Yukihiro Ozaki honored with the 2025 Ellis R. Lippincott Award

Abstract

For more than four decades, Yukihiro Ozaki has advanced molecular spectroscopy across an unusually wide spectral span, from far-ultraviolet (FUV) to terahertz/far-infrared (FIR), with deep contributions in Raman (including SERS/TERS), NIR spectroscopy, and ATR-FUV spectroscopy. His work couples fundamental theory and instrumentation with impactful applications, notably pioneering medical Raman studies of disease processes, developing ATR-FUV methods that opened access to σ-electron chemistry, and expanding anharmonic quantum-chemical modeling for IR/NIR interpretation. These efforts, together with innovations in NIR imaging and enhanced NIR via surface plasmon resonance, have influenced physical and analytical chemistry, nanomaterials, and bioscience. In recognition of these achievements, Ozaki received the 2025 Ellis R. Lippincott Award for lifetime accomplishments spanning Raman, NIR, surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS and TERS), ATR-FUV, two-dimensional correlation spectroscopy (2D-COS), and chemometrics.

Introductory note

The Ellis R. Lippincott Award is a joint honor of Optica, the Coblentz Society, and the Society for Applied Spectroscopy, established in 1975 to recognize an individual who has made significant contributions to vibrational spectroscopy, as judged by their influence on other scientists. It is awarded annually and is traditionally presented at the FACSS SciX conference or one of the Optica conferences.

Yukihiro Ozaki (Figure 1) is Professor Emeritus and University Fellow at Kwansei Gakuin University, Guest Professor at Kobe University, and Guest Principal Researcher at RIKEN. His work spans Raman (including SERS/TERS), NIR spectroscopy (from overtones and combinations to imaging and plasmon-enhanced NIR), ATR-FUV electronic spectroscopy, two-dimensional correlation methods (2D-COS), and chemometrics—scholarly breadth and depth reflected in his selection as the 2025 Lippincott Awardee.

Figure 1.

Yukihiro Ozaki, recipient of the 2025 Ellis R. Lippincott Award, recognized for lifetime contributions encompassing Raman/resonance Raman, NIR (including enhanced and imaging modalities), ATR-FUV electronic spectroscopy, 2D-COS, and chemometrics.

The 2025 Ellis R. Lippincott Award was given to Professor Yukihiro Ozaki “For a lifetime of research accomplishments and breakthroughs across broad areas of vibrational spectroscopy and electronic spectroscopy”.

This distinction recognizes Yukihiro Ozaki’s sustained, field-shaping contributions that bridge fundamental spectroscopy, advanced instrumentation, and quantum-chemical interpretation. His group’s research has repeatedly opened new territory—early medical Raman work on disease mechanisms, rigorous dissection of SERS mechanisms, ATR-FUV for condensed-phase electronic transitions, and comprehensive NIR studies from overtones/combination bands to imaging and plasmon-enhanced approaches—establishing methodologies that are now widely adopted.

Biography of Professor Ozaki and his contribution to spectroscopy science

Yukihiro Ozaki obtained his PhD from Osaka University in 1978. After spending two years and a half at National Research Council, Canada, he joined the Jikei University School of Medicine in Tokyo in 1981. In 1989 he moved to Kwansei Gakuin University, Japan. Since 1993, he was a professor in the Department of Chemistry, School of Science and Technology, Kwansei Gakuin University. Ozaki retired in 2018, and currently, he is a professor emeritus and a university fellow there, a guest professor of Kobe University, and a guest principal researcher of RIKEN.

For the four decades or so, Prof. Yukihiro Ozaki has been one of the front runners of molecular spectroscopy of condensed matters both in vibrational spectroscopy and electronic spectroscopy. He has challenged to unexplored undeveloped fields of molecular spectroscopy with original idea and methods and developed markedly them. He has numerous groundbreaking contributions to molecular spectroscopy through the creation of novel molecular spectroscopy, the establishment of basic principles of spectroscopy, the development of new instruments, and the applications of quantum chemistry to molecular spectroscopy.

Prof. Ozaki’s achievements have a strong impact on a wide area in chemistry particularly in physical chemistry, analytical chemistry, nanomaterials chemistry, and biology relevant chemistry. His research covers from far-ultraviolet (FUV) to terahertz/far-infrared (FIR) including UV-visible, near-infrared (NIR), and IR region. He has also been involved largely in Raman spectroscopy. His research field is wide but at the same time, his studies are deep. He published 1130 papers with H-index of 93. His papers have been cited about 42,000.

