In this panel discussion, five SpecAcademy instructors examined why spectroscopy expertise has declined and how SpecAcademy aims to rebuild it through curated, fundamentals-based education suited to increasingly complex analytical work.
The third installment of the SpecAcademy panel discussion examined why spectroscopy expertise has declined and how SpecAcademy aims to rebuild it through curated, fundamentals-based education suited to increasingly complex analytical work.
Panelists traced the shift in how spectroscopy has been taught. Education once relied heavily on substantial in-person short courses and conference-based training. Participation dropped as instruments became more automated, courses grew costly, time away from work became harder to justify, and the perceived need for formal training faded. Industry changes compounded the problem. Companies scaled back application-science support and favored generalists, so fewer specialists now cover more techniques, with less time to develop deep expertise.
A recurring theme was the gap between perception and reality. Automation suggested that training was unnecessary, and industrial customers increasingly expected infrared and Raman analysis to function like cookbook gas chromatography (GC) or liquid chromatography (LC) methods. The panelists stressed that vibrational spectroscopy rarely reduces to fixed procedures. It demands interpretation, curiosity, lifelong learning, and a firm grasp of fundamentals, especially as R&D teams confront novel materials and problems that cannot be solved by copying examples found online. Panelists also framed vibrational spectroscopy as one tool within a broader analytical toolkit that includes nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), mass spectrometry, GC, LC, and thin-layer chromatography (TLC).
The discussion acknowledged that younger learners often prefer targeted online courses and videos over in-person instruction. However, public video content varies widely in quality and can omit critical technical details, such as the choice of ATR element, angle of incidence, and sample considerations.
SpecAcademy was positioned as a response to both trends: it meets learners online, where they already are, while supplying the expert curation and technical depth that much freely available content lacks. The panel left open a key question for learners, namely how to distinguish reliable educational material from incorrect guidance when selecting methods for complex applications.
The panelists featured in this video include:
This panel discussion is the third of five parts. You can access the available SpecAcademy courses at the following link:
