Joseph R. Lakowicz, PhD, professor, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and director, Center for Fluorescence Spectroscopy, University of Maryland School of Medicine, started a course on fluorescence spectroscopy in 1993 with just 40 PhD scientists and engineers from instrumentation companies. Over the past 30 years, the course has grown and adapted with the times, being held in both Baltimore and Berlin starting in 2006 due to its popularity and space constraints, then moving to Zoom in 2020 and 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, Lakowicz is turning his course into video lectures that will be widely available to working scientists.
The video lectures are about 30 minutes long and are prepared according to specific topics in fluorescence spectroscopy. Lectures include “Instrumentation, Spectra, and Quantum Yields,” “Introduction to Time-Resolved Fluorescence: Time-Domain Measurements,” “Fluorescence Probes,” and “Introduction to Fluorescence Anisotropy.”
In each lecture, Lakowicz describes the basic principles of the topic and then selects biochemical and biomedical examples of the method. The lectures also describe the most common errors in the measurement. The lectures are suitable for a graduate-level course on all aspects of fluorescence.
Lakowicz’s department plans to view each lecture with students in the classroom, with the presence of a faculty monitor to answer questions.
“We are hopeful the lectures may be useful for individuals wanting a deeper understanding of fluorescence,” he says in the video “Introduction to Fluorescence Spectroscopy” that provides a history of the course. “We welcome faculty from other institutions to use these lectures as the basis of a graduate course on fluorescence technology.”
More sections are planned for the future.