The Coblentz Society presents the ABB-sponsored Bomem–Michelson Award, which is dedicated to the memory of Professor A E. Michelson, developer of the Michelson Interferometer. ABB sponsors the award to honour a scientist who has advanced the technique(s) of vibrational, molecular, Raman or electronic spectroscopy. The recipient of the 2011 Bomem-Michelson Award is Dr Isao Noda of the Proctor and Gamble Company, Cincinnati, Ohio.

Dr Isao Noda is being recognised for the pioneering role he has played in advancing two-dimensional correlation spectroscopy, both theoretically and experimentally, and for the profound impact his work has had on our understanding of structure-property relationships in polymeric materials.

In the late 1980s, in collaboration with his colleague Dr Curt Marcott, Dr Noda demonstrated that dispersive infrared spectroscopy could be used to detect changes in molecular conformation and orientation when an external strain is applied to a polymeric system. This made it possible to relate the macroscopic properties of materials to their microscopic or molecular structure. Drs Noda and Marcott went on to make seminal contributions to the development of step-scan interferometry, a technique that has gained broad acceptance in the field of molecular spectroscopy.

Dr. Noda has been the primary driver behind the use of generalised 2D analysis, an approach that is now widely used in many fields. There are now thousands of publications in which 2D correlation analysis has been coupled with vibrational spectroscopy, NMR, x-ray, mechanical measurements, fluorescence spectroscopy and many others. This approach to data analysis has dramatically increased the available information from various forms of spectroscopy. By applying these methods to synthetic polymers and biomaterials, Dr. Noda has greatly advanced our understanding of the relationship between their molecular structure and macroscopic properties. The impact of his work on the fields of spectroscopy and materials science has been transformational.

Isao Noda was born in Tokyo, Japan. He came to the United States in 1969 and graduated from Columbia University in 1974 with BS degree in chemical engineering. He also received his MS in bioengineering (1976), as well as MPhil (1978) and PhD (1979) in chemical engineering from Columbia. In 1997 he received the DSc degree in chemistry from the University of Tokyo. He is currently a Research Fellow of the Procter and Gamble Company in Cincinnati, Ohio. His research interest is in the broad area of polymer science and spectroscopy. He is well known for the development of two-dimensional infrared (2D IR) correlation spectroscopy. He has also been actively involved in the research and development of a novel class of bio-based biodegradable plastics called Nodax™. Noda is a recipient of the 1991 William F. Meggers Award from the Society for Applied Spectroscopy and the 2002 Williams–Wright Award from the Coblentz Society. In 2002, he was appointed to the position of Honorary Adjunct Professor of the Department of Biological Science and Biotechnology at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China. The Cincinnati Section of the American Chemical Society named him 2005 Chemist of the Year. He received the International Academic Cooperation and Exchange Medal in 2008 from the Chinese Chemical Society and Chinese Optical Society and New York State Society for Applied Spectroscopy's Gold Medal in 2009. He is the author of over 200 publications describing advances in vibrational spectroscopy and the characterization of synthetic and biological materials, and holds more than 50 patents

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