Göttingen Graduate Center for Neurosciences, Biophysics, and Molecular Biosciences

Walla, Peter Jomo, Prof. Dr.

Professor of Biomolecular Spectroscopy and Single-Molecule Detection


  • 2017 – 2018 Heising-Simons Fellow, Kavli Energy Nanoscience Institute, Berkeley
  • 2013 – 2016 Managing Director, Institute of Physical and Theoretical Chemistry, University of Braunschweig
  • 2007– present: University Professor for Biophysical Chemistry, University of Braunschweig, Germany and Research group leader, Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry and University of Göttingen
  • 2003–2007: Tenure-Track Faculty Position (Juniorprofessor), Technical University of Braunschweig, Germany
  • 2003–2006: Emmy-Noether research group leader, Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry and University of Göttingen, Germany
  • 2001–2003: Head of Department Optics & Detection, DIREVO Biotech AG, Cologne, Germany
  • 1999–2001: Postdoc (Prof. Dr. G.R. Fleming), University of California at Berkeley, USA
  • 1998 Postdoc (Prof. Dr. M. Orrit), CNRS Bordeaux, France
  • 1996–1998: Ph.D. degree in Physical Chemistry (Prof. Dr. J. Troe), Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Göttingen, Germany
  • 1994–1996: Diploma Degree in Chemistry (Prof. Dr. J. Troe), Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Göttingen, Germany




Major Research Interests

Application and Development of optical techniques for the investigation of biological mechanisms with particular emphasis on confocal and non-linear spectroscopy for the investigation of single biomolecular events and photosynthesis.



Homepage Department/Research Group
http://www.pci.tu-bs.de/agwalla/Peter_Walla_Main.htm



Selected Recent Publications

  • Pieper A, Hohgardt M, Willich M, Gacek DA, Hafi N, Pfennig D, Albrecht A, Walla PJ (2018) Biomimetic light-harvesting funnels for re-directioning of diffuse light, Nat. Commun., 9, 666

  • Walla PJ (2017) Photosynthesis: Nature's power switching station, Nat. Chem., 9 (8), 728-730

  • Walla PJ (2014) Modern Biophysical Chemistry - Detection and Analysis of Biomolecules, 2nd Edition, 360, pages, Wiley VCH Verlag GmbH, ISBN 978-3-527-33773-6

  • Hafi N, Grunwald M, van den Heuvel LS, Aspelmeier T, Chen JH, Zagrebelsky M, Schütte OM, Steinem C, Korte M, Munk A, Walla PJ (2014) Fluorescence nanoscopy by polarization modulation and polarization angle narrowing, Nat. Meth., 11, 579-584

  • Lin CC, Seikowski J, Pérez-Lara A, Jahn R, Höbartner C, Walla PJ (2014) Control of membrane gaps by synaptotagmin-Ca2+ measured with a novel membrane distance ruler, Nat. Commun., 5, 5859