William E. Moerner
William E. Moerner | |
|---|---|
Moerner in 2024 | |
| Born | William Esco Moerner June 24, 1953 Pleasanton, California, U.S. |
| Alma mater | |
| Awards | Wolf Prize in Chemistry (2008) Irving Langmuir Award (2009) Peter Debye Award (2013) Nobel Prize in Chemistry (2014) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Chemistry, applied physics, biophysics |
| Institutions | |
| Thesis | Vibrational relaxation dynamics of an IR-laser-excited molecular impurity mode in alkali halide lattices (1982) |
| Doctoral advisor | Albert J. Sievers |
| Other academic advisors | James Gegan Miller |
William Esco Moerner, also known as W. E. Moerner, (born June 24, 1953) is an American physical chemist and chemical physicist with current work in the biophysics and imaging of single molecules. He is credited with achieving the first optical detection and spectroscopy of a single molecule in condensed phases, along with his postdoc, Lothar Kador. Optical study of single molecules has subsequently become a widely used single-molecule experiment in chemistry, physics and biology. In 2014, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.