Biophotonics researcher Prof. Jürgen Popp, Scientific Director of the Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology (Leibniz-IPHT) and Professor of Physical Chemistry at Friedrich Schiller University Jena, has been awarded the Ellis R. Lippincott Award 2026. The international award is presented jointly by Optica, the Coblentz Society and the Society for Applied Spectroscopy.

The professional societies honor Popp for his significant contributions to translational clinical Raman spectroscopy. He has made a decisive contribution to establishing Raman spectroscopy as a powerful analytical method in biomedical research and to further developing it for clinical use. Under his leadership, laser-based spectroscopy and imaging methods were systematically linked to their transfer into diagnostic and therapeutic technologies.

The focus of his work is on infection research, oncology and precision medicine. Raman-based approaches in particular have been developed into tools for label-free real-time diagnostics. The Ellis R. Lippincott Award, awarded since 1975, is one of the most prestigious awards in the field of vibrational spectroscopy and honors personalities whose work has had a lasting influence on research internationally. The award ceremony is scheduled for October 2026 at the SciX conference in Sparks, Nevada (USA).

The award follows another international honor: In January 2026, SPIE presented Popp with the Biophotonics Technology Innovator Award. His services to the technological development of photonic diagnostics and their transfer to the clinic, for example in intraoperative tumor detection and rapid infection diagnostics, were honored there.

Popp has headed Leibniz-IPHT since 2006 and has developed the institute into an internationally visible center for photonic biomedical technologies. From Jena, he initiated numerous strategic partnerships, including close collaborations with the University Hospital Jena as well as transatlantic alliances such as the Center for Biophotonic Technology and Artificial Intelligence (CeBAI) with the University at Albany (SUNY), which was launched in 2024, and the Jena-Davis Alliance of Excellence in Biophotonics with the University of California, Davis.

Other initiatives such as the career workshop “Women in Photonics” serve to network young female scientists internationally and to strengthen Jena as a location. Popp also provided central impetus for the establishment of the emerging Leibniz Centre for Photonics in Infection Research (LPI).

The double international recognition underlines the growing importance of translational biophotonics for medical diagnostics and therapy development.

Editor: X-Press Journalistenbüro GbR

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