Congratulations to Professor Sunney Xie on his election as a Fellow to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.  The AAAS is one of the nation's oldest and most prestigious honorary societies and independent policy research centers.  His induction will take place in Cambridge on October 11.

Congratulations to Marcel Friedrich for his two year postdoctoral fellowship award from the German Academy of Science. (4/08)

Congratulations to Christian Freudiger for being awarded a two year Boehringer Ingelheim Fonds grant. (3/08)

Congratulations to Long Cai for his well deserved honor of winning the 2008 Weber Prize for his Ph.D. thesis entitled "Life at low copy number: a single molecule adventure in live cell gene expression." (2/08)

Congratulations to Peter Sims for receiving a Biophysical Society student travel award to present his work entitled "Force Measurements and Submillisecond Tracking of Dynein- and Kinesin-Driven Cargoes in Living Cells," at the Biophysical Society Annual Meeting in Long Beach, CA February 2-6, 2008. (2/08)

The Xie Group welcomes postdoctoral fellow William Greenleaf, who earned his PhD in applied physics from Stanford University working in Steve Block's laboratory to understand the mechanics of transcription and RNA folding at the single-molecule level. He is excited to help develop and apply new imaging techniques in the Xie laboratory. Outside the lab, Will enjoys skiing, squash and movies. (1/08)

The Xie Group officially welcomes Sijia Lu (G1), who joined the group after completing a fall rotation on CARS microscopy. Having studied physics and life sciences at Fudan University, Sijia's interest lies in developing new techniques for biomedical research, and he considers the Xie Group to be one of the best places for interdisciplinary study. In his spare time, Sijia enjoys playing tennis, beach volleyball and camping. ( 1/08)

Congratulations to Gene-Wei Li for receiving an ACS student poster award for his work entitled "Probing Transcription Factor Dynamics at the Single Molecule Level in a Living Cell." A picture of this proud moment may be seen at http://hackberry.chem.trinity.edu/PHYS/PosterAwardWinnersF07.html (8/07)

The Xie Group welcomes postdoctoral fellow Rahul Roy, who earned his PhD in single molecule studies of nucleic-acid and protein interactions from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Rahul has joined the gene expression efforts of the Xie Lab. In his leisure time, Rahul enjoys nature hikes and sporting activities. (10/07)

The Xie Group welcomes postdoctoral fellow Markus Rueckel, who earned his PhD in physics from the University of Heidelberg, although his work about adaptive optics on two-photon microscopy was carried out at the Max-Planck Institute for Medical Research in the lab of Winfried Denk. Markus joined the group to learn more about the biological applications of CARS microscopy. In his spare time, he enjoys sports, particularly tennis and mountain climbing. (10/07)

The Xie Group welcomes postdoctoral fellow Kevin Wood, who earned his double PhD's in theoretical physics and theoretical chemistry from the University of California, San Diego. Kevin worked primarily on stochastic models of nonequilibrium phase transitions. Now he is excited to learn experimental single-molecule techniques, and to "venture outside of my fairy-tale world of approximations." Kevin enjoys running marathons and triathlons with his much-faster wife. (9/07)

The Xie Group is happy to welcome postdoctoral fellow Xiaojie Duan, who earned her PhD in the field of Nanochemistry from Peking University. Xiaojie has intense interest in single-molecule detection. She thinks that the Xie group provides both leading techniques and great insights in this area. In her spare time, Xiaojie enjoys playing badminton, pingpong, and skiing. (7/07)

The Xie Group welcomes postdoctoral fellow Marcel G. Friedrich. Working with Professor W. Knoll at the Max Planck Institute in Mainz, Germany, Marcel earned his PhD in the field of bioelectrochemistry and vibrational spectroscopy of heme proteins. This past March, Marcel received the Young Investigator Award/Young Energeticist Award at the Biophysical Society meeting in Baltimore, MD. Now he is excited to begin work in the Xie Group with CARS microscopy and its applications to membrane proteins and living cells. Outside of the lab, Marcel maintains an active interest in the Japanese martial arts. (5/07)

The Xie Group is happy to officially welcome Srinjan Basu (G1), who rotated with the group this past fall. Srinjan is a joint graduate student with Professor Tom Maniatis in the Dept. of MCB. Having studied Natural Sciences at Cambridge University (UK), Srinjan's interests lie in the dynamics of protein-DNA interactions. He felt the diversity of single-molecule techniques available in the Xie Group made it a great place to join. Srinjan enjoys painting and playing the piano in his spare time. (4/07)

Congratulations to Paul Blainey on the successful defense of his PhD thesis entitled "Single-Molecule Studies of Protein-DNA Interaction: Diffusive Search and Sequence-Dependent Motors." Paul earned his PhD jointly with Professors Sunney Xie and Gregory Verdine. Dr. Blainey has now joined Professor Steve Quake's group at Stanford University as a postdoctoral fellow. (3/07)

Congratulations to Conor Evans on the successful defense of his PhD thesis entitled "CARS Microscopy: Sensitive and Noninvasive Chemical Imaging for Biomedicine". His wonderful thesis committee comprised of Professors Jeff Lichtman (MCB), Antoine van Oijen (HMS), and Sunney Xie (CCB). Dr. Evans will remain with the Xie group as a Postdoc until the CARS Workshop in June. In July, Dr. Evans will join the Optical Diagnostics Research group at the Wellman Center for Photomedicine at Massachusetts General Hospital to work with Drs. Johannes de Boer, PhD, Gary Tearney, MD, and Brett Bouma, PhD. (3/07)

Congratulations to Professor Xie, who received the 2007 Willis E. Lamb Award for Laser Science and Quantum Optics. The Lamb Award is presented annually for outstanding contributions to the field. Professor Xie was recognized for his pioneering contributions to CARS microscopy, and was honored earlier this January at the Physics of Quantum Electronics Winter Colloquium in Snowbird, Utah . (1/07)

Congratulations to Xiaolin Nan on the successful defense of his PhD thesis entitled "Probing Dynamic Processes in Living Cells with High Time Resolution, Spatial Precision, and Chemical Selectivity." His thesis committee included Professors Howard Berg (MCB), Timothy Mitchison (HMS), and Sunney Xie (CCB). Dr. Nan will remain with the Xie group until mid-March, when he joins the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory as a postdoctoral fellow in Professor Steven Chu's lab. (1/07)

The Xie Group is happy to welcome Dr. Gary Holtom, who joined the group this January as a Project Scientist. Gary brings his expertise in CARS microscopy from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, where he and Professor Xie were colleagues for several years. In addition to his interests within the lab, Gary is working toward his piloting license, and hopes soon to see New England from the air. (1/07)

The Xie Group now officially welcomes Christian Freudiger (G1), who joined the group in January after working a rotation here this past fall. Christian studied physics at the Technical University of Munich, and he considers the Xie Group to be the perfect place for a physicist interested in biological research. Christian also is an avid sportsman, enjoying free skiing, basketball, and beach volleyball. (1/07)