The year 2002 Grammaticakis-Neumann
Prize in photochemistry was awarded to Dr.
Johan Hofkens from the Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium). The laureate has distinguished himself
with exceptional contributions in the field of single molecule spectroscopy,
especially also of complex molecules involved in biochemical reactions.
The award ceremony took place at the University of Fribourg on April
12, 2003. The lecture presented by the laureate, was entitled : "Single
molecule fluorescence spectroscopy and single molecule surface enhanced
Raman scattering".
Dr. Johan Hofkens, laureate of the Grammaticakis-Neumann Prize 2002.
Johan Hofkens
Johan Hofkens is of
Belgian nationality and obtained his entire university educations at
the Catholic University of Leuven. He concluded his studies in chemistry
with a thesis on "Photoinduced intramolecular charge transfer in donor-acceptor
substituted aromatics" for which he obtained a "maxima cum laude" in
1993.
After that he won one of the coveted grants of the Japanese Society
for the Promotion of Science for a postdoctoral stay with Prof. Masahura
at Osaka University where he acquainted himself with the "optical trapping
technique" which he implemented in the research group of Prof. de Schryver
after his return in 1995. He actually combined the laser trap system
with a confocal microscope wich enabled him to study time-resolved emission
of optically trapped system.
In 1997 he went on a second postdoctoral stay, this time with Prof.
Paul Barbara in Minneapolis, where he was introduced to single-molecule
spectroscopy. Shortly after his return to Leuven he presented one of
the first reports on the fluorescence detection of immobilized single
molecules at room temperature.
He then moved from single to multiple-chromophore systems, in particular
dendrimers. Unearthing the information buried in the complex fluorescence
decays that were observed in these systems required the development
of new models that take into account the multiple simultaneous processes
of energy hopping and energy trapping in these molecules.
Aside from the impressive instrumental developments which have taken
place over the past few years in Leuven under the direction of Prof.
Dr. Hofkens, his interest has recently fanned out to include host-guest
systems, autofluorescent proteins and natural antenna systems, and even
in vivo single-molecule studies.
