Pittcon Adds Plenary Lecture to 2018 Program Presented by the 2014 Nobel Laureate, Stefan W. Hell

Pittsburgh, PA – July 25, 2017 – The Program Committee is pleased to announce that the 2014 Nobel Laureate, Stefan Hell, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen and Director at the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research in Heidelberg, will deliver the Plenary Lecture at Pittcon 2018. This year’s conference and exposition will take place February 26 to March 1, at the Orange County Convention Center, Orlando, FL.

This year’s lecture, “Optical Microscopy: The Resolution Revolution,” will take place Tuesday, February 27, at 5:15 p.m. with a complimentary mixer immediately following.

Dr. Hell will focus on microscopy concepts that can resolve fluorescent features down to molecular dimensions. He explained, “In this lecture, I will discuss the simple yet powerful principles that allow neutralizing the limiting role of diffraction1,2. In a nutshell, feature molecules residing closer than the diffraction barrier are transferred to different (quantum) states, usually a bright fluorescent state and a dark state, so that they become discernible for a brief period of detection.” He added, “Thus, the resolution-limiting role of diffraction is overcome, and the interior of transparent samples, such as living cells and tissues, can be imaged at the nanoscale.”

Dr. Annette Wilson, the 2018 Pittcon program chair commented, “Adding a plenary lecture to this year’s program is part of the ongoing initiative to add value to an already high quality technical program.”

Visit www.pittcon.org for more information.

About Pittcon
Pittcon® is a registered trademark of The Pittsburgh Conference on Analytical Chemistry and Applied Spectroscopy, a Pennsylvania non-profit organization. Co-sponsored by the Spectroscopy Society of Pittsburgh and the Society for Analytical Chemists of Pittsburgh, Pittcon is the premier annual conference and exposition on laboratory science.

Proceeds from Pittcon fund science education and outreach at all levels, kindergarten through adult. Pittcon donates more than a million dollars a year to provide financial and administrative support for various science outreach activities including science equipment grants, research grants, scholarships and internships for students, awards to teachers and professors, and grants to public science centers, libraries and museums.