Michel Orrit Wins Edison Volta Prize
The European Physical Society has awarded the prestigieus Edison Volta Prize to Leiden physicist Michel Orrit. The prize is handed out every two years to an individual or a group of at most three scientists as an acknowledgment of an outstanding achievement in physics research.
Orrit receives the award for his seminal contributions to optical science and to the field of single-molecule spectroscopy and imaging. He became the first person ever to detect single molecules by fluorescence and he made the first optical detection of magnetic resonance in a single molecule. for pioneering investigations into the photoblinking and photobleaching behaviors of individual molecules at the heart of many current optical super-resolution experiments. Moreover, the jury values his pioneering investigations into the photoblinking and photobleaching behaviors of individual molecules at the heart of many current optical super-resolution experiments.
Orrit joins an exclusive group of Edison Volta Prize winners, including the discoverers of the Higgs particle and the scientists who made the most recent, spectacular map of the cosmic microwave background. Recently he also won the Physica Prize and the Grand Prix SFO.