Overcoming the Matrix Effect in the Elemental Analysis of Steel: An Interview with 2023 Meggers Award Winner Johannes Pedarnig

Abstract

The William F. Meggers Award was established in 1970 to honor its namesake, referred to by the National Institute of Standards and Technology on their website as “Dean of American Spectroscopists,” for his notable contributions to that field. This year’s recipient, Johannes Pedarnig of the Institute of Applied Physics at Johannes Kepler University (Linz, Austria) has recently investigated the optical emission of plasma on industrial steel samples utilizing laser ablation-spark discharge-optical emission spectroscopy (LA-SD-OES) and laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS). Pedarnig spoke to Spectroscopy about this work as well as what winning the Meggers Award means to him.