The 2026 Emerging Leader in Molecular Spectroscopy Award

This year’s Emerging Leader in Molecular Spectroscopy Award recipient is Jay P. Kitt, who has spent the decade since his PhD extending confocal Raman microscopy from phospholipid membranes to nucleic acids, polymer thin films, and peptide–membrane interactions as a research assistant professor at the University of Utah. His newest paper, on the antimicrobial peptide gramicidin A’s disruption of phospholipid bilayers, appeared in Applied Spectroscopy this year—one of 34 peer-reviewed publications spanning his career, several of them co-authored with the graduate and undergraduate researchers he has mentored.

Spectroscopy’s Emerging Leader in Molecular Spectroscopy Award recognizes the achievements and aspirations of a talented young molecular spectroscopist who has made strides early in his or her career toward the advancement of molecular spectroscopy techniques and applications. The winner must be within 10 years of receiving his or her PhD in the year the award is presented, and the recipient is chosen by an independent selection committee. The award will be presented to Jay P. Kitt at the 2026 SciX Conference, held at the Nugget Casino Resort in Sparks, Nevada, from October 4–9, 2026, during the Emerging Leader in Molecular Spectroscopy Award morning session on Thursday, October 8, 2026.

Jay P. Kitt has spent the decade since his 2016 PhD building a research program at the University of Utah centered on confocal Raman microscopy of chemical interfaces. What began as single-particle measurements of small-molecule partitioning into chromatographic silica has grown into a broad platform for studying phospholipid membranes, nucleic acids, and polymer thin films—work Kitt has continued to lead as a research assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry, mentoring a growing group of graduate and undergraduate researchers along the way. In 2026, that work earned him a joint appointment spanning the Department of Chemistry and the Department of Chemical Engineering, and he has also begun applying his spectroscopic and data-analysis expertise in an industrial laboratory role at Litmus Analytical as Director of Chemistry, an early start-up focused on spectroscopic testing for PFAS compounds.

Summary of Research Work

Kitt earned his BS in chemistry from the University of Utah in 2011 and remained there for his PhD, completing a dissertation on Raman microscopy studies of liquid/solid interfaces within individual porous silica particles under the direction of Joel M. Harris in 2016. His earliest published work, carried out as an undergraduate, scaled the volume requirements of solid-phase extraction down to femtoliters—a 10⁻⁷-fold reduction from the prior state of the art—enabling in situ, single-particle measurement of small-molecule partitioning into C18-modified chromatographic silica.¹

Kitt adapted this single-particle platform to measure octanol–water and phospholipid–water partitioning, providing rapid, small-volume methods for assessing the membrane affinity of drug-like molecules. In developing these methods, he formed hybrid phospholipid bilayers within C18-modified porous silica and devised multivariate spectroscopic techniques for resolving their temperature-dependent structure. Building on that platform, Kitt went on to investigate other noncovalently formed interfacial architectures, including supported-phospholipid and hybrid-surfactant bilayers, and directed follow-on studies of small-molecule partitioning and protein–phospholipid interactions at these interfaces.

In what his collaborators regard as his most significant work to date, Kitt applied his expertise in membrane spectroscopy to study cytochrome c–induced permeabilization of cardiolipin-containing membranes, providing mechanistic insight into mitochondrially induced apoptosis, a process of central importance to cancer research.² Beginning in 2019, Kitt also trained as an NIH-NLM postdoctoral fellow in biomedical informatics, adding data science and epidemiological methods to his spectroscopic toolkit, and in 2021 he was promoted to research assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Utah. In the years since, Kitt has built and mentored a research group of his own within the Harris laboratory, extending the interfacial Raman-microscopy platform he developed as a graduate student to new classes of molecules and applications. In 2026, he took on a joint appointment in the Department of Chemical Engineering and began applying his expertise in an industrial spectroscopy laboratory role at Litmus Analytical.

Photo 1. Kitt in the spectroscopy laboratory. Litmus Analytical, 2026.

