Nobel Prize Winner Stefan Hell to Visit the University of Turku
Stefan Hell, who was awarded with the Nobel Prize in Chemistry last year, will come to Turku on 8 May 2015 to lecture about his research on high-resolution microscopy, meet with students of the field, and receive the decoration of the University of Turku.
It is only natural that Hell should visit Turku to talk about his Nobel-awarded work, as he got the idea for developing high-resolution microscopy while working at the University of Turku. Hell’s first publications on the microscope that defies the laws of physics were born in the 1990s, when he was the head of the research group that developed the principle of high-resolution microscopy in the University of Turku.
– Without the University of Turku, I would have given up on science, Hell said to Helsingin Sanomat in autumn 2014.
In the seminar that will be arranged in honour of the visit, Rector Kalervo Väänänen will present Hell with the Phoenix Universitatis Turkuensis decoration. The decoration can be awarded to a person who has distinguished themselves in the fulfilment of the intellectual or material objectives of the University of Turku.
– Stefan Hell has, with his Nobel Prize in Chemistry, significantly increased the visibility of the University of Turku in the scientific world. The University of Turku and the Turku Finnish University Society want to acknowledge this by awarding him the Phoenix Universitatis Turkuensis decoration, says Väänänen.
Hell’s visit will begin with a student meet and greet, where students and doctoral candidates who are interested in imaging will have the chance to interview and discuss with the Nobel Prize winner.
In the seminar in the Osmo Järvi Auditorium in Medisiina, Hell will lecture about his pioneering discoveries in utilising the characteristics of fluorescent molecules in enhancing the resolution of light microscopy. The seminar is open to all students and personnel of the University of Turku and Åbo Akademi University
– It’s great to have Hell as a guest in Turku, as it was here in the Unit of Medical Physics’ research laboratory that he made his discoveries as a post-doc researcher that led to his Nobel Prize, says Professor of Medical Physics and Engineering Pekka Hänninen.
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JV/SP
Photo: Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry