Recent advances in microscope technology, fluorescent labeling and surface preparation have allowed for remarkable progress in our understanding of biological processes at the nano-scale. This talk will cover some of our work in this general area, including the study of synaptic vesicle fusion and the molecular architecture and assembly principles of vibrio cholerae biofilms.

About the speaker: Previous to his appointment by President Barak Obama as Secretary of Energy for the United States of America, Steven Chu was director of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, professor of Physics, Molecular and Cell Biology at UC Berkeley, and professor of Physics and Applied Physics at Stanford University. He was co-recipient of the 1997 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on the development of methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light.