Across his career, Kitt has authored 34 peer-reviewed publications—cited more than 210 times as of his original nomination, with substantially more citations accrued since from his newer work—and has delivered dozens of oral and poster presentations at scientific conferences, including at SciX and the American Chemical Society national meetings. He serves as a reviewer for a dozen journals, including the Journal of the American Chemical Society, Langmuir, Analytica Chimica Acta, and Applied Spectroscopy.

Most Impactful Work to Date

In assessing Kitt’s impact on the field of molecular spectroscopy, it is useful to consider both his most recent publications and the earlier papers that his mentors and collaborators single out as his most significant. The following works are noted both for the citations they have accumulated and for the regard in which they are held by Kitt’s peers.

Most Recent Research Publications

Kitt’s most recent publications, spanning 2022 through 2026, show a research program that has grown well beyond its origins in phospholipid membranes—extending confocal Raman microscopy to DNA and aptamer biosensing, polymer thin films for electrochemical applications, and, in his newest paper, the peptide–membrane interactions that first drew him to the field.

In his newest paper, published in Applied Spectroscopy in May 2026, Kitt and Harris used optical-trapping confocal Raman microscopy to investigate how the pore-forming antimicrobial peptide gramicidin A incorporates into individual phospholipid vesicle bilayers.³ Concentration-dependent Raman spectra revealed systematic disordering of the lipid acyl chains as peptide concentration increased, and self-modeling curve resolution of the data resolved two spectral components—an ordered bilayer and a gramicidin-perturbed, disordered bilayer—whose populations varied linearly, and in opposite directions, with peptide concentration. The results indicated that 7 to 8 lipid molecules surrounding each gramicidin channel are affected by the hydrophobic mismatch between the peptide and the surrounding membrane, establishing single-vesicle Raman microscopy as a quantitative tool for studying peptide–membrane interactions relevant to antimicrobial drug design.

Much of Kitt’s recent work has been co-authored with Grant J. Myres, a PhD student he has mentored in the Harris laboratory, extending Kitt’s interfacial Raman platform from phospholipids to nucleic acids. In a 2022 Langmuir paper, Kitt, Myres, and Harris showed that inter-leaflet phospholipid exchange impacts the density of ligands available for protein binding at supported lipid bilayers.⁴ The pair went on to show, in a 2023 Analytical Chemistry paper, that Raman scattering reveals ion-dependent G-quadruplex formation in a thrombin-binding DNA aptamer upon association with α-thrombin—a paper cited 18 times to date.⁵ A 2024 Analytical Chemistry paper further established surface-area-enhanced Raman spectroscopy of DNA immobilized in porous silica as a quantitative and reproducible alternative to plasmonic surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS).⁶ Most recently, a 2025 Applied Spectroscopy paper used quantitative fluorescence analysis of thiolated DNA to establish stoichiometric control over bismaleimide conjugation of DNA to silica surfaces.⁷

Kitt has also extended his Raman methods into electrochemistry and polymer science through a collaboration with Miharu Koh, another mentee in the Harris laboratory, and longtime collaborators Shelley Minteer and Carol Korzeniewski. Two 2025 papers used confocal Raman microscopy and numerical spectral unmixing to track hydration- and temperature-induced structural transformations in linear poly(ethylenimine) and in poly(ethylene oxide) thin films—materials relevant to batteries and other electrochemical energy devices.^8,9 In a related 2025 ACS Electrochemistry paper with Jacob Beeler, Joel Harris, and collaborators at the University of Virginia, Kitt helped establish the solvent-dependent mechanism of electrochemical oxalate oxidation.¹⁰

Kitt has continued to extend the chromatographic-bilayer platform from his own graduate work as well, publishing a 2025 Langmuir paper with undergraduate mentee Aric L. Potter describing hybrid-bilayer interfaces formed by self-assembly of long-chain primary alcohols within reversed-phase chromatographic silica.¹¹

That period also produced a cluster of 2021 papers extending Kitt’s methods in several directions: quantifying how the signaling peptide GLP-1 associates with supported phospholipid bilayers,¹² connecting hybrid-lipid bilayer structure to the shape selectivity of reversed-phase chromatographic surfaces for aromatic-hydrocarbon partitioning,¹³ applying Raman microscopy to lacritin proteoforms relevant to dry-eye disease,¹⁴ and, with Korzeniewski, monitoring the gelation of Nafion ionomer dispersions¹⁵ and redox transformations at electrode–electrolyte interfaces.¹⁶

Key Career Publications: Most Cited

Kitt’s most-cited and most consequential papers span his graduate and postdoctoral work developing model phospholipid bilayers within porous chromatographic silica and applying them to biologically significant questions in membrane biophysics.

