Recapping the Sunday Award Plenary

On Sunday October 5^th, Prashant K. Jain, a G. L. Clark Professor of Physical Chemistry at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), was recognized as the 2025 recipient of the Clara Craver Award from the Coblentz Society, which recognizes outstanding young molecular spectroscopists under the age of 45 for contributions in applied analytical vibrational spectroscopy. As part of the plenary session, Jain delivered a talk titled, “The Clara Craver Award: Catalysis Under the Light” (1,2).

Jain earned an undergraduate degree in polymer engineering before switching to physical chemistry for graduate studies. He completed his PhD at Georgia Tech with M. A. El-Sayed, studying energy and charge transport in photoexcited metal nanoparticles using ultrafast spectroscopy and theoretical electrodynamics (1). He then pursued postdoctoral research at Harvard University, contributing to the development of magneto-optical and chiro-optical techniques, followed by a Miller Research Fellowship at UC Berkeley, where he studied quantum dots in Paul Alivisatos’ laboratory.

At UIUC, Jain and his group investigate nanoscale light-matter interactions, using concentrated light to drive artificial photosynthesis, induce novel chemical reactivity, and understand catalysts at the atomic level (1). His laboratory has discovered new nanoscale phases and expanded plasmon resonances to non-metallic nanostructures. He also leads the development of nanoDDSCAT and nanoDDSCAT+, open-source computational toolkits widely used in nano-optics and photonics (1).

Jain teaches undergraduate and graduate physical chemistry and has received multiple awards for teaching excellence, including the LAS Dean’s Award and repeated recognition on UIUC’s Teachers Ranked as Excellent list (1). He has published more than 120 peer-reviewed articles, delivered more than 140 invited lectures, and his work has been cited approximately 36,000 times. He serves as Associate Head of Undergraduate Instruction and holds affiliations with the Illinois Quantum Information Science and Technology Center and the Department of Physics (1).

His research spans quantum light-matter interactions, super-resolution vibrational spectroscopy, catalysis, nanophotonics, and energy conversion, combining fundamental discoveries with practical applications in analytical vibrational spectroscopy.

Spectroscopy sat down with Jain to recap the award plenary, providing an overview of his talk.

This interview clip is part of our interview with Jain. To stay up to date with the latest coverage of the 2025 SciX Conference, click here.

References

1. Chasse, J. SERS-Based Nanoscale Insights into Surface Chemistry of CO₂ Photoreduction: An Interview with 2025 Clara Craver Award Winner Prashant Jain. Spectroscopy. Available at: https://www.spectroscopyonline.com/view/sers-based-nanoscale-insights-into-surface-chemistry-of-co-photoreduction-an-interview-with-2025-clara-craver-award-winner-prashant-jain (accessed 2025-10-06).
2. SciX Conference, The Clara Craver Award: Catalysis Under the Light. SciX Conference. Available at: https://scixconference.org/2025-final-program (accessed 2025-10-06).