News

• Alex Fuerstenberg selected as co-winner of the PhD Thesis Prize in Photochemistry from the European Photochemistry Association
• W. E. Moerner, along with Allen J. Bard, receives the Wolf Prize in Chemistry!

From the Wolf Prize Press Release:

For the ingenious creation of a new field of science, single molecule spectroscopy and electrochemistry, with impact at the nanoscopic regime, from the molecular and cellular domain to complex material systems. William E. Moerner was the first to perform optical detection and spectroscopy of a single, individual molecule in condensed matter. Allen J. Bard pioneered the development of the scanning electrochemical microscope, allowing high resolution chemical imaging of surfaces and the study of chemical reactions at the nanoscopic regime, applied to biological and catalysis systems. Prior to these discoveries, all chemical experiments essentially measured ensemble averages, over millions to billions of putatively identical copies of the sample molecule, occasionally blurring important information, pertaining to hidden heterogeneity in configuration and intermediate states, in time-domain dynamics. By pushing optical detection to the ultimate limit of one molecule, these scientists changed our understanding of the chemistry and physics of individual molecules. Thus, the strength, persistence, and daring exhibited by Moerner and Bard, in attacking seemingly insoluble problems, led to new experimental and conceptual approaches, currently widely adopted by the scientific community at large.

Professor William E. Moerner´s ingenious contributions to science have centered around two recurrent themes, which on one hand, address the development of a novel and revolutionary spectroscopic tool, single molecule spectroscopy; and on the other, its applications to problems in physics and analytical chemistry, biochemistry and biophysics. Since their pioneering steps in 1987, Moerner and his team have demonstrated a variety of effects sparking new subfields, including spectral diffusion of individual emitters, lifetime-limited line widths, temperature-induced dephasing, nonlinear saturation of a single molecule, photo-induced Poisson kinetics, blinking and switching of a single emitter, photon anti-bunching and optically-detected magnetic resonance of a single molecular spin. Thus, Moerner’s work trail-blazed a path for the measurement of individual molecules, having broad implications in the investigation of proteins, enzymes, DNA and RNA, and defects in solids or complex materials. Furthermore, this path enables the achievement of super-resolution imaging at the molecular level and endows scientists with the possibility to control the nanoscopic regime and to build molecular-scale devices.

Comments from Prof. Moerner provided to C&EN:

"I am elated to receive this recognition, and I am particularly humbled to share the Wolf Prize with Prof. Bard, a giant in the field of electrochemistry.

In the early days, there was a sense of excitement because spectroscopic measurements in my lab at IBM in 1987 made it clear to me that seeing a single molecule optically would be possible. Nevertheless, our early single-molecule experiments in 1989 were difficult, and the measurements were repeated many times over many months by two techniques to be sure that the spectrum of a single molecule was being observed. Even though the experiments became much easier when Michel Orrit showed that fluorescence excitation would give higher signal-to-noise, it was not clear that single-molecule imaging and spectroscopy would become widespread beyond the low-temperature regime. In the mid-90's, when Eric Betzig showed that room temperature studies over extended times were possible, the range of systems and physical processes that could be explored greatly increased. It is very gratifying that today so many new scientists continue to enter the field to apply single-molecule optical studies to biological systems and even to living cells. I continue to be amazed at what can be learned about DNA, RNA, proteins, enzymes, and complex materials simply by using local probes and observing their individual behaviors. Each molecule tells us a story, and our challenge is to interpret what they are saying to obtain a deeper understanding. Even now, new ideas are appearing that take direct advantage of the single emitting molecule as a nanoscale source of light to image far beyond the optical diffraction limit.

It is important to note that the original work in 1987-1991 would not have been possible without the efforts of my early postdocs, Tom Carter, Lothar Kador, Pat Ambrose, Thomas Basche, and others, and I thankfully acknowledge their efforts in my lab. Indeed, I have been fortunate over the years to have a wonderful team of graduate students, postdocs, and collaborators working with me, from IBM, to ETH, to UCSD, and now at Stanford."

• Press articles: Stanford Report, Chemical and Engineering News, Chemistry World

• W. E. Moerner elected to National Academy of Sciences
• Nick Conley receives a Lieberman Fellowship
• Adam E. Cohen joins Chemistry and Chemical Biology and Physics faculties at Harvard
• Anika Kinkhabwala receives a Fellowship from the NSF Center for Probing the Nanoscale at Stanford University

• The Stanford Report: Bacterial Actin Treadmilling in Living Cells: Superresolution Images

• ScienceNOW: Building a Better Molecule Trap
• Nature Research Highlights: "Stop for Brownian Motion," Nature 434, 156 (10 March 2005); doi:10.1038/434156a
• Science Editor's Choice: "Canceling Brownian Motion," Science 307, 1694
• Physical Review Focus: "Hold Still"

• W. E. Moerner elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science

• Harry S. Mosher Professorship awarded to W. E. Moerner

• Kinesin Rocks!
• W. E. Moerner receives Earle K. Plyler Prize for Molecular Spectroscopy
• W. E. Moerner elected Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

• Single Photons on Demand from a Single Molecule