Champaign, Illinois - January 21, 2019 - Prof. Alexander P. Demchenko is the winner of the 2019 Weber Award; the award will be announced during the upcoming Annual Meeting of the Biophysical Society in Baltimore, Maryland.

Prof. Demchenko is a well-known scientist in the field of molecular and membrane biophysics and in fluorescence spectroscopic research. He is the author of about 200 publications that are frequently cited in world literature and author of two classic monographs: Ultraviolet Spectroscopy of Proteins (Springer, 1986) and Introduction to Fluorescence Sensing (Springer, 2009/2015). He was also the editor of three books in the Springer Series on Fluorescence and the editorial board member of three journals.

He studied molecular physics (Kyiv State, Shevtchenko University, 1967), obtained a PhD in Biochemistry (1972), and obtained a Habilitation in Biophysics (1982). Working in his home institution in Ukraine (Palladin Institute of Biochemistry) he was invited as a visiting professor to different universities in USA, Germany, Turkey, Hungary, France, and Taiwan. His research activities are versatile, often interdisciplinary, but always related to fluorescence.

Studying the mechanisms of excited-state proton transfer reactions allowed him to develop the new concept of fluorescence sensing and imaging employing two-color ratio metric fluorescence probes. He extended the theory and application of Weber's Red Edge effect to the spectroscopic domain and also to excited-state reactions of electrons and protons and energy transfer that suggested the new 'site-selective' methodology to biophysics.

ISS is honored to recognize Prof. Demchenko as this year's recipient of the Gregorio Weber Award for Excellence in Fluorescence Theory and Applications for his continued contributions to the evolution of the field.