Robert Eric Betzig - 2014 Nobel Prize in Chemistry

Robert Eric Betzig (born January 13, 1960) is an American physicist based at the Janelia Farm Research Campus in Ashburn, Virginia. He was awarded the 2014 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for "the development of super-resolved fluorescence microscopy" along with Stefan Hell and fellow Cornell alumnus William E. Moerner.Betzig was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, the son of Robert and Helen Betzig. For his undergraduate degree, Betzig studied Physics at the California Institute of Technology, graduating with a BS degree in 1983. He then went on to study at Cornell University where he obtained an MS degree and a PhD degree in Applied and Engineering physics in 1985 and 1988, respectively.

After receiving his doctorate, Betzig worked at AT&T Bell Laboratories in the Semiconductor Physics Research Department. In 1996, Betzig left academia to become vice president of research and development at Ann Arbor Machine Company, then owned by his father and stepmother, Susan. Here he developed Flexible Adaptive Servohydraulic Technology (FAST) but did not achieve commercial success.

Betzig then returned to the field of microscopy, developing photoactivated localization microscopy (PALM) in the living room of his old Bell Labs collaborator, Harald Hess; and in 2006 he joined the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Janelia Farm Research Campus as a group leader to work on developing super high-resolution fluorescence microscopy techniques.Betzig was awarded the William L. McMillan Award in 1992 and the 1993 National Academy of Sciences Award for Initiatives in Research.He was offered the 2010 Max Delbruck Prize, but declined. In 2014, Betzig was jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Stefan Hell and William E. Moerner