Alexander Scheeline, professor emeritus of chemistry, has been elected a Fellow of the International Atomic Spectrometry Association. The IASA is a membership of expert scientists dedicated to advancing the Atomic Analytical Spectrometry through Support, Communication, Advocacy, and Education.
Professor Scheeline joined the chemistry faculty at Illinois in 1981 and pursued research in optical spectrometry, nonlinear dynamics, oscillating reactions, and oxidative stress. He has published extensively on the topics of nonlinear dynamics, oscillating reactions, and oxidative stress, and has previously received the William F. Meggars Award of the Society for Applied Spectroscopy, a Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation Special Grant in the Chemical Sciences and is a Fellow of the Society for Applied Spectroscopy. In 2012, he became professor emeritus.
In 2013, Prof. Scheeline was co-winner of the FACSS Innovation Award, given by the Federation of Analytical Chemistry and Spectroscopy Societies, which is awarded for innovative, creative, and outstanding work. Scheeline and co-author Bui Anh Thu from Vietnam National University of Science in Hanoi won for their invention of a way to use CMOS cameras in cellphones to perform absorption, reflection, and fluorescence spectroscopy. By cleverly taking advantage of the fact that the camera detectors collect over a certain area, and solving issues related to alignment, calibration, dynamic range, and data reduction, the researchers showed that it is possible to collect spectra with good signal-to-noise ratios, and to do so nearly instantaneously. Their research led to the start-up company, SpectroClick, Inc.