Lu Wei to Receive Spectroscopy’s Emerging Leader in Molecular Spectroscopy Award at SciX 2022

Lu Wei

Lu Wei, an assistant professor of chemistry at the California Institute of Technology, will be presented with the Emerging Leader in Molecular Spectroscopy Award at the SciX 2022 conference, which takes place October 2–7 at the Northern Kentucky Convention Center in Greater Cincinnati. The award, presented by Spectroscopy magazine, recognizes the achievements and aspirations of a talented young molecular spectroscopist, selected by an independent scientific committee.

Wei’s work focuses on the development and application of stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) microscopy for bioanalysis, spectroscopy-informed design of vibrational imaging probes, and sample-engineering strategies. She has made several ground-breaking contributions in the field of nonlinear Raman spectromicroscopy, to push the next frontier of nonlinear biological Raman imaging.

Wei received her PhD in 2015 from Columbia University. During her PhD work, she pioneered a bio-orthogonal chemical imaging platform that coupled stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) with small bio-orthogonal probes and allowed noninvasive imaging of metabolic dynamics in live cells and tissues with high spatial and temporal resolution, for investigations of cellular metabolism. Since starting her independent career at the California Institute of Technology in 2018, Wei has been working to develop next-generation Raman microscopy to achieve unprecedented resolution, sensitivity, and multiplexity with improved molecular precision and quantification for complex bioanalysis.