“Recent Applications of Optical Systems in Industry”
Frank Kuo
Mettler-Toledo International Inc.
Hodson 313, Homewood Campus
Biography: D
r. Kuo is a trained spectroscopist with multidisciplinary skills. After graduating from National Taiwan University as a chemistry major and serving in the Taiwanese army for two years, he earned his Ph.D. degree in physical chemistry under the guidance of professor Robin Hochstrasser at the University of Pennsylvania. His research interest was mainly condense phase molecular dynamics in ultrafast time scales using non-linear spectroscopic tools, such as multi-dimensional IR. He joined Newport Corporation in 2008 as a senior scientist working on product development. In 2013, he joined the R&D division of Mettler-Toledo International Inc. as a project manager. At this position, he has been working on several projects that focus on developing optical instrumentation for real-time reaction monitoring in the fields of chemical industry, pharmaceutical companies, life science, and organic chemistry labs. He enjoys his challenging task of incorporating new and existent optical technology into valuable applications.
Abstract: In recent years, applications of optical science has exploded exponentially. Existent and novel applications can be seen in every part of the society, ranging from consumer products to medical devices. Some great examples can also be drawn from industries that seem to be remotely relevant to optical science, such as chemical and pharmaceutical industries. Products for “real time reaction monitoring” based on FT-IR, UV-Vis, total internal reflection probes, imaging probes, and etc. are great examples. They have enabled these industries to save capital expense and are deemed necessary in modern days. Instruments that serve this purpose from Mettler-Toledo will be discussed and serve as examples of how we push the limit of existent technology.