Dr Friedrich Menges, a developer of optical spectroscopy software and a 2025 Photonics100 honouree, has died.
An announcement from his family said he died on December 18, 2024, after a short serious illness. He was 50 years of age.
Describing himself as a “self-employed 'Spectroscopy Ninja’ “, Menges received his PhD in physical chemistry from the University of Konstanz, Germany, in 2009, specialising in fluorescence spectroscopy, analytical chemistry, and optical spectroscopy instrumentation development. He has had more than 300 citations in scientific publications, but he was perhaps best known by the photonics community for his Spectragryph software.
The tool, which Menges described as “hard to spell but easy to use”, allows the display, analysis, parallel processing and conversion of spectral data from more than 70 file formats derived from more than 30 brands of UV-VIS, NIR, FTIR, Raman, LIBS, fluorescence and XRF spectrometers. It has been downloaded more than 18,230 times.
Despite a brain cancer diagnosis in January 2024, Menges told Electro Optics in October that he was “strongly motivated to proceed and further provide it for free to all academic users on request, which I have been doing for many years”.
Peter Karp, Senior Sales and Support Manager at Admesy, wrote on his LinkedIn page that “it was particularly evident that Friedrich is interested in almost everything and that he believes that it is important to work for a better future. You don't often meet people with his knowledge, his sharp thinking and his great humanity.
“In addition to his family, his passion project was his software Spectragryph, which enabled hundreds of people to advance their research and is also used in commercial environments worldwide.”
Menges is survived by his wife, Annette Pyroth, and his children Jonathan, Antonia, and Matilda.
His funeral service took place on Monday, December 30, 2024, in the Protestant Christ Church, Oberstdorf, Germany, followed by his funeral in the Oberstdorf forest cemetery.
