William E. Moerner
Nobel prize winning American chemical physicist (born 1953)
Who was William E. Moerner?
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. Moerner was born in Pleasanton, California on June 24, 1953, the son of Bertha Frances (Robinson) and William Alfred Moerner. He attended Washington University in St. Louis for undergraduate studies as an Alexander S. Langsdorf Engineering Fellow, and obtained three degrees: a B.S. in physics, a B.S. in electrical engineering, and an A.B. in mathematics in 1975. He then pursued graduate study, partially supported by a National Science Foundation, at Cornell University in the group of Albert J. Sievers III. Optical study of single molecules has subsequently become a widely used single-molecule experiment in chemistry, physics and biology. Here he received an M.S. degree and a Ph.D. degree in physics in 1978 and 1982, respectively.
Historical significance
He is credited with achieving the first optical detection and spectroscopy of a single molecule in condensed phases, along with his postdoc, Lothar Kador. In 2014, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.