendees can expect further announcements on section chairs, short course offerings, and additional award recipients ahead of the meeting in Sparks.^1–5

References

(1) SciX Conference, Homepage. SciX Conference, 2026. https://www.scixconference.org/ (accessed August 28, 2026).

(2) SciX Conference, What is SciX? SciX Conference, 2026. https://www.scixconference.org/about-scix (accessed August 28, 2026).

(3) SciX Conference, FACSS History. FACSS, 2026. https://www.facss.org/about (accessed August 28, 2026).

(4) SciX Conference, Exhibits. SciX Conference, 2026. https://www.scixconference.org/exhibits/ (accessed August 28, 2026).

(5) SciX Conference, Keynote Speaker. SciX Conference, 2026. https://www.scixconference.org/keynote (accessed August 28, 2026).

(6) SciX Conference, Online Program. SciX Conference, 2026. https://www.scixconference.org/onlineprogram (accessed August 28, 2026).