SciX 2025: Our Picks from the Program

From the Clara Craver Award ceremony, to Michael Gold’s keynote on UAPs (that’s right, Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena…), to AI-powered diagnostics, and tributes to scientific trailblazers, this year’s program is packed with sessions that promise insight, inspiration, and lively discussion.

Check out the week’s highlights below – and get ready for a full spectrum of science at SciX 2025!

Program Highlights

Sunday (6:15–6:45 PM): The Clara Craver Award: Catalysis Under the Light (Recipient: Prashant K. Jain). The Clara Craver Award – created by The Coblentz Society to recognize the efforts of young professional spectroscopists in applied analytical vibrational spectroscopy – will be presented to Prashant K. Jain, a G. L. Clark Professor of Physical Chemistry at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. 

Monday (8:30–9:30 AM): Unveiling the Unknown: The Pursuit to Understand UAP’s (Keynote: Michael Gold). “The truth is out there,” said Ex-NASA official Michael Gold, at a 2024 US House Oversight Committee hearing about Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP). How does spectroscopy fit in? You’ll have to check out Gold’s keynote to find out. 

Tuesday (10:30–12:10 AM): RAMAN05: IRDG (Chair: Karen Faulds). The fifth Raman session of the show features talks by Bhavya Sharma (SERS spectra of ovine cerebral spinal fluid), Richard A. Crocombe (lego blocks and Raman spectroscopy), as well as two talks from Roy Goodacre’s lab. 

Tuesday (3:50–5:30 PM): AI-Driven Multimodal Chemical Imaging for Biomedical Diagnostics (Chair: Juergen Popp). This session features two leaders in the field of AI and its application to spectroscopy, namely, Juergen Popp (who will discuss AI-powered multimodal imaging for intraoperative spectral histopathology) and Igor Lednev (whose talk is on the fusion of Raman and ATR FTIR spectral data combined with AI for the diagnostics of Sjögren’s disease). 

Wednesday (1:30–3:10 PM): AES Lifetime Achievement Award (Recipient: Raphael V. Davalos). The AES Electrophoresis Society’s lifetime achievement award goes to Raphael V. Davalos – for his research accomplishments in the areas of dielectrophoresis, microfluidics, electroporation, organ-on-a-chip platforms, and medical devices, which have led to innovations for personalized medicine and advanced technologies for cancer therapy.

Thursday (1:30–3:10 PM): Scientific Problem Solving: Celebrating the Legacy of Professor John A. Reffner (Chair: Brooke W. Kammrath). John Reffner (1935–2025) was an influential scientist and educator in the fields of analytical and forensic science, and played an important role in the development of infrared microspectroscopy. Several speakers, including David Schiering (908 Devices) and Fran Adar (Horiba), will pay tribute. 

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About the Author(s)

James Strachan

Over the course of my Biomedical Sciences degree it dawned on me that my goal of becoming a scientist didn’t quite mesh with my lack of affinity for lab work. Thinking on my decision to pursue biology rather than English at age 15 – despite an aptitude for the latter – I realized that science writing was a way to combine what I loved with what I was good at. From there I set out to gather as much freelancing experience as I could, spending 2 years developing scientific content for International Innovation, before completing an MSc in Science Communication. After gaining invaluable experience in supporting the communications efforts of CERN and IN-PART, I joined Texere – where I am focused on producing consistently engaging, cutting-edge and innovative content for our specialist audiences around the world.

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