William E. Moerner

William E. Moerner is an American physical chemist whose work on single-molecule spectroscopy and fluorescence microscopy helped make optical imaging below the diffraction limit possible. He shared the 2014 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Single-molecule spectroscopy: The study of the optical properties and behavior of individual molecules rather than averages across molecular ensembles. Moerner’s single-molecule measurements established a foundation for imaging fluorescent molecules one at a time.
Zero-phonon line: A sharp optical spectral feature produced by a transition between molecular states without creating or destroying phonons. Moerner and colleagues detected this feature in a single molecule, demonstrating individual-molecule optical detection.
Eric Betzig: An American physicist who shared the 2014 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for developing super-resolved fluorescence microscopy. Betzig independently developed photoactivated localization microscopy, closely related to Moerner’s imaging approach.
Photoactivated localization microscopy: A super-resolution fluorescence method that reconstructs images from sequentially activated, localized fluorophores. PALM applies sparse molecular activation and localization, concepts enabled by Moerner’s single-molecule work.
Super-resolution microscopy: Optical imaging methods that resolve features beyond the conventional diffraction limit. Moerner’s molecular switching and localization work helped establish this expanded class of microscopy.
Photoactivation: A process in which light changes a molecule from an inactive or weakly emitting state into an active one. Photoactivation lets microscopy isolate subsets of fluorescent molecules for successive imaging.
Pentacene: A five-ring polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon used in research on organic semiconductors and molecular spectroscopy. Pentacene molecules embedded in a crystal were central to Moerner’s early single-molecule experiments.
Stefan Hell: A German physicist who shared the 2014 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for developing super-resolved fluorescence microscopy. Hell’s STED method provided a distinct route to surpassing the diffraction limit recognized by the same Nobel Prize.
Localization microscopy: A family of super-resolution methods that infer image structure from the positions of individual fluorescent emitters. Moerner’s single-molecule spectroscopy underpins the precise emitter localization used by this family.
Fluorescence correlation spectroscopy: A method that analyzes fluorescence fluctuations to measure molecular diffusion and concentration. Unlike image reconstruction, it uses molecular brightness fluctuations to extract dynamics from Moerner’s single-molecule domain.

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