10/18/2019
Conference Review: 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. Almost one hundred attendees heard presentations 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 and a fascinating evening lecture looked at the entirety of progress in microscopy.
A grand total of seventeen presentations were delivered from the stage of the Ulm Stadthaus's auditorium. Sebastian Schlücker (University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany) set the conference in motion with his introductory lecture on the theoretical background of Raman spectroscopy, including its classical and quantum mechanical descriptions, and its use in microscopy.
An accompanying interactive quiz let the audience test their understanding of the physics be-hind the Raman Effect. Olaf Hollricher (Managing Director-Research and Development, WITec GmbH) then detailed Raman imaging instrumentation, including spectrometers, detectors and software tools, in addition to describing considerations such as resolution and throughput. José Fernández (Instituto de Ceramica y Vidrio, CSIC, Madrid, Spain) then explored the combination of other methods with Raman imaging in his talk on correlative microscopy techniques.