22 November 2011; Malvern, UK: Dr E. Neil Lewis, Chief Technology Officer at Malvern Instruments can now count the prestigious Ernst Abbe Memorial Award of the New York Microscopical Society among his accolades. He received the award, presented in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the science of microscopy, on 17 November 2011 during the 50th Eastern Analytical Symposium & Exposition in New Jersey, and he joins a list of previous recipients who have made significant contributions to the field. Dr. Lewis is being recognized specifically for the development of chemical imaging microscopy.

The Ernst Abbe Memorial Awards session was chaired by Dr. John A. Reffner from John Jay College and Dr Lewis’s plenary lecture covered morphological and Raman spectroscopic measurements of complex heterogeneous materials.

Prior to his award presentation, visitors to EAS 2011 had an initial opportunity on Tuesday afternoon to hear Dr Lewis discuss the physical and chemical heterogeneity of biopharmaceutical products using imaging, light scattering and vibrational spectroscopy. His colleague, Dr Linda Kidder from Malvern’s Analytical Imaging team, also spoke about ‘Combined Particle Analysis and Raman Spectroscopy of a Nasal Spray: Chemically-Confirmed API Particle Size Distribution’ on Wednesday morning.

Paul Walker, Managing Director of Malvern Instruments said: “To be marked out as having an influence on the development of a field as important as microscopy is a significant accomplishment, and it is a privilege at Malvern that we can count such exceptional scientists as Neil Lewis among our team. I am delighted to add my congratulations to him on this prestigious award.”

Neil Lewis received his PhD in Chemistry from the Polytechnic of Wales in the UK and did his postdoctoral fellowship at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the Laboratory of Chemical Physics in the USA. He was tenured by the NIH in 1992 and subsequently held the position of Senior Biophysical Researcher. In 1999 he left to lead a new effort in developing chemical imaging systems as a Founder and President of Spectral Dimensions, Inc (SDI); the company was acquired in July 2006 by Malvern Instruments.

Dr. Lewis is the author of more than 70 peer-reviewed scientific papers, patents and book chapters. He is the recipient of numerous awards which include the Meggers Award in 1992 and again in 1994, presented by the Society of Applied Spectroscopy; the Heinrich Award in 1995, presented by the Microbeam Analysis Society for Outstanding Young MAS Scientist; the Outstanding Contribution to the Physical Sciences Award in 1997, presented by the Washington Academy of Sciences and the 2004 Williams-Wright Award presented by the Coblentz Society. In 2007 he was honoured by the University of Glamorgan in Wales with the award of an Honorary Doctorate of Science for his contribution to science and innovation. In 2009 he received the Anachem Award from the Association of Analytical Chemists which recognises an outstanding analytical chemist who has advanced the art and science of the field. He is a Fellow of the Society of Applied Spectroscopy and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.