SAS Graduate Student Award – This award, also known as the Barbara Stull Graduate Student Award, is given to up to 2 graduate students in recognition of outstanding research in the area of spectroscopy.  Any full-time student doing research in the field of spectroscopy shall be eligible for the award. The recipient(s) shall be selected by the Awards Committee for approval by the Executive Committee. The award will be presented at the Society’s award ceremony. 

2024

Piyush Raj

Johns Hopkins University

Supervisor: Dr. Ishan Barman

Piyush Raj is a doctoral student working with Prof. Ishan Barman in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. Prior to joining the Ph.D. program, Piyush obtained his M. Tech in Nanoscience and Engineering from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore, where he was awarded the Institute Medal for academic excellence. He completed his B. Tech in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati, followed by a year-long stint as a workshop supervisor at L&T Heavy Engineering.

His current research efforts are directed toward improving existing Raman Spectroscopy (RS) techniques for biological applications. His recent work in this area has demonstrated the first realization of an in situ self-assembled Raman probe devoid of a plasmonic NP for targeted Raman imaging of tumors. With spatial offset Raman spectroscopy (SORS), his work has shown the first depth-dependent damage gradation in cartilage in a non-destructive manner. Alongside his efforts to improve RS, Piyush has also worked on standardizing optical phantoms for Raman spectroscopy, where he developed a layered skin-mimetic phantom designed to replicate critical features of human skin. Additionally, he developed a new approach to perform quantitative measurements with surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) for clinical applications with limited measurement data by integrating outlier detection in an unsupervised manner. Overall, his research efforts have resulted in 20 peer-reviewed publications in journals such as Angewandte Chemie, Advanced Science, Biosensors and Bioelectronics, Small and Nano Letters, including a cover article in Angewandte Chemie and Advanced Science.