Robert Dickson

Robert Dickson is the Vasser Woolley Professor of Chemistry at the Georgia Institute of Technology. His research group develops advanced spectroscopic, statistical, and imaging technologies for studying biological dynamics in medicine and nanoscale systems. The lab specializes in novel nanomaterials, particularly noble metal quantum dots for ultrasensitive imaging, and optically modulatable fluorescent proteins for background-free biological visualization. Their work has been recognized through multiple awards including the Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award and NSF CAREER Award.

• Education: B.A. from Haverford College (1991), Ph.D. from University of Chicago (1996)
• Affiliation: Georgia Tech College of Sciences, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Research Interests span three major areas:

• Nanomaterials for Imaging: Developing ultrabright biodegradable Ag/Au nanoclusters with ligand-tunable emission from blue to near-infrared, utilizing dark states for optical modulation and background suppression
• Optical Modulation Imaging: Engineering fluorescent proteins with controllable dark states for enhanced sensitivity in live cell imaging, enabling discrimination of bound vs. diffusing species and quantitative protein interaction studies
• Bioinformatics for Diagnostics: Creating adaptive multidimensional statistical metrics to reduce antibiotic susceptibility testing time from 48 hours to 4 hours, with ongoing work to shorten blood culture steps to 10-hour total treatment identification

Scientific Awards include

• Vasser Woolley Chaired Professor
• Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award
• Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellow
• National Science Foundation CAREER Award
• Senior Editor, Journal of Physical Chemistry