W. E. Moerner

W. E. (William Esco) Moerner, the Harry S. Mosher Professor of Chemistry and Professor of Applied Physics (Courtesy) at Stanford University, is widely recognized for the first optical detection of a single molecule in condensed matter at IBM Research (1989). During his 27 year career in academia, he has conducted research in physical chemistry, biophysics, applied physics, and the optical properties of single molecules. He is actively involved in the development of 2D and 3D super-resolution imaging and single-particle tracking for cell biology and nanoscale science along with single-molecule optical studies of photosynthesis. His lab has also worked on single-photon sources, single-spin magnetic resonance, nanophotonics, and stimulated emission. Professor Moerner’s contributions have been widely recognized, particularly with the 2014 Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for the development of super-resolved fluorescence microscopy." One method to surpass the optical diffraction limit (PALM/STORM) uses single-molecule imaging combined with a control mechanism to keep the concentration of emitting molecules at a very low level, followed by sequential localization to reconstruct the underlying structure. The fundamentals of this idea came from early work in the Moerner lab: single-molecule optical detection combined with blinking and switching at low temperature, as well as the discovery of blinking and optical control of single green fluorescent proteins at room temperature (1997).