Coblentz Society CLARA Craver Award

The Coblentz Society has created an award to recognize young individuals who have made significant contributions in applied analytical vibrational spectroscopy.

The Craver Award is presented annually to an outstanding young molecular spectroscopist whose efforts are in the area of applied analytical vibrational spectroscopy. The candidate must be under the age of 45 on January 1st of the year of the award. The work may include any aspect of infrared (NIR, MIR, or Far), and/or THz, and/or Raman spectroscopy in applied analytical vibrational spectroscopy. The nominees may come from an academic, government lab, or industrial backgrounds. Click here for information on the Coblentz Society Craver Award.

2023 Recipient

Ishan Barman 

Dr. Ishan Barman is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Johns Hopkins University with joint appointments in Oncology and Radiology. He graduated from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur, in 2005 and moved to Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for his Ph.D., where he investigated transcutaneous blood analyte detection using Raman spectroscopy. His doctoral research established many of the experimental and computational methods that are now common to in vivo spectroscopic investigations, notably tissue turbidity correction, integration of non-imaging optical elements, and non-linear chemometric analysis. Continuing his academic journey at MIT, his postdoctoral research leveraged Raman and diffuse reflectance spectroscopy for the first real-time guidance of core needle breast biopsies and provided definitive validation of spectroscopy-based diagnosis of breast lesions with microcalcifications.

Dr. Barman joined the faculty at Johns Hopkins University in 2014 and was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 2019. His laboratory’s primary objective is the development of transformative biophotonics technologies with the goal of disease detection at early, manageable stages, monitoring therapeutic effects and treatment outcomes, and guiding interventions. The optical tools generated from these investigations have been successfully adopted in diverse biomedical environments including automated histopathologic recognition of biopsy specimen, real-time diagnosis of middle ear pathology, and as a customized monoclonal antibody identification platform. Dr. Barman’s recent breakthrough in the development of a surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy platform for real-time, multiplexed detection of viruses in saliva has garnered significant attention. This technology has been licensed and is currently being commercialized through a startup company, RamanID.

His work has resulted in 120 peer-reviewed publications in journals such as Nature Materials, Nature Physics, Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences, Cancer Research, Angewandte Chemie, Advanced Materials and Nano Letters. His work has been prominently featured in leading scientific outlets such as Technology Review and Physics Today, as well as popular media platforms like The Wall Street Journal and CNN Newsroom.

In light of his research endeavors, Dr. Barman has received numerous prestigious awards, including the NIH MIRA Award for Established Investigators (2023), Oracle Research Fellow (2022), Emerging Leader in Molecular Spectroscopy Award (2019), Eastern Analytical Symposium (EAS) Young Investigator (2019), Johns Hopkins University Catalyst Award (2018), NIH Director’s New Innovator Award (2017), Outstanding Young Engineer (OYE) from the Maryland Academy of Sciences (2016), Dr. Horace Furumoto Innovations Young Investigator Award from the American Society for Laser Medicine and Surgery (ASLMS) (2014), Gordon F. Kirkbright Bursary Award from the Association of British Spectroscopists (ABS) Trust (2011), and Tomas A. Hirschfeld Award from the Federation of Analytical Chemistry and Spectroscopy Societies (2010). 

Nominations

Please refer to the Coblentz website for further details.

Past Recipients

2022       Wei Min

2021       Zachary D. Schultz

2020       Claudia Conti

2019       Shawn (Xiaoyun) Chen

2018       Christy Haynes

2017        Martin Zanni

2016        Karen Faulds

2015        Ji-Xin Cheng 

2014       Lynne S. Taylor

2013       Rohit Bhargava 

2012       Duncan Graham 

2011       Michael W. George

2010      Boris Mizaikoff

2009      Takeshi Hasegawa

2008       John C. Conboy

2007      Katherine Bakeev