James Fitzpatrick, Ph.D.
Director
Biophotonics Core

As Director of the Biophotonics Core Facility at the Salk Institute, James Fitzpatrick’s primary focus is the integration and application of optical detection technologies to study problems of critical biological significance. He is a chemical physicist and laser spectroscopist by doctoral training. In his Ph.D. he designed and developed a novel injection seeded optical parametric oscillator (OPO) laser system for the study of nuclear hyperfine structure in the laser induced fluorescence spectra of gas phase free radical species. After completing his Ph.D. at the University of Bristol, he moved to the United States as a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania where he shifted his focus to study biological molecules such as peptide mimics and their micro-solvated clusters in the gas-phase using high-resolution fluorescence spectroscopy. In his second post-doc at Carnegie Mellon University, also in Pittsburgh, he spent his time studying protein-protein interactions using tools such as fluorescence microscopy and fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS). After that he was hired to direct the Shared Imaging Facility as a part of the Carnegie Mellon National Technology Center for Networks and Pathways, an NIH funded Roadmap initiative whose mandate is to develop fluorescent probe and imaging informatics technologies to study networks and pathways in living cells.

Education

- B.S. in Chemistry, King’s College London, U.K.
- Ph.D. in Optical Physics, Laser Spectroscopy and Dynamics Group, University of Bristol, U.K.
- NSF Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Pittsburgh, PA, USA
- PTEI Postdoctoral Fellow, Carnegie Mellon University, PA USA

Awards and Honors

- Long-term quantum dot research featured in Chemical & Engineering News (2009)
- Cholera-toxin-B quantum dot research featured in Nature Nanotechnology (2008)
- FAP imaging technology featured in Nature Biotechnology (2008)
- Institute of Physics Research Travel Award (2002)
- ICI “Excellence in Graduate Research” prize University of Bristol (2001 and 2002)