Ji-Xin Cheng Receives 2019 Ellis R. Lippincott Award

Ji-Xin Cheng, of Boston University, has been named the 2019 Ellis R. Lippincott Award recipient for outstanding contributions in inventing and developing a broad spectrum of vibrational spectroscopic imaging technologies with new discoveries and clinical applications.

The honor, awarded jointly by The Optical Society (OSA), Coblentz Society, and Society for Applied Spectroscopy (SAS), is one that OSA President Ursula Gibson said merits recognition with the Lippincott Award that is presented to an individual who has made significant contributions to vibrational spectroscopy, as judged by his or her influence on other scientists.

“Dr. Cheng’s commitment to transforming molecular spectroscopy to a platform for imaging within living systems holds the promise of great discovery in medical diagnosis and treatment strategies,” Gibson said.

Gibson added that Cheng has devoted his career to transforming molecular spectroscopy from an in vitro analytical tool to a set of in vivo label-free chemical imaging platforms for discovery of hidden signatures inside living systems and further translation of the discoveries into medical diagnosis and treatment strategies.

Cheng attended the University of Science and Technology of China from 1989 to 1994 and pursued a Ph.D. study on bond-selective chemistry from 1994 to 1998. In 2000, he joined Sunney Xie’s group at Harvard University as a postdoc. Cheng joined Purdue University in 2003 as assistant professor and was promoted to full professor in 2013. He is currently the inaugural Moustakas Chair Professor in Photonics and Optoelectronics at Boston University.