Ardemis Boghossian wins 2021 ESP Young Investigator Award

Each year, the European Society for Photobiology (ESP) offers the Young Investigator Award to a young researcher who has conducted original research of exceptionally high quality in a field related to Photobiology. The Award is part of the ESP’s continuing effort to promote Photobiology.

The winner of the 2021 European Society of Photobiology (ESP) Young Investigator Award is Professor Ardemis Boghossian at EPFL’s School of Basic Sciences. Professor Boghossian’s research straddles the interface of nanotechnology and protein engineering, aiming at the commercial development of protein-based constructs for light-harvesting and biosensing applications using inorganic nanomaterials, which demonstrate enhanced photophysical and electronic properties that enable optical devices with unprecedented, quantum optoelectronic properties.

“I'm fascinated with blurring the lines between the living and non-living worlds,” says Boghossian. “What's the difference between a biological material and a synthetic material? In the end, they're all built from the same kinds of atoms. So why not make synthetic materials that can evolve, like in biological evolution, or re-program living cells to behave as electronic devices? These are the conceptual walls that my team aims to tear down in creating new optical technologies.”

The Award will be presented at 19th Congress of the European Society for Photobiology, which will be held under virtual congress format over 4 days in Salzburg (Austria), from August 30 to September 3, 2021, where the awardee will deliver a plenary lecture.