2012 FACSS Innovation Award Presented to Rohit Bhargava

The Federation of Analytical Chemistry and Spectroscopy Societies (FACSS) has announced the presentation of the 2012 FACSS Innovation Award, given for the most innovative, original, and creative research, to Rohit Bhargava. A panel of judges selected Bhargava from a group of five finalists for his worldwide debut oral presentation “Advancing Infrared Microscopy Instrumentation by Theory and Computation” at the 2012 FACSS SciX conference.

In his oral presentation, Bhargava set out to challenge the widely held belief that vibrational spectroscopic imaging is a simple combination of spectroscopy and optical microscopy by proposing an alternative theoretical framework for understanding light propagation in microspectroscopic imaging systems. His work has reportedly allowed the design and construction of instruments with optimized capabilities, enhancing interpretation of spectral data and furthering fundamental understanding of light–matter interaction in complex systems.

Bhargava said he was very honored to be recognized by the award. "The awarded work began as an academic exercise but has resulted in tremendous practical applications, for example, in correcting the effects of morphology on recorded data and in designing new imaging systems," he said. "We expect that this field will evolve to include much more rigorous analysis and innovations. We are very grateful that this trend in our field has been recognized by the FACSS committee with the innovation award.”

Bhargava is the Bliss Faculty Scholar and an associate professor at the Engineering and Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Illinois in Urbana Champaign, Illinois. Bhargava’s research group focuses on the development of novel chemical imaging technology for the determination of tissue structure and cancer pathology; the development of novel instrumentation for fast, high fidelity infrared spectroscopic imaging; and the development of novel algorithms for information extraction from large imaging data sets.

In early 2013, Spectroscopy will begin a series of podcast interviews, with Rohit Bhargava as well as with the winners of other awards that will be presented at the SciX 2013 conference. The 2012 SciX podcast series can be found here: www.spectroscopyonline.com/podcasts