Dr E. Neil Lewis, Chief Technology Officer at Malvern Instruments, was one of four invited speakers at The Twenty-Fourth James L. Waters Annual Symposium which took place at Pittcon 2013 in March and which this year celebrated the commercialization of chemical imaging.

As pioneers in the field, Dr Lewis and his fellow speakers (Drs. Patrick J. Treado; Richard Crocombe; Joachim Koenen) discussed the development of chemical imaging and the scientific advances it has made possible, while exploring the current status of the technique and looking forward to what the future holds.

“I was honored and very pleased to accept the invitation to speak at this event, which has the aim of exploring the origin, development, implementation, and commercialization of scientific instrumentation,” said Dr Lewis. “Having been involved from the beginning in the development of chemical imaging systems, it’s always instructive to look back on the progress of the technology and see how it has been the key to advances in so many different areas, from pharmaceuticals to semiconductors.”

Chemical imaging combines the power of spectroscopic analysis with digital imaging. It produces images where the contrast results from both sample morphology and the chemical gradients present.

Neil Lewis received his PhD in chemistry from the Polytechnic of Wales in the UK, did his postdoctoral fellowship at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and was tenured in 1992. He is the co-founder of several companies, including Spectral Dimensions, Inc., a company that developed some of the early commercial chemical imaging systems and has been at the forefront of the development of these technologies. He has authored more that 70 papers, book chapters and patents and has received numerous awards for his contributions, including the Meggers Award (1992, 1994); the Heinrich Award (1995); the WAS Outstanding Contribution to the Physical Sciences Award (1997); the Williams-Wright Award (2004); an Honorary D.Sc. (2007); the Anachem Award (2009) and the Ernst Abbe Memorial Award (2011). After the sale of Spectral Dimensions to Malvern Instruments he was appointed to their Board of Directors and currently holds the position of Chief Technology Officer (CTO).

The James L. Waters Annual Symposium is described on the Pittcon website as a unique component of the Pittcon Technical Program. It is administrated by the Society for Analytical Chemists of Pittsburgh (SACP).

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