Dr. Ibrahim I. Cissé Wins 2017 Honor

HORIBA Scientific, world leader in fluorescence spectroscopy systems, awarded Dr. Ibrahim Cissé, the Class of 1922 Assistant Professor of Physics at MIT, its annual Young Fluorescence Investigator Award. HORIBA Scientific has been the sole sponsor of this award since 1997. Along with the recognition, HORIBA presents a $1000 check to the awardee, who is invited to present a 20-minute talk on their research at the Biological Fluorescence Subgroup Meeting during the Biophysical Society Annual Meeting. This year’s presentation by Dr. Cissé was, “Capturing Genome Regulation with Single Molecule Resolution in Live Mammalian Cells." 

Prof. Cissé joined the Department of Physics at MIT in January, 2014. He received his B.S. in Physics in 2004 from North Carolina Central University, and then went to the Physics Department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in December, 2009 to complete his PhD. His graduate research in single-molecule biophysics focused on weak and transient interactions in vitro, and was done in the lab of Taekjip Ha, currently Bloomberg Professor of Biophysics, Biophysical Chemistry and Biomedical Engineering at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). From January 2010 to December 2012, he studied at Ecole Normale Supérieure de Paris, in the Physics and Biology departments, as both a Pierre Gilles de Gennes fellow, and a European Molecular Biology Organization long-term fellow. He then went to HHMI’s Janelia Research Campus where he was in the Transcription Imaging Consortium until January 2013. 

The Young Fluorescence Investigator Award is given to a researcher who has been nominated by their peers, for significant advancements and/or contributions in, or using, fluorescence methodologies. The candidate must be a Ph.D., and pre-tenured faculty or a junior level investigator working in the field of fluorescence.   

“HORIBA is very proud to sponsor this prestigious award every year, and Professor Cissé is an excellent choice as this year’s recipient,” said Cary Davies, Director of the Fluorescence group at HORIBA Scientific. Ibrahim is the 22^nd researcher to win the Young Investigator Award, since 1997.”