Kitt’s 2017 paper in the Journal of the American Chemical Society was the first to investigate the mechanism of mitochondrial membrane permeabilization by monitoring changes in phospholipid, cardiolipin, and cytochrome c vibrational modes with confocal Raman microscopy of individual, optically trapped lipid vesicles.² Cytochrome c was shown to interact selectively with cardiolipin in the membrane, leading to misfolding of the protein, disruption of the membrane, and leakage of vesicle contents—a mechanistic picture directly relevant to apoptosis and cancer biology. The paper was conceived, initiated, and largely carried out independently by Kitt, and has been cited 34 times to date.

Photo 2. Presenting on antibody–antigen binding detected on single, optically trapped silica particles. International Conference on Vibrational Spectroscopy, 2019, New Zealand.

In a 2016 Langmuir paper, Kitt developed a stable model phospholipid bilayer comprising an inner leaflet of covalently bound n-alkane chains and an outer leaflet of phospholipid, assembled within the pores of chromatographic silica particles.¹⁷ The high specific surface area of the porous particles concentrates the lipid signal, enabling in situ Raman investigation of how solution-phase molecules interact with phospholipid membranes—a platform that underpins much of Kitt’s subsequent research.

Building on that platform, Kitt and a graduate student in the Harris laboratory characterized the formation and temperature-dependent structure of supported phospholipid bilayers deposited within porous silica, reported in a 2018 Journal of the American Chemical Society paper.¹⁸ The supported bilayers were shown to have thickness and headgroup spacing consistent with vesicle membranes, and their temperature-dependent structure enabled label-free study of a lectin protein selectively binding to an immobilized mannose target.

Kitt extended these within-particle bilayer platforms to a label-free investigation of pH-dependent small-molecule drug partitioning into hybrid- and supported-lipid bilayers, requiring only sub-femtomole quantities of drug in sub-nanoliter volumes of solution while also reporting on how partitioning affects phospholipid acyl-chain conformation.¹⁹ A related 2018 Analytical Chemistry paper applied the same nanopore-supported bilayer platform to label-free detection of protein–ligand binding.²⁰

An Emerging Leader

In nominating Kitt for the award, his longtime PhD advisor and postdoctoral mentor Joel M. Harris, Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at the University of Utah, described a researcher whose creativity, dedication, collaborative spirit, teaching, and mentorship—combined with his commitment to the spectroscopic community—rank him as an emerging leader in molecular spectroscopy.

Karl S. Booksh, professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of Delaware and 2021 president of the Society for Applied Spectroscopy (SAS), worked alongside Kitt on the SAS Executive Committee. “As a whole, Dr. Kitt’s ~20 Raman microscopy manuscripts set a gold standard on how to perform and present research at the analytical chemistry–physical chemistry interface,” Booksh wrote, adding that Kitt is one of only two researchers at a comparable career stage he has found so productive and polished—the other being Jean-François Masson, now a professor at the Université de Montréal. Booksh singled out the “clarity and efficiency of scientific thought” running through Kitt’s work: the choice of questions investigated, the analytical methods applied, and the experimental designs used to isolate key effects. That rigor, he noted, helped Kitt publish a manuscript in Applied Spectroscopy without revision—a rare achievement in a premier spectroscopy journal. Kitt’s output has continued to grow since Booksh wrote those words: he has since added more than a dozen additional papers, many of them bearing the names of his own graduate and undergraduate mentees.

