For her ongoing doctoral project, Anindita Dasgupta, doctoral student in the Biophysical Imaging Department headed by Prof. Dr. Christian Eggeling at Leibniz IPHT and Friedrich Schiller University Jena, has been awarded the ZEISS Ph.D. Award 2022 in the field of modern optics, endowed with 3,000 euros, at the 20th Alumni Day of the Faculty of Physics and Astronomy on July 1st, 2022.

In her doctoral thesis entitled „Optimizing optical recordings of cell dynamics using correlative SPIM and STED microscopy“, the scientist is working on further technological advancements of super-resolution microscopy methods. This should enable the recordings of three-dimensional cell dynamics and super-resolved small-field-of-view investigations.

The project also focuses on incorporating stimulated emission depletion microscopy (STED) and fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS), to enable studying fast diffusion dynamics in the cell membrane. In combination with fluorescence lifetime microscopy (FLIM), even more information, for example about changes of probe molecules in the cellular environment, can be obtained. As the next steps of her PhD research, the scientist is focusing on research into combining light sheet and STED microscopy, which should allow fast capture of cell dynamics and mechanisms in cells to be studied even better.

About the ZEISS Ph.D. Award

Since 2016, the ZEISS Ph.D. Award in Modern Optics has been awarded annually by the Faculty of Physics and Astronomy of the Friedrich Schiller University Jena and the Carl Zeiss AG to doctoral students to promote their ongoing dissertation topics and is endowed with prize money of 3,000 euros.

In the picture (from left to right):
Prof. Dr. Christian Spielmann (Dean at the Faculty of Physics and Astronomy at Friedrich Schiller University Jena), Anindita Dasgupta and Dr. Michael Kempe (Fellow at Carl Zeiss AG), ©Falk Ronneberger, Friedrich Schiller University Jena