# Fame.am profile — machine-readable export
# Canonical URL: https://fame.am/person/william-e-moerner
# Generated: 2026-09-02T06:05:33.934Z

schema: https://schema.org/Person
url: "https://fame.am/person/william-e-moerner"
name: "William E. Moerner"
slug: "william-e-moerner"
description: "He saw what no one had seen: a single molecule, lit and measured in isolation. That 1989 feat cracked open a new way to watch chemistry happen one event at a time, and it reshaped how labs study everything from protein folding to the machinery inside cells."
tagline: "Nobel prize winning American chemical physicist"
image: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/WE_Moerner.jpg"
gender: "male"
country:
  name: "United States"
  isoCode: "US"
category:
  name: "Scientists"
  slug: "scientists"
profileType:
  name: "Scientist"
  slug: "scientist"
  entityType: "https://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q39631"
birthDate: "1953-06-24"
livingStatus: "LIVING"
scores:
  popularity:           52.29
  momentum:             0
  historical:           22.03492
  currentAttention:     0
  sourceConfidence:     70
  profileCompleteness:  80
  trendDirection:       "STABLE"
ranks:
  global:   null
  country:  null
  category: null
tags:
  - name: "Scientists"
    slug: "scientists"
  - name: "Scientist"
    slug: "scientist"
  - name: "Chemistry"
    slug: "chemistry"
  - name: "Physics"
    slug: "physics"
  - name: "United States"
    slug: "united-states"
  - name: "Americas"
    slug: "americas"
  - name: "20th Century"
    slug: "20th-century"
platforms:
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    handle:    "nm7156383"
  - platform:  "WEBSITE"
    url:       "https://profiles.stanford.edu/w-moerner"
sources:
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    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "Uilyam Mörner"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://be.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A3%D1%96%D0%BB%D1%8C%D1%8F%D0%BC_%D0%9C%D1%91%D1%80%D0%BD%D0%B5%D1%80"
    title: "Уільям Мёрнер"
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    title: "William E. Moerner"
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    title: "William E. Moerner"
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    title: "William Moerner"
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    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "William Moerner"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Moerner"
    title: "William Moerner"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "William E. Moerner"
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  - url: "https://gd.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Moerner"
    title: "William Moerner"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "William E. Moerner"
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    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "विलियम एस्को मोइरनर"
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    title: "William Moerner"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "Ուիլյամ Մոերներ"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "William E. Moerner"
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    title: "وليام مورنر"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"

# bio (long form, separated for readability)
bio: |
  William Esco Moerner was born June 24, 1953, and trained as a physical chemist drawn to the behavior of matter at its smallest scales. Working with postdoc Lothar Kador, he pulled off the first optical detection and spectroscopy of a single molecule in a condensed phase — a breakthrough that turned molecules from invisible averages into observable individuals. The technique spread fast across chemistry, physics, and biology, giving researchers a new lens on processes that bulk measurements had always blurred. In 2014 the Nobel Prize in Chemistry recognized the work. He continues in biophysics and single-molecule imaging, still watching the very small do very particular things.