Zachary Schultz, professor of chemistry and biochemistry at The Ohio State University, has followed Kitt’s career since Kitt, then a PhD student, visited Schultz’s laboratory at the University of Notre Dame to network ahead of his postdoctoral search. “Jay is an emerging and accomplished leader in the spectroscopy community, whose achievements are not well represented by his job title,” Schultz wrote. He noted that Kitt’s graduate output—10 to 11 papers, including work in the Journal of the American Chemical Society and Analytical Chemistry—was “competitive with the best graduate students I have encountered at Notre Dame, Ohio State, and in faculty searches.”

A Researcher with Impact

Schultz also credited Kitt with taking on outsized independent responsibility well before any formal faculty appointment. “Jay is an independent scientist, though the titles on his CV might hide this,” he wrote, noting that Kitt stepped in to handle much of the day-to-day, in-person mentoring of students in the Harris lab during the COVID-19 pandemic, served as an independent co-PI—without any other University of Utah investigators—on an NIH biomedical informatics consortium proposal, and took on the role of instructor of record for the university’s Quantitative Chemical Analysis course.

That mentorship has borne fruit directly in Kitt’s recent publication record. Grant J. Myres, Miharu Koh, and Aric L. Potter—students Kitt has supervised in the Harris laboratory—have each gone on to lead their own first-author papers with Kitt as a senior co-author, extending his interfacial Raman-microscopy platform to DNA biosensing, polymer electrochemistry, and chromatographic bilayer chemistry, respectively.^4,7,8,9,11 Kitt’s dual expertise in vibrational spectroscopy and data science particularly impressed Booksh as well. “He has a MS in bioinformatics and, as a NIH-NLM Postdoctoral Fellow, has recently been employing his bioinformatics skills,” Booksh wrote, predicting that Kitt “will have marketable ideas whether he pursues directions in optical microscopy, bioinformatics, or most interestingly combines the two skill sets.” In the years since, Kitt has leaned most heavily into building his own spectroscopy research group—and, in 2026, into a joint appointment in chemical engineering and an early step into industry at Litmus Analytical.

A Dedicated Researcher

Kitt’s colleagues consistently point to his service to the spectroscopy community as a defining trait. He has served the Society for Applied Spectroscopy continuously since 2017, including as an at-large executive committee member and a member of the Regional, Student, and Technical Affairs Committee, and—since 2019—as the Society’s parliamentarian, a role for which he received the SAS Presidential Service Award in 2021.

Photo 3. Kitt receiving the Society for Applied Spectroscopy Presidential Service Award in 2021. Right to left: SAS Past President Andrew Whitley, SAS President Karl Booksh, and Jay Kitt.

That parliamentary role proved far from ceremonial. “Circumstances required that the Society By-Laws and Policies & Procedures be completely rewritten,” Booksh recalled. “Dr. Kitt volunteered to meet with the Society lawyer and a professional parliamentarian to craft a new set of governing documents that are both legal and adhere to best practices.” Booksh described watching Kitt approach the task “like a scientific inquiry”—researching precedent, formulating a plan, and drafting both new governing documents and a proposal for their adoption. “It is rare to find such dedication to detail, professionalism, and insight in one person,” he wrote.

Kitt’s service extends well beyond SAS. He has judged student poster competitions and regional science fairs, presided over a session at the ACS National Meeting, and served on the University of Utah’s Biomedical Informatics Student Advisory Committee. He has also brought chemistry demonstrations to a local Cub Scout pack in Salt Lake City, introducing elementary-school-age children to hands-on science.

Photo 4. Kitt presents a chemistry demonstration for a local Cub Scout troop.

Schultz likewise praised Kitt’s mentorship and teaching, noting his 2012 WW Epstein Outstanding Educator award from the University of Utah Department of Chemistry and his continued supervision of graduate and undergraduate researchers. “I have met and interacted with students he has co-mentored and would gladly consider them in my lab as graduate students or postdoctoral fellows,” Schultz wrote.

The Future

Both letter writers see Kitt’s trajectory as pointing toward continued leadership in the field. Schultz compared Kitt’s career arc to that of Steven Ray, now on the faculty at the University at Buffalo. “Prof. Ray was clearly a leader in the spectroscopy community before he became an assistant professor, just as Jay is now,” Schultz wrote. “Jay has the ability and track record to predict success at the highest levels.”

