Award Description

    In 2006, The Coblentz Society created an award to recognize the efforts of young professional spectroscopists that have made significant contributions in applied analytical vibrational spectroscopy. The Society has named this award for Clara D. Craver in recognition of her pioneering efforts in promoting the practice of infrared vibrational spectroscopy and her many years of service to the Coblentz Society. Clara Craver was the editor of the Coblentz Desk reference and other subsequent libraries that later became databases of infrared spectra. These libraries are the foundation for the application of modern vibrational spectroscopy. Her efforts resulted in the creation of the endowment that supports the Coblentz society and many of its annual awards. The first Craver Award was presented at the FACSS meeting in Memphis, TN in 2007. 

2016 Craver Award Recipient

Professor Karen Faulds’ research involves the development of surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) for novel analytical detection strategies and in particular multiplexed bioanalytical applications. SERS is a spectroscopic technique that offers significant advantages over other established techniques such as fluorescence and her research has highlighted these advantages by creating new examples of increased capability predominantly in healthcare applications. Karen Faulds received her PhD from the University of Strathclyde under the supervision of Prof Ewen Smith in 2003 on the detection of drugs of abuse using SERS. She was appointed as a full time lecturer in Chemistry at the University of Strathclyde in 2006 and due to her sustained research achievements promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2010, Reader in 2012 and full Professor in 2015. She is currently training 8 PhD students and 2 PDRA as principal supervisor and, as part of the large team ethos she embraces, she is also co-supervisor to another 16 PhD students and 6 PDRAs. She currently holds research funding of £9M as both Principal Investigator and Co-Investigator. She has published over 100 peer reviewed primary publications, 20 peer reviewed conference proceedings, 7 invited book chapters, 3 editorials and 5 patents. In 2009 she was presented with the Nexxus Young Life Scientist of the Year award and in 2011 was elected to the Royal Society of Edinburgh Young Academy of Scotland, the first such Academy amongst the national academies in the UK and was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry in 2012. She was awarded the 2013 RSC Joseph Black Award for her ‘outstanding contributions focused on the quantitative analysis of biomolecules using surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS)’. The Joseph Black Award is awarded to a young scientist, within 10 years of PhD award, in any field covering the practice and teaching of analytical science. Due to her contributions to the vibrational spectroscopic community she has recently been elected as the first female and youngest Chair of the Infrared and Raman Discussion Group (IRDG) which is the oldest spectroscopic discussion society in the UK. She is also the Strathclyde Director of the Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) in Optical Medical Imaging (Optima) where she is responsible for the Strathclyde leadership of the Centre, with a support team of an administrator and an outreach officer, as well as an intake of 60 PhD students between the Universities of Strathclyde and Edinburgh over a 5-year period. She currently serves as an editorial advisory board member for the RSC journal Analyst.  

As a result of her outputs, she has received a number of invitations to speak at prestigious international conferences.  This includes over 70 national and international conferences with over 50 as an invited speaker including Thailand, Japan, China, Russia and the USA. As part of her contribution to the subject area, she has also been on the organising committee for several conferences such as the RSCs Analytical Research Forum, Nano Meets Spectroscopy, regularly organises IRDG meetings and Martin and Willis student meetings as well as organising the IRDG Raman Symposium at SciX.  

     The 2016 Craver Award was presented at the SciX Conference held in Minneapolis, MN USA. Professor Faulds presented the Coblentz Society’s Craver Award Plenary Lecture in Applied Vibrational Spectroscopy and a separate half-day award symposium of five invited presentations followed her lecture at this conference. 

    The Coblentz Society announces its solicitation of nominations for the 2018 Craver Award in recognition of young investigators 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 1 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. The award comprises an honorarium, an engraved crystal award, and a travel allowance.

     Nominations for the 2018 award are accepted until August 30, 2017 and must include a detailed description of the nominee's accomplishments, a curriculum vitae or resume, and minimum of three supporting letters. Annual updates of candidate files are encouraged and will be solicited from the nomination source by the award’s committee chair.  Files of candidates will be kept active for 3 years or until the age of eligibility is exceeded. Nominations may be sent to nominations@coblentz.org

Craver Award Lecture and Symposium

    The awardee will be offered an opportunity to present a plenary lecture to the assembled SciX conference. Further, a separate half-day award symposium honoring the award recipient and highlighting the interests of the awardee complements the Craver Award Lecture. At right is an image from the 2014 Craver Award symposium speakers, chaired by Luisa Profeta. From Left: Anders Sparen, Dor Ben-Amotz, Lynne Taylor, Patrick Marsac, Luisa Profeta (session chair) and Ian R. Lewis. Not pictured: Saly Romero-Torres.

Craver award lecture 2012

Below are images of the inaugural Craver Award presentation in 2007. At left is Katherine A. Bakeev, and at right is Mary W. Carrabba (who was then the President of Coblentz).