Professor Robert G. Griffin is the winner of the 2010 ISMAR Prize. The presentation will be presented at the ISMAR 2010 Conference in Florence, Italy in July. Professor Griffin has made outstanding contributions to NMR spectroscopy, in particular, his successful development of high-field dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) as a practical method for sensitivity enhancement in solid-state NMR with magic-angle spinning. His contributions have included the design and construction of novel instrumentation for DNP and the use of nitroxide biradicals to improve DNP sensitivity.
Professor Griffin and co-workers recently demonstrated the ability of DNP to detect and characterize intermediates in the bacteriorhodopsin photocycle, the widely studied prototype of a ubiquitous family of light-driven ion pumps and a model for other members of the versatile family of retinal pigments, including the G-protein coupled receptors in the visual system.