University of Göttingen: Jan Huisken takes up Humboldt Professorship

Physicist Professor Jan Huisken has taken up his Alexander von Humboldt Professorship at the University of Göttingen. He was awarded the prestigious chair after successful nomination by the University in November last year. As a member of the Cluster of Excellence “Multiscale Bioimaging: From Molecular Machines to Networks of Excitable Cells (MBExC)” he will strengthen the internationally renowned research focus with his expertise in light sheet microscopy. Most recently, Huisken served as director of Medical Engineering at the Morgridge Institute for Research at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, USA.



Huisken’s professorship for multiscale biology, affiliated with the Faculty of Biology and Psychology, is dedicated to developmental biology research using zebrafish as a model organism. His methodological expertise in optics and biophysics also provides a strong link to the Faculty of Physics. The MBExC offers Huisken an ideal research environment and provides ample opportunities for collaborations towards applications of the innovative imaging approaches that he has developed. His multiscale, light sheet microscopy methods are ideally suited for precise analyses of the heart and brain from individual cells and their networks to the tissue level. This fills a gap in the cluster’s research approach and will contribute decisively to the research strengths of MBExC.