The most important achievements of Prof. Ozaki in molecular spectroscopy include the following:

• (1) He was a path breaking scientist in medical Raman spectroscopy. He explored the mechanism of cataract formation nondestructively using Raman spectroscopy in 1980s. This may be the first application of Raman spectroscopy to an investigation of disease mechanism. This study demonstrated the potential of Raman spectroscopy in medical diagnosis (Y. Ozaki, in Chapter 1, Raman Spectroscopy in Human Health and Biomedicine, H. Sato, J. Popp, B. R. Wood, Y. Ozaki eds, World Scientific, 2024).

• (2) He made significant contributions to the elucidation of both electromagnetic mechanism and chemical mechanism of SERS (T. Itoh et al. Chem. Rev. 123, 1552. (2023)). Also, he has been one of driving forces in semiconductor-enhanced Raman scattering (Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. 58, 14452 (2019)). He reported a number of elegant applications of SERS and TERS to bioscience and chiral chemistry (Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. 53, 13866 (2014). 55, 8391 (2016). 58, 8172 (2019). 58, 14452 (2019), 59, 19079 (2020). 59, 14564 (2020)).

• (3) He has opened a new era in FUV spectroscopy of condensed matters. He introduced attenuated total reflection (ATR) technique to FUV region (140–200 nm), enabling measurements of FUV absorption spectra for almost all kinds of molecules. The ATR-FUV spectroscopy has created new electronic spectroscopy which has opened novel σ electron chemistry. Y. Ozaki et al. Chem. Soc. Rev. 2024, 53, 1730–1768.

• (4) His contributions to NIR spectroscopy involve almost its whole range; (1) Basic studies of overtones, combinations, anharmonicity, and vibrational potential. (2) Applications of NIR spectroscopy to physical chemistry. (3) Proposal of enhanced NIR spectroscopy based on surface plasmon resonance (SPR). (4) Developments of new NIR imaging systems. (5) A variety of applications such as biomedical applications, polymer studies, and imaging. M. A. Czarnecki et al. Chem. Rev., 115, 9707 (2015). (Y. Ozaki, C. Huck, S. Tsuchikawa, and S. B. Engelsen, Near-infrared Spectroscopy, 2021, Springer)

• (5) He made a strong bridge between spectroscopy and quantum chemistry. He expanded applications of quantum chemistry to various spectroscopies including Raman, FUV, NIR, IR, and Terahertz/far-infrared (FIR) spectroscopy. One of his distinguished achievements in this research area is anharmonic quantum chemical calculations in NIR and IR spectroscopy. Y. Ozaki et al. Chem. Soc. Rev. 2021, 50, 10917–10954.

Ozaki received many awards, including Tomas Hirschfeld (1998), Eastern Analytical Symposium Award (2001), Buechi Award (2002), Gerald S. Birth Award (2006), Bomem-Michelson Award (2014), The Medal with Purple Ribbon from Japanese Emperor (2018), Pittsburgh Spectroscopy Award (2019), Charles Mann Award for Applied Raman Spectroscopy (2020), Karl Norris Award (2021), and The Medal of Ioannes Marcus Marci (2022). He is Fellow of Royal Society of Chemistry, Fellow of Japan Chemical Society, Fellow of Society for Applied Spectroscopy, and fellow of ICNIRS. He is also a Foreign member of Polish Academy of Art and Sciences. In 2025, he received the Ellis R. Lippincott Award, “For a lifetime research accomplishments and breakthroughs across broad areas of Raman, resonance Raman, near-infrared, surface-enhanced, ATR-FUV, two-dimensional correlation (2D-COS) spectroscopies and chemometrics.”

Closing note

Yukihiro Ozaki’s trajectory exemplifies how breadth and depth can reinforce one another: theoretical rigor guiding instrumentation and applications, and applications revealing questions that demand new theory. As spectroscopy continues to integrate advanced computation and data-centric methods, the foundations laid by Yukihiro Ozaki to spectroscopy science, and NIR field in particular range from mechanism, measurement, to quantum chemical modeling. This contribution will remain central to future discoveries and practical impact across chemistry, materials, and the life sciences (Figure 2).

Figure 2.

(a, b) Scenes from SciX 2025 in connection with the Ellis R. Lippincott Award presented to Yukihiro Ozaki. On-site photographs captured during award-related activities, including in connection with the Award Plenary lecture, “Ellis R. Lippincott Award: SERS studies for the last 30 years in the Ozaki group at Kwansei Gakuin University.”