Physicaprijs 2016 for FOM workgroup leader Michel Orrit
Today it was announced that the Physicaprijs 2016 has been awarded to FOM workgroup leader professor Michel Orrit (Leiden University) for his groundbreaking work in the area of single molecule spectroscopy.
In the mid1980s Orrit realised that the optical detection of a single molecule ought to be possible. In 1990 he was the first who managed to observe the fluorescensce signal of a single molecule and in an elegant and unequivocal manner he demonstrated that the optical signal was indeed from a single molecule.
Orrit's experiments referred to in Nobel Prize description
Last year the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Betzig, Hell and Moerner for the development of super-resolved fluorescence microscopy. In the description of the scientific background to the prize, the groundbreaking nature of Orrit's experiment was prominently stated as a basis for the super resolution techniques that were later developed. Moerner made the measurement (detection in absorption) before Orrit, but Orrit's measurement (detection in fluorescence) produced far less background noise and became the standard in the field.
Development of new discipline: Single Molecule/Particle Optics
Following Orrit's work the entirely new discipline of Single Molecule/Particle Optics arose. After his first experiment Orrit went on to realise a large number of firsts with a single molecule, initially in Bordeaux and since 2001 at Leiden University. Since Michel Orrit's arrival in Leiden he has built up a very active group there with an exciting research programme on single molecule spectroscopy. A recent highlight is the 'nanomicrophone', a minuscule microphone consisting of a single molecule, see this news article.
More about Michel Orrit
You can read more about Michel Orrit in the FOM Yearbook 2014. The interview contains a link to a YouTube film in which Orrit describes his research.
The Physicaprijs
Each year the Physicaprijs is awarded to an eminent physicist working in the Netherlands. The prize is awarded after consultation with various representatives of the physics community in the Netherlands by the chairs of the Dutch Physics Society and the Stichting Physica. Orrit will receive the prize during the FYSICA 2016 congress that will take place on Friday 8 April at the Radboud University in Nijmegen. He will also give the associated Physica lecture then.
The Dutch Journal of Physics will devote attention to Michel Orrit's work in its April and May 2016 editions.