International top-class conference on Spectroscopy at the University of Bayreuth

The conference, which takes place every three years, brings together almost 70 scientists from all over the world. They deal with general questions of basic research. Single-molecule spectroscopy can be used to better identify the properties of the smallest components of, for example, semiconductors, particles or proteins. This method therefore enables the elucidation of numerous (bio-)physical relationships. The "super-resolution optical microscopy" developed in recent years is partly based on techniques of single-molecule spectroscopy and has become an important tool in the life sciences. In 2014, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to the developers of super-resolution microscopy.

Nobel laureate gives lecture

Participating in the conference will be scientists W.E. Moerner and M. Orrit, who are considered the pioneers of single-molecule spectroscopy. W.E. Moerner, who now teaches and researches at Stanford University and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2014, will give an online live lecture. The organiser of the Bayreuth conference, Prof. Dr. Jürgen Köhler, Chair of Soft Matter Spectroscopy at the University of Bayreuth, has already worked with Moerner. M. Orrit from Leiden University, winner of the Spinoza Prize of the Dutch Research Council in the Netherlands will be present in person.

The University of Bayreuth has been working with this technique since the early days of single molecule spectroscopy. At the beginning of their careers, Bayreuth researchers Prof. Dr. Lothar Kador Prof. Jürgen Köhler and Prof. Dr. Markus Lippitz, holder of the Chair of Experimental Physics III for Ultrafast Nanooptics, worked with Moerner and Orrit. In Bayreuth, research in this field is devoted to questions about the inner structure of polymer glasses, the function of photosynthesis proteins and topics in nanooptics.

Prof. Dr. Jürgen Köhler is available to the media for an interview in the run-up to the conference.