Plenary Speakers

V. Ara Apkarian, University of California
Visualizing the Inner Workings of Molecules: TERS on the Å -Scale

V. Ara Apkarian is a distinguished professor of chemical physics at the University of California, Irvine and Director of the NSF Center for Chemical Innovation on Chemistry at the Space-Time Limit (CaSTL). He holds BS and PhD degrees in chemistry from USC and Northwestern. Following a postdoctoral fellowship at Cornell, he joined the chemistry faculty at UCI, where he has served as Department Chair and as the founding co-Director of the Chemical and Materials Physics (ChaMP) program. His principle scientific contributions are in photophysics, ultrafast molecular and quantum dynamics in condensed matter, nonlinear optics, spectroscopy, and spectromicroscopy in the atomistic near-field. Apkarian is a Foreign Member of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia, a Fellow of APS, AAAS and SPIE, and has been recognized with awards in teaching, service and research, including the Dreyfus Award (1983), Sloan Fellowship (1990), Humboldt Prize (1996), UCI Distinguished Faculty Award for Teaching (2006), USC Distinguished Alumnus Award (2007), Charles Bennett Award for service (2008), the ACS Award in Experimental Physical Chemistry (2014), and an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Jyväskylä, Finland (2016).
   

Karen Faulds, University of Strathclyde
Multiplexed and Sensitive Bioanalysis Using Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS)

Karen Faulds is a professor in the Department of Pure and Applied Chemistry at the University of Strathclyde and an expert in the development of surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) and Raman techniques for novel analytical detection strategies and in particular multiplexed bioanalytical applications. Her Groups research has been recognized through multiple awards including the Nexxus Young Life Scientist of the Year Award (2009), Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) Joseph Black Award (2013), Craver Award (2016) and Charles Mann Award (2019). She is a Fellow of the RSC (2012), the Society for Applied Spectroscopy (2017) and the Royal Society of Edinburgh (2018). She was named one of the Top 50 Women in Analytical Science (2016) and Top 10 Spectroscopists (2017) by The Analytical Scientist. She was elected as the first female and youngest Chair of the Infrared and Raman Discussion Group (IRDG) in 2014. Faulds is an appointed member of the RSC Chemical Biology Interface Division Council and a member of the International Steering Committee of ICORS. She is the Strathclyde Director of the EPSRC and MRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Optical Medical Imaging joint between the Universities of Edinburgh and Strathclyde, serves on the editorial board of RSC Advances and the editorial advisory board for Analyst, Chemical Society Reviews and Analytical Chemistry.
   

Philipp Kukura is a professor of chemistry at the University of Oxford, leading an interdisciplinary research group supported by ERC Starting and Consolidator grants that focuses on the development and application of new optical methodologies to study biomolecular structure, dynamics and interactions. His main contributions have been the development of femtosecond stimulated Raman spectroscopy (FSRS) and interferometric scattering microscopy (iSCAT), in particular in the context of label-free detection and mass measurement of individual biomolecules. Recent awards include those by the RSC (Harrison-Meldola 2011 and Marlow 2015), the European Biophysical Society Association (Young Investigator Medal 2017), a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award (2018), the Klung-Wilhemy Award (2018) and the UK Blavatnik Award in Chemistry (2019).

Pavel Matousek, Science and Technology Facilities Council
Non-invasive Probing of Turbid Media Using Spatially Offset Raman Spectroscopy

Pavel Matousek obtained his MS and PhD degrees in physics from the Czech Technical University, the latter carried out at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL). Since 1991, he has worked at RAL where he proposed the use of Optical Parametric Chirped-Pulse Amplification (OPCPA) for the generation of extreme, multi-PW laser peak powers, pioneered ps-Kerr gating for fluorescence rejection in Raman spectroscopy, proposed Spatially Offset Raman Spectroscopy (SORS) and introduced Transmission Raman Spectroscopy (TRS) into pharmaceutical analysis. Pavel’s current research areas include non-invasive cancer and bone disease diagnosis, security screening, cultural heritage and pharmaceutical analysis. His honors include the premier Royal Academy of Engineering’s 2014 MacRobert Award, the 2009 Charles Mann Award (FACSS) and the 2002 & 2006 Meggers Awards from the Society for Applied Spectroscopy. In 2008, Pavel co-founded Cobalt Light Systems Ltd and served as its Board Director and the Chief Scientific Officer. Pavel is an associate editor of Applied Spectroscopy and serves on the advisory boards of Analyst and Journal of Raman Spectroscopy. He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Royal Society of Chemistry, and the Society for Applied Spectroscopy, an Honorary Professor at University College London and a Senior Fellow of Science and Technology Facilities Council.
   

Wei Min, Columbia University
Stimulated Raman Scattering Imaging: The Next Frontier of Light Microscopy

Wei Min received his PhD degree from Harvard University in 2008, studying single-molecule biophysics with Professor Sunney Xie. After continuing his postdoctoral work in Xie's group, Min joined the faculty at Columbia University in 2010, and was promoted to full professor in 2017. Min's research interests focus on developing novel optical spectroscopy and microscopy technology to address biomedical problems. His group has made important contributions to the development of stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) microscopy and its broad application in biomedical imaging.  Min's contribution has been recognized by a number of honors, including Pittsburgh Conference Achievement Award (2019), Analyst Emerging Investigator Lectureship (2018), Coblentz Award of Molecular Spectroscopy (2017), the ACS Early Career Award in Experimental Physical Chemistry (2017), Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award (2015), Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship (2013), and NIH Director's New Innovator Award (2012).
   

Ping-Heng Tan, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Low-frequency Raman Spectroscopy in Multilayer Graphene and Related van der Waals Heterostructures

Ping-Heng Tan is Director of Institute of Semiconductors (IS), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). He holds BS and PhD degrees in physics from Peking University and University of Chinese Academy of Sciences. Following a postdoc fellowship at Walter Schottky Institute, Technical University of Munich, he joined ISCAS in 2003 and was promoted to full professor in 2009. He visited University of Cambridge as KC Wong Royal Society Fellow from 2006 to 2007. His current interests include low-frequency Raman spectroscopy, resonance Raman spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy of two-dimensional materials, and development of various modern Raman techniques. He was awarded Kun Huang prize in Physics, Dayawati Rastogi Lecture Award and highly cited researcher by Web of Science, Clarivate Analytics in 2018-2020. Tan is a member of the International Steering Committee of ICORS and Asian Spectroscopy Conference, and is currently the chairperson of the Chinese Light Scattering Committee, Member of CPS council and organizing committee of CPS Fall Meeting. Tan is an advisory board member of the Journal of Raman Spectroscopy and member of editorial boards of journals such as The Innovation, npj 2D Materials and Applications, Superconductor Science and Technology, IOP SciNotes, Journal of Semiconductors and Journal of Light Scattering.