Klaus Hahn (biologist)
Klaus Michael Hahn is an American scientist and educator, recognized for his work with optogenetics and the development of biosensors. Education. Hahn earned his B.A. in Biochemistry and Philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania, and his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Virginia. After postdoctoral training at Carnegie Mellon University, he became a senior research associate at the Scripps Research Institute. He is currently a Ronald Thurman Distinguished Professor of Pharmacology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Hahn has authored over 150 publications. Work. Hahn has spent his entire career in education, outside  of industry. In 2016, he joined the advisory board of the Frederick National Laboratory of the National Cancer Institute. Research. Hahn’s lab has made contributions to the fields of molecular pharmacology and cancer cell biology. A large portion of his career was devoted to the development of biosensors for imaging at a molecular level. His work with biosensors was part of the “10 Breakthroughs of the Decade” by Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology. Other major works include engineering ways to control optogenetics, developing environment-sensing fluorescent dyes to interrogate signaling activity in living cells, and understanding the role of  GTPases in the control of cytoskeletal dynamics. Awards and recognition. Hahn is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a recipient of the Pearse Prize of the Royal Microscopy Society.