Linda Kidder

 

Dr. Linda Kidder was drawn to science because of her desire to understand how the world worked, and chose chemistry due to the influence of a nurturing and dedicated high school teacher. Graduating from Williams College with a B.A. in Chemistry, she chose to pursue physical chemistry, receiving her Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins University where she was the recipient of the Sonneborn and Ernest Marks Fellowships.  During her post-doc, in the Laboratory of Chemical Physics at NIH, she developed a deep appreciation for molecular spectroscopy: developing, deploying, and characterizing Raman and Fourier transform infrared hyperspectral imaging systems. She gained extensive experience in applying these techniques to a variety of materials characterization, biological and biomedical research applications.  In 1998, Dr. Kidder co-founded Spectral Dimensions with Neil Lewis, developing a deep, hands-on appreciation of all aspects of the analytical instrumentation business through the “crash-course” environment of a startup company. When this company was purchased by Malvern Instruments, she “retired” from the role of Vice President of Operations to become the Product Manager of Chemical Imaging within Malvern.

 

With a focus on the development and commercialization of novel analytical instrumentation, she developed project and product marketing skills that ultimately fueled her move to become Vice President of Market Development at BrightSpec, a startup focused on chemical identification of complex mixtures. The tug of vibrational spectroscopy was strong though, and she has returned to her roots, currently as Product Manager of Molecular Spectroscopy at Shimadzu Scientific.

 

She has given numerous presentations, co-authored articles and book chapters, taught short-courses, and is co-inventor on several patents. She is a long-standing member of the Society for Applied Spectroscopy, the Coblentz Society, and the American Chemical Society, and has contributed to ASTM on both E13.10 and E55 committees. She has had participated in the governance of professional societies, serving on the Board of Director for both SAS and the Coblentz Society, as well as in the corporate world, where she was Corporate Secretary and Treasurer at Spectral Dimensions, and Corporate Secretary of Malvern Biosciences, Inc. She has also worked on outreach for vibrational spectroscopy, at program coordinator for this topic at the FACSS (now Scix) and EAS meetings, as well as organizing the SAS Tour Speakers program in 2011 and upcoming in 2018.

 

In her “spare time” she and her husband are raising two active boys (11 and 9), and looking after a flock of pets including 2 Australian shepherds, 3 hamsters, a rabbit, a guinea pig and a parakeet.