This year, we invited entrants to the Power List 2025 – Leading Voices Edition – to respond to one of three crucial questions for the field, including: What should be done to help analytical science rise to prominence as the keystone of all good science? Here, we share the 10 most compelling suggestions – selected blind by our expert panel.
Click here to explore the full essays and be inspired by the voices shaping the future of the field.
“We must deliver fully developed solutions”
Georgios Theodoridis: “By raising awareness of our impact and clearly articulating the indispensable role of analytical science, we can reposition our field – not just as facilitators, but as creators and leaders in scientific discovery.
“In addition, we must deliver fully developed solutions – validated and ready for implementation by non-experts. By advancing to high technology readiness levels and delivering robust, market-ready products, we demonstrate the tangible value of our discipline.” Read more
“Let’s rebrand as the foundation of evidence-based research”
Luigi Mondello: “We must elevate analytical science’s identity and purpose by rebranding analytical science as the foundation of evidence-based research across disciplines – machines, chemistry, biology, environmental science, and medicine – and emphasize its role in ensuring reliability, reproducibility, and data integrity, which are essential for the credibility of all scientific results.
“Education and training must be reformed by integrating analytical thinking and methods across scientific curricula – not just in chemistry, but also in life sciences, engineering, and environmental studies – and encouraging interdisciplinary coursework and problem-solving where analytical science is a key component. Let’s provide hands-on training with modern analytical tools and data interpretation early in science education.” Read more
“An interactive-hub sponsored by industrial-partners”
Sinead Currivan-Macdonald: “Analytical science topics are covered by many fields, in lectures and in the lab. Oftentimes, the infrastructure (equipment/instrumentation) to support learning is outdated, obsolete, and with technical failures during laboratory sessions (their primary hands-on experience) it often leads to frustration and a disheartening experience.
“An interactive-hub sponsored by industrial-partners would offer a glimpse at professional/accredited labs. This hub may be fixed or mobile, with AR facilities, with a furnished suite of high-tech analytical instruments, commonly used in industry labs. Students could interact with instrumentation, run analyses, and with expert guidance, analyze example data – emphasizing the importance of their role within the community, and the field.” Read more
“Rename analytical science as ‘enabling science’”
Michael Witting: “Analytical scientists need to step out of their shadow position as service providers and claim their spot. Analytical science and the people living and breathing it enable other scientists to generate new hypotheses and refine or reject them. This is the keystone of all good science: not guessing but measuring! Perhaps it is time to be less humble. Renaming analytical science to ‘enabling science’ would be a significant step because this is what analytical science does: enabling others to see and measure things that have not been measured so far.” Read more
“Create a section titled ‘Analytical Watcher’”
Coral Barbas: “A crucial strategy is advocating for rigorous peer review processes. Scientific journals must implement stringent review criteria focused specifically on the analytical methods used in submissions.
“I propose creating a section titled ‘Analytical Watcher’ – initially launched in The Analytical Scientist, to expand this into a Methodological Review Section in various journals. This section would evaluate and critique the analytical methodologies used in high-profile studies. The goal is to ensure every study meets a high standard of analytical precision and to provide feedback for improving analytical practices. Content could include re-analyses of data, commentary on the suitability of analytical techniques, and recommendations for best practices.” Read more
“Place analytical scientists as leaders in cross‑functional project teams”
Alexander Böser: “We must place analytical scientists in cross‑functional project teams and leadership roles to guarantee that potential issues are caught – and creative solutions offered – from the very beginning. If analytical considerations shape experiments and development plans from the outset, teams avoid costly surprises later on.
“Analytical data must be treated like a precious resource: curate it, normalize it, and use it to guide. Strong data sharing and governance practices can make routine results into a machine learning, process improvement, and improved decision-making center of knowledge for the organization.” Read more
“Integrate the fundamental principles of analytical science in scientific curricula early”
Marcello Locatelli: “The key point to start from is certainly a greater emphasis on education and training through an early integration of the fundamental principles of analytical science in scientific curricula to develop an analytical mindset right from the start. This could be done through interdisciplinary training, specialized advanced courses and continuous updating that starts from the mentor and moves down. This implies that the ‘System’ should approach and update itself above all on new technologies and approaches such as Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, sensors and portable technologies, Big Data and data science.” Read more
“Engage both analytical science and those who benefit”
Philip Marriott: “It is now important, in the eyes of all scientists, to elevate the analytical scientist to a central position as the enabler of research into quality instrumentation, methodology and associated procedures underpinning all measurement science, without which chemical research is compromised.
“What is required to achieve this goal is the engagement of both analytical science and those who benefit from this very science in recognition of the importance that new analytical science innovations have delivered to their fields.” Read more
“Foster two-way cooperation between academia and industry for the transfer knowledge”
Michele Suman: “In the main area of my competence, namely that concerning food analysis, there are some specific aspects to be considered to help analytical science become fundamental: (i) invest in the development and adoption of advanced analytical technologies such as mass spectrometry, chromatography, spectroscopic techniques, also with a propensity for field portability; (ii) develop and adopt standardized and harmonized protocols for the analysis of food in order to allow comparability in different contexts and situations; (iii) strengthen the training of food analysis professionals, fostering two-way cooperation between academia and industry for the transfer knowledge of analytical methods.” Read more
“Integrate the teaching of theoretical elements of analytical processes”
Liam Heaney: “Topics that rely heavily on analytical science, such as exercise physiology (my area), should encourage their students to improve their knowledge around analytical science to help critically analyze its use within both their work and that of their peers. I believe we can achieve this in three ways: (i) integrating teaching of theoretical elements of analytical processes which are prominent within the field of study (e.g. the theory behind immunocapture assays); (ii) embedding the reasoning and relevance of quantitative validation for students and staff working in all fields that require quantitative assessments (i.e. accuracy, precision, etc.); (iii) improving the quality of analytical reporting within research that is published in journals/fields that would usually fall outside the scope of the analytical scientist.” Read more
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