The 2010/11 Gothenburg Lise Meitner prize is awarded to Professor Stefan W Hell, Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen, Department of NanoBiophotonics for the development of new methods in microscopy.

He was the first one to suggest and experimentally find a method of beating the diffraction limited resolution in light microscopy. He took his PhD in Physics 1990 in Heidelberg and is now director of the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen.

See the Prize ceremony on Youtube

Exclusive interview with Stefan Hell

The Nomination Committee's motivation:

"Professor Hell is bestowed the prize for his ground breaking development of light microscopy and its applications in biological settings. Apart from scientific excellence, he has taken on the challenge of bridging borders between different scientific disciplines to address important problems - not always the easiest task. Nanobiophotonics is an area where both Chalmers University of Technology and University of Gothenburg are active and where Professor Hell has been a constant source of inspiration through his development of new techniques."

Abstract “Nanoscopy with focused light”

For more than a century, it has been widely accepted that diffraction of light precludes any lens-based optical microscope from discerning details smaller than about half of the wavelength of light (~200 nm). However, in the 1990’s it was discovered that basic state transitions of the investigated material, here fluorescent samples, can be exploited to eliminate the resolution-limiting role of diffraction. Since then, fluorescence microscopes have been developed that are now able to resolve on the nanometer scale using regular lenses. We discuss the basic principles of these nanoscopy (superresolution) concepts with particular emphasis on the first viable far-field ‘nanoscopy’ method, STED microscopy. We show their scope of applications in the life and material sciences, and give fundamental insights into their physical principles of operation.

References:
Hell, S. W. (2007): "Far-Field Optical Nanoscopy". Science 316, 1153 - 1158.

Hell, S. W.(2009): "Far-Field Optical Nanoscopy". Book chapter in: Single Molecule Spectroscopy in Chemistry, Physics and Biology. Springer (Berlin, Germany), 365 - 398. www.nanoscopy.de

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