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Eight FACSS award winners at SciX 2026, One LIBS trailblazer. Forty-eight questions. And not one of them is a softball. Award season in spectroscopy usually means polite applause, a plaque, and a photo. We're not completely interested only in the award sessions. The eight scientists honored at SciX 2026 in Sparks, Nevada, along with LIBS researcher Alessandro De Giacomo, are pushing Raman into operating rooms, flying LIBS on drones, reading chemistry off Mars, and tracing toxic metals downwind of industrial sites. Their work makes big claims. In the coming days, Spectroscopy will sit down with eight of these researchers and ask whether those claims hold up. The interviews that follow won't just celebrate. They'll press on the gaps between simulation and experiment, between the lab bench and the clinic, and between a clever paper and an instrument someone will actually buy and use.

Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, long the workhorse of molecular fingerprinting, is being reinvented by photothermal detection schemes and quantum cascade laser (QCL) sources that push spatial resolution and analysis speed far beyond classical dispersive and interferometric limits. New instrumentation such as optical photothermal infrared (O-PTIR) microscopy and laser direct infrared (LDIR) chemical imaging is enabling sub-micron, label-free chemical mapping of biological, environmental, and pharmaceutical samples. This article reviews the latest FT-IR-adjacent technologies, recent patents, and research driving the field, featuring perspectives from the scientists and instrument developers advancing the technique.

"Pathways in Spectroscopy" will be releasing weekly snippets from a recent panel discussion that focused on the state of spectroscopy education.

SpecAcademy is set to expand. Which courses should be added to the catalog? Five SpecAcademy instructors give their perspective.

Top content published this week include a panel discussion with five SpecAcademy instructors and a feature article on Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy.

In this Q&A, we provide an overview of what the latest “What’s Nu” covered, which includes new research in environmental analysis and clinical analysis.

How has spectroscopy training changed? A recent panel discussion explored this topic, discussing how SpecAcademy can widen access without losing the value of hands-on instruction.

How has spectroscopy education evolved over the years?

FT-IR spectroscopy, long treated as a mature bench technique for confirming a carbonyl stretch or fingerprinting a polymer, has quietly become one of chemistry’s most versatile discovery engines: it now infers molecular structure straight from a spectrum without a reference library, resolves chemistry tens of nanometers wide, and screens a fingerstick of blood for disease in minutes. The last five years of published research show FT-IR moving from a confirmatory tool into a predictive, autonomous, and field-ready analytical platform.

A recent roundtable discussion with the SpecAcademy instructors explored why spectroscopy expertise has eroded and how SpecAcademy aims to rebuild it.

The agreement gives North American customers a stocked, domestic source for InGaAs PIN photodiodes and avalanche photodiodes from the Scottish manufacturer.

The gap between classroom training and industry practice is pushing analysts toward familiar techniques instead of the most appropriate ones.

Panelists from the Society for Applied Spectroscopy, the Coblentz Society, Syensqo, Specac, and the University of Georgia discuss how a mismatch between academic curricula and industry practice leaves many analysts unsure when, and how, to use infrared and Raman spectroscopy.