Karen Faulds

Karen Jane Faulds is a Scottish academic and professor of analytical chemistry at the University of Strathclyde. She develops surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) for bioanalysis, and has won several awards for her research, including the Coblentz Society Craver Award.

Early life and education Faulds studied forensic and analytical science at the University of Strathclyde, graduating with a BSc in 1998. She remained at Strathclyde for her doctoral studies and in 2003 received her PhD for research on the detection of drugs of substance abuse using surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS).

Career and research Faulds worked as a postdoctoral researcher for on the detection of DNA using surface-enhanced resonant Raman spectroscopy (SERRS).

Faulds was promoted to Reader in 2012 and Professor in 2015. SERSs permits multiplexed and sensitive biological analysis. Her work uses signal amplification methods for the quantitative analysis of biomolecules, as the sensitivity allows her to detect target DNA and proteins. SERS also allows Faulds to make multiple measurements of different analytes in one sample. In 2015 she was the first woman and youngest person to ever be elected chair of the Infrared and Raman Discussion Group (IRDG). She has described C. V. Raman as her "hero of spectroscopy". The bionanosensors permit the multiplexed detection of pathogens, which can remove the risk of infectious diseases without the need for antimicrobial drugs. She covers SERS active magnetic nanoparticles with lectins, which can recognise and bind to carbohydrates in bacteria. Faulds joined the editorial board of RSC Advances in November 2016 and as associate editor of Analyst in August 2020. She co-directs the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and Medical Research Council (MRC) Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) in Optical Medical Imaging, shared between the University of Edinburgh and the University of Strathclyde.

Awards and honours 2009 Nexxus Young Life Scientist of the Year 2016 Top 50 Women in Analytical Science 2016 Coblentz Society Craver Award 2017 The Analytical Scientist Top 10 Spectroscopists 2018 Elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) 2023 The Analytical Scientist the Power List - Connectors and Interdisciplinarians

Faulds is a Fellow of the Society for Applied Spectroscopy (SAS) and a member of the Young Academy of Scotland (YAS).