2020 Awardee
The Coblentz Society is pleased to announce that Dr. Christopher Brown of 908 Devices has been selected as the recipient of the 2020 Williams-Wright Award for Industrial Spectroscopy. The award will be presented at the Pittsburgh Conference, to be held March 1-5, 2020 in Chicago, Illinois USA. This award is presented to Dr. Brown in recognition of his work in the development of smart, high-performance miniature analytical systems across a range of industries and applications. The Williams-Wright Award Symposium is held in honor of the awardee and immediately follows the presentation. The 2020 Award symposium will feature an Award Address by Dr. Brown and talks from his invited speakers.
Dr. Brown received his B.Sc. in chemistry and mathematics at Brandon University, and his Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry from Dalhousie University in Canada where he specialized in the development of chemometric and statistical learning methods for analytical systems. Chris’s professional career has been focused on the development of smart, high-performance miniature analytical systems across a range of industries and applications, with a particular focus on miniaturization, autonomous systems and ultimately user experience. He is driven by a desire to put spectroscopy and other analytical technologies to work outside of the mainstream laboratory workflow, and often outside of the laboratory entirely. This challenge demands a holistic approach to analytical system design, incorporating not only clever analytical technology, but also hardware/mechanical, electronics, automated system control, user-facing software, and the statistically rigorous conversion of analytical data to answers.Early in his career Chris worked on and led numerous developments of automated spectroscopy-based products for in-vivo biodiagnostics, metabolic monitoring / clinical chemistry, biometrics, and biopharmaceutical process monitoring at InLight Solutions in New Mexico (NIR, mid-IR, fluorescence and spectroscopic imaging). He joined Ahura Scientific in Boston in 2004 to work on the development of the world’s first handheld Raman spectrometer and later handheld FTIR. His time as Sr. Director of Engineering / Product Development at Ahura saw the release of more than a half-dozen products with tailor-made hardware and software for hazmat, military, forensics, and pharmaceutical applications, and has led to over 25,000 handheld Raman/IR systems being usable in the field by non-spectroscopists. After Thermo’s acquisition of Ahura he spent two years at Apple in California as a platform architect for advanced sensing technologies in the phone/wearables sector. He co-founded 908 Devices as Chief Technology Officer in 2012, launching the world’s first self-contained handheld mass spectrometer in 2015 (4 lbs.), and thereafter a range of microscale MS and separation products in the forensics and life-science arena.
Chris and teams have been the fortunate recipients of three R&D 100 awards and a number of other industry technology and product awards. He was selected as a 2017 SAS National Tour Speaker and continues to be very active in the broader analytical community, publishing some 150 papers and conference presentations, and more than 50 patents. He is also a reviewer for numerous journals in analytical chemistry, statistics and machine learning, and is an editorial board member for the Journal of Chemometrics.
History and Nomination Process
The nomination should clearly state the significance of the contribution made by the nominee, e.g., the introduction of novel methods, techniques or theories; innovative work in the field of vibrational spectroscopy; significant improvement on existing methods, theory or techniques; or important impact on the field of vibrational spectroscopy arising from the volume of contributions in a specific area. The nomination packet should include a resume of the nominee's career including a publication list. Seconding letters to the nomination are useful, but not necessary. Files on nominees will be kept active for three years, after which the candidate must either be renominated with an updated file, or the file will be closed. Nominations close May 1, 2020 for the 2021 award.
Please send nomination packages via email to:
Recipients of the Williams-Wright Award
2019 Wolfgang Petrich
2018 Charles R. (Chuck) Anderson
2017 Slobodan Sasic
2016 Drouet Warren Vidrine
2015 Jagdeesh Bandekar
2014 Mike Doyle
2013 John Coates
2012 Richard Crocombe
2011 Howard Mark
2010 Patrick Treado
2009 Jerome J. Workman
2008 Rina Dukor
2007 Michael Carrabba
2006 Harry Owen
2005 Fran Adar
2004 Neil Lewis
2003 Neil Everall
2002 Isao Noda
2001 Raul Curbelo
2000 John A. Reffner
1999 Donald Kuehl
1998 Henry Buijs
1997 Michael J. Pelletier
1996 Robert G. Messerschmidt
1995 Michael R. Philpott
1994 John M. Chalmers
1993 Curtis Marcott
1992 Timothy Harris
1991 Robert J. Obremski
1990 John F. Rabolt
1989 D. Bruce Chase
1988 Darwin L. Wood
1987 A. Lee Smith
1986 Abe Savitsky/Joseph J. Barrett
1985 Clara D. Craver/Richard A. Nyquist
1984 Robert Jakobsen
1983 Harry Willis
1982 Robert Hannah
1981 Paul Wilks/James Harrick
1980 Jeanette Grasselli
1979 Norman Colthup
1978 Norman Wright