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Federation of Analytical Chemistry and Spectroscopy Societies


FACSS Distinguished Service Award

The FACSS Governing Board presents a Distinguished Service Award to an individual who has demonstrated exceptional, long-term service to the FACSS organization. Typically, that person will have served with excellence in many different capacities and will have contributed to the continuing success of FACSS through consistent dedication and sacrifice.

A candidate for the Distinguished Service Award must be nominated via a written petition, which enumerates the candidate's major contributions. The petition must be signed by at least four delegates, each representing a different member organization of FACSS. The signed petition must be submitted to the executive committee by January 30, in order to be considered and presented at SciX. A Distinguished Service Award will be awarded to the candidate if the Governing Board approved the petition by a majority vote.


2018 Distinguished Service Award Recipient


Ian R. Lewis, Kaiser Optical Systems

Ian R. Lewis was born in the UK in December of 1968 and is the Director of Marketing & Product Management at Kaiser Optical Systems, Inc.

Ian was funded to attend his first FACSS conference in 1993 in Detroit as a post-doc in Peter Griffiths’s lab. He started volunteering for FACSS in 1995 and organized his first session as part of the Raman symposium at Kansas City in 1996. Since then he has served in a few different capacities including:

  • Raman Session organizer (1996-present)
  • Raman Symposium chair (2000, 2002-2012)
  • SciX Raman Symposium co-chair (2013-present)
  • FACSS Awards chair (2006 Lake Buena Vista)
  • FACSS Program chair (2007 Memphis)
  • FACSS Past Program chair (2008 Reno)
  • FACSS Governing Board Chair Elect Elect (2009)
  • FACSS Governing Board Chair Elect (2010-2011)
  • FACSS Governing Board Chair (2012-2013)
  • FACSS Past Governing Board Chair (2014-2015)
  • FACSS Past Past Governing Board Chair (2016-2017)
  • FACSS Executive Committee (2009-2017)
  • FACSS Site Selection Committee member (2017-present)
  • FACSS Site Selection Chair (2018-present)
  • FACSS Treasurer-elect 2018 (Term 2019-2021)
  • FACSS’s Charles Mann Award Committee (2002-2006, 2009-2010 & 2016-2018)
  • FACSS Workshop Instructors – ‘’Analytical Raman Spectroscopy’’ with Brian Marquardt and Jeremy Shaver (2006-2011)
  • FACSS / SciX Poster Judge (a few times)
  • FACSS / SciX Long Range Planning Committee Member
  • FACSS Governing Board delegate on many occasions representing Anachem, Coblentz, RSC AD, and SAS.
  • Organizational representative to SpringSciX (Glasgow 2018)

During his tenure at FACSS, he edited the Program chair guide (originally created by Mark Hayes), and he co-wrote with Doug Gilman, the Awards chair guide to train future Award chairs in their roles and responsibilities. In 2002 he co-founded the Charles Mann award (with Mike Carrabba) to recognizes achievements in Analytical Raman and contributions to the Raman program at FACSS/SciX as well as securing funding for the first 6 years of the award. He overhauled the organization’s By-laws regarding dispersements (in conjunction with Jim Rydzak) and subsequently on surplus (with Becky Dittmar) to produce clear guidelines on surpluses, forms (including the famous Forms P & Q named as a homage to Monty Python) and how a FACSS surplus can benefit the member organizations. While on the EC he extensively updated the Operations Manual of the organization including additional By-Laws changes. Ian also participated in the FACSS retreats to address member organization’s needs, promote organizational growth, address changes in the scientific conference community, and chart a future course for FACSS and its conference. In conjunction with Mark Hayes, Doug Gilman, and FACSS’s selected Marketing partner (Ignite Media), he participated in the successful rebranding of the conference from FACSS to SciX, including the pitch, launch, and initially marketing of the SciX conference. With Mark Hayes and Cindi Lilly he participated in the transitioned to a new website provider including design and content creation for two new websites for the SciX conference and FACSS. In 2012 with the leadership team of Brandye Smith-Goettler, Steve Ray, Mike Carrabba, Luisa Profeta, and Mark Hayes he helped in executing the first SciX meeting. In his first year as Governing Board Chair Ian started an appeal for old FACSS material which allowed FACSS, within a year and in time to celebrates FACSS’s 40th anniversary, to archive all of the old FACSS conference programs and make them available for prosperity (based on major contributions from Paul Bourassa, Keith Olson, and Gary & Susan Heiftje).

