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16th Confocal Raman Imaging Symposium
The international chemical imaging community gathered once again in Ulm, Germany to share and discuss results, methods and technologies related to Raman microscopy. The oral presentations were arranged into distinct sessions under the headings: Nanotechnology and Low-dimensional Materials, Geosciences, Life Sciences, Applied Chemical Analysis and Contributed Talks. Poster sessions provided a relaxed forum for browsing the many scientific results entered into this year’s Poster Award competition. In a fascinating evening lecture, Charles Lyman (Chief Editor of Microscopy Today, see picture) gave an overview of the history of microscopy, highlighting breakthrough innovations.
A review of the Raman Symposium 2019 is available in English or in German. For more information on the presented talks and posters, you can also look into the abstract book.
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From left to right: Olaf Hollricher and Joachim Koenen (managing directors at WITec), Charles Lyman (Chief Editor of Microscopy Today), Harald Fischer (Marketing Director at WITec).
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The attendees of the Raman Symposium 2019 in the auditorium of the Stadthaus in Ulm. (Click for high-resolution version.) -
The topical variety of the talks and posters was impressive.
(Attendees' comments)
Poster Award 2019
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Birgit Bräuer (left) received the prize for the best poster from WITec’s managing director Joachim Koenen (right) at the conference dinner. (Click to download the poster.) -
This year, the prize for the best poster was awarded to Birgit Bräuer (Department of Physical Chemistry, University of Vienna, Austria) for her work titled “Surface Characterization of Escherichia Coli-Imprinted Polymers Using Confocal Raman Microscopy”.
In quality control of water and food, methods for fast and easy detection of Escherichia coli (E. coli) are required, because this bacterium serves as an indicator of hygiene. Convenient and selective sensors can be produced from molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs). Birgit Bräuer’s poster presents a method for characterizing such MIP-based E.coli-sensors using Raman imaging and atomic force microscopy. Her combination of imaging techniques made it possible to characterize the topography and chemical composition of the MIPs before and after treatment with E.coli. Polymer, imprints and bacteria could be clearly differentiated. Furthermore, Raman microscopy in combination with chemometrics was able to distinguish E.coli from other bacteria, which is essential for assessing the selectivity of the sensors.
You can have a closer look at the award-winning poster (download PDF).
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The competition for the Poster Award was especially fierce this year and two finalists were acknowledged individually for the exceptional quality of their submissions. Philipp Scheitenberger (University of Ulm, Germany) was first noted for his correlative studies of charge storage mechanisms in electrode materials. Kerstin Hauke (University of Bonn, Germany) was then recognized for her research involving high temperature Raman studies of ceramics.