Booksh was similarly emphatic. “Between his productivity, mastery of both spectroscopy and data analyses, and communication skills, Dr. Kitt has a very high ceiling as a researcher,” he wrote. “I cannot think of a more worthy recipient for the Emerging Leader in Molecular Spectroscopy Award.”

Kitt receives the award in 2026, a decade after completing his PhD—the final year of eligibility under the award’s rules—capping five years in which he built and mentored a research group of his own at the University of Utah before taking on a joint appointment in chemical engineering and an early step into industry at Litmus Analytical. Wherever his career leads next, Kitt’s decade of work extending confocal Raman microscopy from single chromatographic particles to phospholipid membranes, nucleic acids, and polymer electrochemistry has already left a lasting mark on the field of molecular spectroscopy.

Photo 5. Outside of work, Kitt enjoys hiking, rock climbing, and snowboarding. Pictured here at Antelope Canyon, AZ.

References

1. Kitt, J. P.; Harris, J. M. Confocal Raman Microscopy for In Situ Detection of Solid-Phase Extraction of Pyrene into Single C18-Silica Particles. Anal. Chem. 2014, 86 (3), 1719–1725. https://doi.org/10.1021/ac403514r.
2. Kitt, J. P.; Bryce, D. A.; Minteer, S. D.; Harris, J. M. Raman Spectroscopy Reveals Selective Interactions of Cytochrome c with Cardiolipin that Correlate with Membrane Permeability. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2017, 139 (10), 3851–3860. https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.7b00238.
3. Kitt, J. P.; Harris, J. M. Investigation of Gramicidin A Incorporation into Phospholipid Vesicle Bilayers Using Optical-Trapping Confocal Raman Microscopy. Appl. Spectrosc. 2026, published online May 4, 2026. https://doi.org/10.1177/00037028261442539.
4. Myres, G. J.; Kitt, J. P.; Harris, J. M. Inter-Leaflet Phospholipid Exchange Impacts the Ligand Density Available for Protein Binding at Supported Lipid Bilayers. Langmuir 2022, 38 (22), 6967–6976. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.langmuir.2c00526.
5. Myres, G. J.; Kitt, J. P.; Harris, J. M. Raman Scattering Reveals Ion-Dependent G-Quadruplex Formation in the 15-mer Thrombin-Binding Aptamer upon Association with α-Thrombin. Anal. Chem. 2023, 95 (44), 16160–16168. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.analchem.3c02751.
6. Myres, G. J.; Kitt, J. P.; Harris, J. M. Surface-Area Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy of DNA in Porous Silica: A Quantitative and Reproducible Alternative to Plasmonic-Based SERS. Anal. Chem. 2024, 96 (19), 7679–7686. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.analchem.4c00600.
7. Myres, G. J.; Kitt, J. P.; Harris, J. M. Stoichiometric Control of Bismaleimide Conjugation of DNA to Silica Surfaces Through Quantitative Fluorescence Analysis of Thiolated DNA. Appl. Spectrosc. 2025, 79 (9), 1418–1428. https://doi.org/10.1177/00037028251332617.
8. Koh, M.; Kitt, J. P.; Pendergast, A. D.; Harris, J. M.; Minteer, S. D.; Korzeniewski, C. Unraveling Hydration- and Temperature-Induced Structural Transformations of Linear Poly(ethylenimine) Using Raman Microscopy and Numerical Unmixing. J. Phys. Chem. C 2025, 129 (46), 20777–20786. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcc.5c06096.
9. Koh, M.; Kitt, J. P.; Pendergast, A. D.; Harris, J. M.; Minteer, S. D.; Korzeniewski, C. Confocal Raman Microscopy for Measuring In Situ Temperature-Dependent Structural Changes in Poly(Ethylene Oxide) Thin Films. Appl. Spectrosc. 2025, 79 (9), 1334–1345. https://doi.org/10.1177/00037028241310904.
