After a brilliant introduction of the field by opponent Achillefs Kapanidis (Oxford) we enjoyed a scientific battle between him and Arash that lasted a good two hours (top). Afterwards the spirit remained high as Arash and co awaited the decision of the committee (bottom). The thesis describes single-particle tracking, a technique that allows for quantitative analysis of the localization and movement of particles. Recent advances have made it possible to track hundreds of particles in an individual cell by labeling the particles of interest with photoactivatable or photoconvertible fluorescent proteins and tracking one or a few at a time. Arash show that the fluorescent protein mEos2 diffuses normally at 13 µm2/s in the E. coli cytoplasm and also that free ribosomal subunits have access to the bacterial nucleoid where fully assembled ribosomes are excluded.

Read Arash thesis here