What is SpecAcademy and What Need Does It Fill?

Recently, Spectroscopy Magazine, the Coblentz Society, the Society for Applied Spectroscopy (SAS), and the International Atomic Spectrometry Association (IASA) joined forces to create SpecAcademy, a new e-learning platform launched to provide structured, expert-built spectroscopy training that exceeds passive, generic online content and is tailored to workforce competency needs.¹ The content is curated and delivered to audiences in digestible formats, allowing people to take these courses at work during their lunch breaks.¹

But why is the launch of this new platform so important? To answer that question, we pulled in five SpecAcademy instructors for an extensive panel discussion about SpecAcademy, the current gaps in spectroscopy education, the current course offers, and what some of the future course offerings may be.

The five SpecAcademy instructors featured in this panel discussion include Ellen Miseo, Secretary for the Society for Applied Spectroscopy (SAS) and education coordinator for both SAS and the Coblentz Society; Peter Larkin, Manager of Spectroscopy, Thermal Analysis, and Chromatography at Syensqo; Mary Carrabba, forensic and industrial spectroscopist and Virtual Officer Manager for the Coblentz Society; Jeff D’Agostino, Senior Applications Chemist for Specac, Inc. and a member of SAS, Coblentz, and the American Chemical Society; and James de Haseth, Emeritus Professor of Chemistry at the University of Georgia and director of Raman and Infrared courses.²

Apart from discussing what SpecAcademy is and what the platform is designed to do, the panelists also discussed why academic training alone does not prepare new analytical chemists for industrial problem solving, and how the loss of one-on-one mentorship has widened that gap. The panelists also discuss how training needs extend to military, federal, and state labs, to instrument users without chemistry backgrounds, and to graduates whose coursework gave vibrational spectroscopy less attention.

This segment of the SpecAcademy panel discussion is the first of five parts. You can access the available SpecAcademy courses at the following link: https://www.mjhacademy.com/catalog

References

1. SpecAcademy, Our Story — Born From a Shared Mission. MJH Life Sciences, 2026. https://www.mjhacademy.com/pages/about (accessed September 17, 2026).
2. SpecAcademy, Meet Our Instructors. MJH Life Sciences, 2026. https://www.mjhacademy.com/pages/instructors (accessed September 17, 2026).