Harald Hess

{{primary sources|date=March 2024}}

{{Short description|Physicist}}

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| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1955|9|12|mf=y}}

| birth_place = Cape Girardeau, Missouri

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| nationality = American

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| known_for = Photoactivated localization microscopy

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| awards = Member of the National Academy of Sciences (2018)

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| website = {{URL|https://www.janelia.org/lab/hess-lab|Hess Lab}}

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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.{{cite web | url=https://www.janelia.org/lab/hess-lab | title=Hess Lab }}{{cite web | url=https://www.nasonline.org/programs/awards/2023-awards/Hess.html | title=Harald F. Hess }}

Education

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.https://www.invent.org/sites/default/files/2024-01/2024_Fact_Sheet_Harald_Hess.pdf

Career and research

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.{{cite web | url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/2001/summary/ | title=The Nobel Prize in Physics 2001 }}{{cite web | url=https://www.nasonline.org/member-directory/members/20041819.html | title=Harald Hess }}

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,{{cite web | url=https://www.philanthropyroundtable.org/magazine/the-power-of-science-philanthropy/ | title=The Power of Science Philanthropy }} underwent testing at the National Institute of Health, and contributed to the awarding of the 2014 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.{{cite journal | url=https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1127344 | doi=10.1126/science.1127344 | title=Imaging Intracellular Fluorescent Proteins at Nanometer Resolution | date=2006 | last1=Betzig | first1=Eric | last2=Patterson | first2=George H. | last3=Sougrat | first3=Rachid | last4=Lindwasser | first4=O. Wolf | last5=Olenych | first5=Scott | last6=Bonifacino | first6=Juan S. | last7=Davidson | first7=Michael W. | last8=Lippincott-Schwartz | first8=Jennifer | last9=Hess | first9=Harald F. | journal=Science | volume=313 | issue=5793 | pages=1642–1645 | pmid=16902090 | bibcode=2006Sci...313.1642B | url-access=subscription }}{{cite web | url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/2014/summary/ | title=The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2014 }}

