Spectroscopy Editorial Advisory Board Member Ian R. Lewis Receives 2021 Williams-Wright Award

The Coblentz Society has selected Dr. Ian R. Lewis of Kaiser Optical Systems, Inc., an Endress+Hauser company, as the recipient of the 2021 Williams–Wright Award.

The Williams–Wright Award is presented annually to an industrial spectroscopist who has made significant contributions to vibrational spectroscopy.

Lewis received his BS in chemistry and chemical technology and his PhD in polymer science and spectroscopy from the University of Bradford. His PhD covered the polymerization, characterization, and reactions of polydienes. During his PhD studies, he discovered a passion for the application of vibrational spectroscopy and had an opportunity to work with Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, far-IR, Raman, micro-Raman, and hyper-Raman spectroscopy. He conducted experiments to couple a Raman spectrometer to a reactor using a flow-cell and investigated the coupling of Raman spectroscopy to a flow-cell as an optical composition analyzer for gel permeation (GPC) and size-exclusion chromatography (SEC). Outside of his PhD work, he investigated, with his co-advisor Professor Howell Edwards, the application of Raman spectroscopy to arts and antiquities, bio-based lichen degradation, novel characterization of compounds for electronic purposes, the “disease” state of plastic dolls, and the impact of polymer solids and salts dissolution in water.

In 1996, Lewis joined Kaiser Optical Systems to support the development and implementation of Raman spectroscopy in industrial settings. Lewis currently holds the position of Director of Marketing and manages the marketing communications and product management groups. At Kaiser, he has worked with internal and external stakeholders to develop products, applications, and solutions to address the challenges of moving laboratory-based Raman spectroscopy analyses to reliable and transferable process control measurements.

Lewis has published more than 50 papers and 100 conference proceedings. He co-authored Handbook of Raman Spectroscopy: From the Research Laboratory to the Process Line, has authored or co-authored seven other book chapters, and co-authored the first USP general monograph on Raman spectroscopy (USP–1120). He is a reviewer for numerous journals in analytical chemistry, is an editorial board member for Applied Spectroscopy, Spectroscopy, and American Pharmaceutical Review, and has been a guest editor for special issues of Applied Spectroscopy and Vibrational Spectroscopy.

The award will be presented to Lewis at the virtual Pittcon 2021 conference, where he will give a talk in an award symposium.

For more information about the Williams–Wright Award, including the 2022 nomination process, interested persons can go to the Coblentz Society’s website.