10. Beeler, J. A.; Tanwar, M.; Kitt, J. P.; Harris, J. M.; Neurock, M.; White, H. S. Solvent-Dependent Mechanism of Electrochemical Oxalate Oxidation. ACS Electrochem. 2025, 1 (11), 2577–2590. https://doi.org/10.1021/acselectrochem.5c00310.
11. Potter, A. L.; Zare, M.; Harris, J. M.; Kitt, J. P. Hybrid Bilayer Interfaces within Reversed-Phase Chromatographic Silica Formed by Self-Assembly of Long-Chain Primary Alcohols. Langmuir 2025, 41 (4), 2851–2862. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.langmuir.4c04740.
12. Bryce, D. A.; Kitt, J. P.; Myres, G. J.; Harris, J. M. Raman Microscopy Investigation of GLP-1 Peptide Association with Supported Phospholipid Bilayers. Langmuir 2021, 37 (49), 14265–14274. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.langmuir.1c01663.
13. Zare, M.; Kitt, J. P.; Wen, X.; Heider, E.; Harris, J. M. Hybrid-Lipid Bilayers Induce n-Alkyl-Chain Order in Reversed-Phase Chromatographic Surfaces, Impacting Their Shape Selectivity for Aromatic Hydrocarbon Partitioning. Anal. Chem. 2021, 93 (8), 4118–4125. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.analchem.0c05467.
14. Georgiev, G. A.; Sharifian Gh., M.; Romano, J.; Dias Teixeira, K. L.; Struble, C.; Ryan, D. S.; Sia, R. K.; Kitt, J. P.; Harris, J. M.; Hsu, K.-L.; Libby, A.; Odrich, M. G.; Suárez, T.; McKown, R. L.; Laurie, G. W. Lacritin Proteoforms Prevent Tear Film Collapse and Maintain Epithelial Homeostasis. J. Biol. Chem. 2021, 296, 100070. https://doi.org/10.1074/jbc.RA120.015833.
15. Liang, Y.; Kitt, J. P.; Minteer, S. D.; Harris, J. M.; Korzeniewski, C. Vibrational Spectroscopic Monitoring of the Gelation Transition in Nafion Ionomer Dispersions. Appl. Spectrosc. 2021, 75 (4), 376–384. https://doi.org/10.1177/0003702820949129.
16. Korzeniewski, C.; Peterson, E.; Kitt, J. P.; Minteer, S. D.; Harris, J. M. Adapting Confocal Raman Microscopy for In Situ Studies of Redox Transformations at Electrode–Electrolyte Interfaces. J. Electroanal. Chem. 2021, 896, 115207. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jelechem.2021.115207.
17. Kitt, J. P.; Harris, J. M. Confocal Raman Microscopy Characterization of Hybrid Supported Phospholipid Bilayers in Single C18-Functionalized Chromatographic Particles. Langmuir 2016, 32 (35), 9033–9044. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.langmuir.6b02309.
18. Bryce, D. A.; Kitt, J. P.; Harris, J. M. Confocal-Raman Microscopy Characterization of Supported Phospholipid Bilayers Deposited on the Interior Surfaces of Chromatographic Silica. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2018, 140 (11), 4071–4078. https://doi.org/10.1021/jacs.7b13777.
19. Kitt, J. P.; Bryce, D. A.; Minteer, S. D.; Harris, J. M. Confocal Raman Microscopy for In Situ Measurement of Phospholipid–Water Partitioning into Model Phospholipid Bilayers within Individual Chromatographic Particles. Anal. Chem. 2018, 90 (11), 7048–7055. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.analchem.8b01452.
20. Bryce, D. A.; Kitt, J. P.; Harris, J. M. Confocal Raman Microscopy for Label-Free Detection of Protein–Ligand Binding at Nanopore-Supported Phospholipid Bilayers. Anal. Chem. 2018, 90 (19), 11509–11516. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.analchem.8b02791.

About the Author

Jerome Workman, Jr. is Associate Editorial Director of Spectroscopy. Direct correspondence about this article to [email protected] ◾

Note: [Images] All images courtesy of Jay P. Kitt, except where noted.(1) Kitt,