I went into science drawn by the desire to do transformative rather than incremental work. I attribute my success to choosing projects having high potential “bang for the buck” that few others have identified as such, and moving on to new challenges when the field grows too crowded. I will describe how this strategy has led to a career of both successes and failures, but always filled with fun, excitement, and hope.<br/><br/>My early work involved the development of near-field optics – an early method designed to break the so-called “diffraction barrier” that sets a limit to the level of detail that can be seen in an optical microscope. Harald Hess and I heard of a way to turn individual fluorescent molecules on at will, and realized that this would enable a new way of breaking the diffraction barrier. While unemployed, we built the initial prototype in Harald’s living room, and a decade later this work led me to share the 2014 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Stefan W. Hell and William E. Moerner for the development of super-resolution microscopy. In this talk, I will discuss the evolution of this field and the latest developments at my lab at the Janelia Research Campus of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute to develop imaging tools to help scientists discover new ways to advance humanity.

Microscopic explorations of inner space: The secret lives of cells

2019 Spring National Meeting

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