Harald Frederick Hess (born September 12, 1955) is an American physicist and Senior Group Leader at Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Janelia Research Campus, known for his work in scanning probe microscopy, light microscopy and electron microscopy.[1][2]

Harald Hess
Born (1955-09-12) September 12, 1955 (age 69)
NationalityAmerican
Alma mater
Known forPhotoactivated localization microscopy
AwardsMember of the National Academy of Sciences (2018)
Scientific career
Fields
Institutions
WebsiteHess Lab

Education

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Hess earned his BS degree in Physics from the University of Chicago in 1977 before pursuing further studies at Princeton University, where he obtained his PhD in Physics in 1982.[3]

Career and research

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As a postdoctoral researcher at MIT from 1982 until 1986, Hess focused his research on trapping hydrogen atoms and achieving Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC). During this time, he developed the concept of evaporative cooling as a means to achieve BEC, which was a significant contribution to the field and ultimately led to the awarding of the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physics.[4][5]

Afterward, Hess joined Bell Labs as technical staff member. During his time there, he designed and developed a range of low-temperature scanning probe microscopes to visualize various physics phenomena, including vortices in superconductors.

After 1997, he spent eight years in industry at KLA-Tencor, where he focused on developing advanced equipment for the production and inspection of hard disk drives and semiconductors.

In 2005, he and his colleague Eric Betzig discovered photoactivatable fluorescent proteins and invented PALM (photoactivated localization microscopy), which enabled the visualization of cell structures beyond the diffraction limit. The PALM was constructed in a La Jolla condominium,[6] underwent testing at the National Institute of Health, and contributed to the awarding of the 2014 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.[7][8]

At the Janelia Research Campus of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Hess further developed PALM into a 3D super-resolution microscopy technique and is currently exploring its potential applications for cell biology research.[9][10][11] Additionally, Hess is actively working on developing 3D electron microscopy techniques for volumetric imaging of cells and neural tissue.[12][13][14]

Overall, Hess's research centers on developing new forms of microscopy and refining existing technologies to uncover new physical or biological characteristics.[15]

Awards and honours

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References

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  1. ^ "Hess Lab".
  2. ^ "Harald F. Hess".
  3. ^ https://www.invent.org/sites/default/files/2024-01/2024_Fact_Sheet_Harald_Hess.pdf
  4. ^ "The Nobel Prize in Physics 2001".
  5. ^ "Harald Hess".
  6. ^ "The Power of Science Philanthropy".
  7. ^ Betzig, Eric; Patterson, George H.; Sougrat, Rachid; Lindwasser, O. Wolf; Olenych, Scott; Bonifacino, Juan S.; Davidson, Michael W.; Lippincott-Schwartz, Jennifer; Hess, Harald F. (2006). "Imaging Intracellular Fluorescent Proteins at Nanometer Resolution". Science. 313 (5793): 1642–1645. Bibcode:2006Sci...313.1642B. doi:10.1126/science.1127344. PMID 16902090.
  8. ^ "The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2014".
  9. ^ Manley, Suliana; Gillette, Jennifer M.; Patterson, George H.; Shroff, Hari; Hess, Harald F.; Betzig, Eric; Lippincott-Schwartz, Jennifer (2008). "High-density mapping of single-molecule trajectories with photoactivated localization microscopy". Nature Methods. 5 (2): 155–157. doi:10.1038/nmeth.1176. PMID 18193054. S2CID 1101468.
  10. ^ Kopek, Benjamin G.; Shtengel, Gleb; Xu, C. Shan; Clayton, David A.; Hess, Harald F. (2012). "Correlative 3D superresolution fluorescence and electron microscopy reveal the relationship of mitochondrial nucleoids to membranes". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 109 (16): 6136–6141. Bibcode:2012PNAS..109.6136K. doi:10.1073/pnas.1121558109. PMC 3341004. PMID 22474357.
  11. ^ Shtengel, Gleb; Galbraith, James A.; Galbraith, Catherine G.; Lippincott-Schwartz, Jennifer; Gillette, Jennifer M.; Manley, Suliana; Sougrat, Rachid; Waterman, Clare M.; Kanchanawong, Pakorn; Davidson, Michael W.; Fetter, Richard D.; Hess, Harald F. (2009). "Interferometric fluorescent super-resolution microscopy resolves 3D cellular ultrastructure". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 106 (9): 3125–3130. Bibcode:2009PNAS..106.3125S. doi:10.1073/pnas.0813131106. PMC 2637278. PMID 19202073.
  12. ^ "The Expansion of Volume Electron Microscopy".
  13. ^ Hoffman, David P.; Shtengel, Gleb; Xu, C. Shan; Campbell, Kirby R.; Freeman, Melanie; Wang, Lei; Milkie, Daniel E.; Pasolli, H. Amalia; Iyer, Nirmala; Bogovic, John A.; Stabley, Daniel R.; Shirinifard, Abbas; Pang, Song; Peale, David; Schaefer, Kathy; Pomp, Wim; Chang, Chi-Lun; Lippincott-Schwartz, Jennifer; Kirchhausen, Tom; Solecki, David J.; Betzig, Eric; Hess, Harald F. (2020). "Correlative three-dimensional super-resolution and block-face electron microscopy of whole vitreously frozen cells". Science. 367 (6475). doi:10.1126/science.aaz5357. PMC 7339343. PMID 31949053.
  14. ^ Xu, C. Shan; Pang, Song; Shtengel, Gleb; Müller, Andreas; Ritter, Alex T.; Hoffman, Huxley K.; Takemura, Shin-ya; Lu, Zhiyuan; Pasolli, H. Amalia; Iyer, Nirmala; Chung, Jeeyun; Bennett, Davis; Weigel, Aubrey V.; Freeman, Melanie; Van Engelenburg, Schuyler B.; Walther, Tobias C.; Farese, Robert V.; Lippincott-Schwartz, Jennifer; Mellman, Ira; Solimena, Michele; Hess, Harald F. (2021). "An open-access volume electron microscopy atlas of whole cells and tissues". Nature. 599 (7883): 147–151. Bibcode:2021Natur.599..147X. doi:10.1038/s41586-021-03992-4. PMC 9004664. PMID 34616045.
  15. ^ "Research".
  16. ^ "APS Fellow Archive".
  17. ^ https://www.aaas.org/fellows/2016
  18. ^ https://www.aaas.org/news/2016-aaas-fellows-honored-advancing-science-serve-society
  19. ^ "Harald Hess".
  20. ^ "Janelia Scientist Harald Hess Elected to NAS Membership".
  21. ^ "Harald F. Hess".
  22. ^ "15 Innovators to be Inducted as the National Inventors Hall of Fame Class of 2024".
  23. ^ "Eric Betzig and Harald Hess to be inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame".
  24. ^ "HHMI Janelia scientists Eric Betzig and Harald Hess to be inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame".
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