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.{{cite journal | url=https://www.nature.com/articles/nmeth.1176 | doi=10.1038/nmeth.1176 | title=High-density mapping of single-molecule trajectories with photoactivated localization microscopy | date=2008 | last1=Manley | first1=Suliana | last2=Gillette | first2=Jennifer M. | last3=Patterson | first3=George H. | last4=Shroff | first4=Hari | last5=Hess | first5=Harald F. | last6=Betzig | first6=Eric | last7=Lippincott-Schwartz | first7=Jennifer | journal=Nature Methods | volume=5 | issue=2 | pages=155–157 | pmid=18193054 | s2cid=1101468 }}{{cite journal | doi=10.1073/pnas.1121558109 | title=Correlative 3D superresolution fluorescence and electron microscopy reveal the relationship of mitochondrial nucleoids to membranes | date=2012 | last1=Kopek | first1=Benjamin G. | last2=Shtengel | first2=Gleb | last3=Xu | first3=C. Shan | last4=Clayton | first4=David A. | last5=Hess | first5=Harald F. | journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | volume=109 | issue=16 | pages=6136–6141 | doi-access=free | pmid=22474357 | pmc=3341004 | bibcode=2012PNAS..109.6136K }}{{cite journal | doi=10.1073/pnas.0813131106 | title=Interferometric fluorescent super-resolution microscopy resolves 3D cellular ultrastructure | date=2009 | last1=Shtengel | first1=Gleb | last2=Galbraith | first2=James A. | last3=Galbraith | first3=Catherine G. | last4=Lippincott-Schwartz | first4=Jennifer | last5=Gillette | first5=Jennifer M. | last6=Manley | first6=Suliana | last7=Sougrat | first7=Rachid | last8=Waterman | first8=Clare M. | last9=Kanchanawong | first9=Pakorn | last10=Davidson | first10=Michael W. | last11=Fetter | first11=Richard D. | last12=Hess | first12=Harald F. | journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | volume=106 | issue=9 | pages=3125–3130 | doi-access=free | pmid=19202073 | pmc=2637278 | bibcode=2009PNAS..106.3125S }} Additionally, Hess is actively working on developing 3D electron microscopy techniques for volumetric imaging of cells and neural tissue.{{cite web | url=https://www.the-scientist.com/the-expansion-of-volume-electron-microscopy-71336 | title=The Expansion of Volume Electron Microscopy }}{{cite journal | doi=10.1126/science.aaz5357 | title=Correlative three-dimensional super-resolution and block-face electron microscopy of whole vitreously frozen cells | date=2020 | last1=Hoffman | first1=David P. | last2=Shtengel | first2=Gleb | last3=Xu | first3=C. Shan | last4=Campbell | first4=Kirby R. | last5=Freeman | first5=Melanie | last6=Wang | first6=Lei | last7=Milkie | first7=Daniel E. | last8=Pasolli | first8=H. Amalia | last9=Iyer | first9=Nirmala | last10=Bogovic | first10=John A. | last11=Stabley | first11=Daniel R. | last12=Shirinifard | first12=Abbas | last13=Pang | first13=Song | last14=Peale | first14=David | last15=Schaefer | first15=Kathy | last16=Pomp | first16=Wim | last17=Chang | first17=Chi-Lun | last18=Lippincott-Schwartz | first18=Jennifer | last19=Kirchhausen | first19=Tom | last20=Solecki | first20=David J. | last21=Betzig | first21=Eric | last22=Hess | first22=Harald F. | journal=Science | volume=367 | issue=6475 | pmid=31949053 | pmc=7339343 }}{{cite journal | doi=10.1038/s41586-021-03992-4 | title=An open-access volume electron microscopy atlas of whole cells and tissues | date=2021 | last1=Xu | first1=C. Shan | last2=Pang | first2=Song | last3=Shtengel | first3=Gleb | last4=Müller | first4=Andreas | last5=Ritter | first5=Alex T. | last6=Hoffman | first6=Huxley K. | last7=Takemura | first7=Shin-ya | last8=Lu | first8=Zhiyuan | last9=Pasolli | first9=H. Amalia | last10=Iyer | first10=Nirmala | last11=Chung | first11=Jeeyun | last12=Bennett | first12=Davis | last13=Weigel | first13=Aubrey V. | last14=Freeman | first14=Melanie | last15=Van Engelenburg | first15=Schuyler B. | last16=Walther | first16=Tobias C. | last17=Farese | first17=Robert V. | last18=Lippincott-Schwartz | first18=Jennifer | last19=Mellman | first19=Ira | last20=Solimena | first20=Michele | last21=Hess | first21=Harald F. | journal=Nature | volume=599 | issue=7883 | pages=147–151 | pmid=34616045 | pmc=9004664 | bibcode=2021Natur.599..147X }}

Overall, Hess's research centers on developing new forms of microscopy and refining existing technologies to uncover new physical or biological characteristics.{{cite web | url=https://www.janelia.org/lab/hess-lab/research | title=Research }}

Awards and honours

  • 1997 American Physical Society Fellow{{cite web | url=https://www.aps.org/programs/honors/fellowships/archive-all.cfm?initial=&year=1997&unit_id=&institution= | title=APS Fellow Archive }}
  • 2016 Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciencehttps://www.aaas.org/fellows/2016https://www.aaas.org/news/2016-aaas-fellows-honored-advancing-science-serve-society
  • 2018 Member of the National Academy of Sciences{{cite web | url=https://www.nasonline.org/member-directory/members/20041819.html | title=Harald Hess }}{{cite web | url=https://www.janelia.org/news/janelia-scientist-harald-hess-elected-to-nas-membership | title=Janelia Scientist Harald Hess Elected to NAS Membership }}
  • 2023 James Prize in Science and Technology Integration by the National Science Foundation{{cite web | url=https://www.nasonline.org/programs/awards/2023-awards/Hess.html | title=Harald F. Hess }}
  • 2024 National Inventors Hall of Fame{{cite web | url=https://www.multivu.com/players/English/9224751-national-inventors-hall-of-fame-2024/ | title=15 Innovators to be Inducted as the National Inventors Hall of Fame Class of 2024 }}{{cite web | url=https://www.janelia.org/news/eric-betzig-and-harald-hess-to-be-inducted-into-the-national-inventors-hall-of-fame | title=Eric Betzig and Harald Hess to be inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame }}{{cite web | url=https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1033465 | title=HHMI Janelia scientists Eric Betzig and Harald Hess to be inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame }}

References

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