Prof. Dr. Stefan W. Hell has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2014, together with Prof. William E. Moerner and Dr. Eric Betzig.
This prize is a well-deserved recognition for Prof. Hell´s career devoted since the early 1990s to find ways of imaging objects optically, with spatial resolution beyond the limit imposed by the diffraction of light. He was the first one to propose such a super-resolution method and to demonstrate it experimentally: the Stimulated Emission Depletion (STED) microscope.
Since 2011, I have the privilege of working with Prof. Hell on various projects within the framework of a Max Planck Partner Group. Two Ph.D. candidates under my supervision, Federico Barabas and Martin Bordenave, have carried out respective research stays at the group of Prof. Hell, where they obtained invaluable training on super-resolution methodologies. Also, together with Prof. Hell, we are co-directing the ambitious postdoctoral project of Dr. Francisco Balzarotti, who is currently working in Göttingen.
I would like to sincerely congratulate Prof. Hell for the Nobel Prize and express my highest gratitude for his generous support during these years to implement super-resolution microscopy in Argentina.
Fernando Stefani