In support of FACSS’s role beyond SciX, he co-organized with Mike George, John Chalmers, and Tony Moffat the first FACSS co-organized meeting outside North American (Advances in Raman Spectroscopy for Pharmaceutical Analysis) held in London in May 2012 in conjunction with the IRDG, the RSC Molecular Spectroscopy Group, and the Joint Pharmaceutical Analysis Group (JPAG).

During Ian’s time in the leadership of FACSS, he directed funds to support FACSS’s outreach initiatives aimed at promoting scientific collaboration between organizations. This included FACSS sponsored lectures and speaker support at ICORS and ICAVS conferences. He started new initiatives and directed to completion collaboration initiatives started by past Governing Board Chairs (Becky Dittmar, Doug Gilman, Mark Hayes, and Greg Klunder). As Governing Board Chair he created the new member organization application process and oversaw the expansion of FACSS from 7 member organizations to 12 member organizations (welcoming NASLIBS, AES, IRDG, SpSJ, and CNIRS). Between 2010 and 2015 he liaised with SAS on FACSS/SAS matters.

Currently Ian contributes to FACSS/SciX by chairing the three-member Site Selection committee (composed of Gary Brewer and Mike Carrabba), acts as an advisor to the current EC, and co-chairs the Raman symposium at SciX (with Pavel Matousek and Duncan Graham).

He has also served as:

  • Workshop co-presenter or presenter to undergraduate and graduate students, "Professional Analytical Chemists in Industry". FACSS/SciX Meeting, annually, in the city hosting the meeting,1995 to 2015; Also, co-presenter of the same Short Course at the Eastern Analytical Symposium and various Universities by invitation, since 1997.
  • ACS Analytical Section delegate to the Governing Board of the Federation of Analytical Chemistry and Spectrocopy Societies (FACSS), 2003.
  • FACSS renewal participant 2004-2005. Participated as equity design Facilitator in 2005. Facilitated separation and capture of SciX/FACSS equities for the FACSS LRP in 2013 and 2014.
  • Acting role of FACSS Metrician. Diane tracked FACSS progress against equity objectives from 2004 to 2015, until the position had an official name.
  • FACSS Governing Board Chair, 2006. Completed GB Chair Elect, GB Chair, Past Chair, and Past Past Chair annual terms.
  • Society for Applied Spectroscopy Parliamentarian 2009-2011.
  • FACSS Long Range Planning Committee member, 2010 to present.
  • Program Special Section Creator/Organizer, Analytical Chemists Easing World Poverty, (ACEWP) FACSS Program 2011, PittCon Program 2013, SciX 2014. Organized double-session for the 2013 SciX meeting in Milwaukee; gave a talk and chaired the session. Diane successfully transferred the job of organizing sessions to Rebecca Airmet in 2015, but remains an ardent supporter. Diane and Rebecca recently co-authored a chapter on ACEWP, which has been accepted for the upcoming ACS Book "Mobilizing Chemistry Expertise to Solve Humanitarian Problems" edited by Dr. Ronda Grosse (Chemists Without Borders).
  • 2015 President for the Society for Applied Spectroscopy. Contributed on a number of SAS Committees as part of this role.


Past Recipients


2017

Diane Parry

2016

John Chalmers, John Graham, Jim Rydzak

2015

Michael Blades, Gary Brewer and Keith Olson

2014

Ron Williams and Edward J. Havlena

2013

Mark A. Hayes and Cynthia M. Lilly

2012

O Karmie Galle and Bruce Chase

2011

Patricia B. Coleman and Jon W. Carnahan

2010

Scott McGeorge and Alexander Scheeline

2009

Paul Bourassa and Mike Carrabba

2003

Jeanette Grasselli Brown

2001

David Coleman

1994

L. Felix Schneider

1993

Edward Brame and Syd Fleming


  

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