Dr. Françisco M. Raymo
Laboratory for Molecular Photonics
He received a Laurea in Chemistry from the University of Messina (Italy) in 1992 and a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Birmingham (UK) in 1996. He was a postdoctoral associate at the University of Birmingham (UK) in 1996–1997 and at the University of California, Los Angeles in 1997–1999. He was appointed Assistant Professor of Chemistry at the University of Miami in 2000 and promoted to Associate Professor in 2004 and Full Professor in 2009. His expertise combines chemical synthesis, computational chemistry, electrochemistry and photochemistry. His research program evolved from the identification of mechanisms to perform logic functions with fluorescent and photochromic molecules to the development of imaging strategies based on unique photochemical and photophysical properties engineered into switchable fluorophores. Current projects are directed to the design, synthesis, characterization and testing of photoactivatable fluorophores for the investigation of the dynamic and structural factors regulating cellular processes at the molecular level.