Watt W. Webb

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Watt W. Webb is known as the father of modern microscopy for his co-invention (with Winfried Denk and Jim Strickler) of Multiphoton Microscopy in 1990.

[edit] Biography

Professor Webb conducted research in engineering and solid-state and chemical physics as coordinator of fundamental research and assistant director of research at Union Carbide Corporation before and after graduate studies. He joined the Cornell faculty in 1961, served as director of the School of Applied and Engineering Physics from 1983 to 1989 and is presently a member of the graduate faculties of seven fields. He directs the Developmental Resource for Biophysical Imaging Opto-Electronics. He is on the board of directors and executive committee of the Cornell Research Foundation. He is affiliated with the university's Biophysics Program, the Cornell Center for Materials Research, the National Biotechnology Center and serves on the Life Sciences Advisory Council. He has been a visiting scholar at Stanford University, a Guggenheim fellow, a scholar in residence at the NIH Fogarty International Center for Advanced Study, and the 1997 Ernst Abbe lecturer. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society (APS) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a founding fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineers, and an elected member of the National Academy of Engineering; National Academy of Science, and American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He won the APS Biological Physics Prize in 1990, the Ernst Abby Lecture Award in 1997, the Michelson-Morley Award in 1999, the Rank Prize for Opto-electronics in 2000, the Jablonski Award Lecturer in 2001, was the 2002 National Lecturer of the Biophysical Society, the 2004 MIT Lord Lecturer and the 2005 Rohm and Haas Lecturer, and has served as chairman of the Division of Biological Physics and associate editor of Physical Review Letters. He has published over 300 papers in condensed matter and biological physics; with 16 U.S. patents plus many foreign patents. He is active as a consultant and in various national advisory committees and professional societies.

[edit] FCS and MPM

Dr. Watt W. Webb pioneered the techniques of Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy (FCS) in 1972 and Multiphoton Microscopy (MPM) in 1990. FCS permits single-molecule detection in solutions at nanomolar concentrations and provides temporal resolution of the dynamic processes that can be signaled by the fluorescence signal. FCS reveals molecular mobility, conformational fluctuations and chemical reactions in solutions and allows the detection of extremely sparse molecules and particles. In situ measurements of the dynamics of fluorescence flicker by FCS, photobleaching, phototoxicity, and induced fluorescence are being used to discern dynamics of biological processes and molecular mechanisms of disease. Multiphoton excitation in fluorescence microscopy significantly reduces photodamage and minimizes image degradation due to scattering and autofluorescence, and thereby provides for high resolution, high signal-to-noise imaging in living cells and deep in turbid tissues in vivo. His laboratory at Cornell University [[1]] continues to extend the frontiers of these technologies.