The late Shinya Inoué, pioneering live-cell microscopist and MBL Distinguished Scientist for nearly four decades, was honored with a memorial symposium on August 2 at the annual meeting of the Microscopy Society of America in Portland, Ore.

The abstract for the symposium, published here, was written by several MBL scientists who collaborated with Inoué or who were indirectly influenced by Inoué's great contributions to biological imaging: Abhishek Kumar, Louis Kerr, Michael Shribak, Rudolf Oldenbourg, and Nipam Patel.

Wendy Salmon, former director of the advanced imaging course (AQLM) Inoué founded at MBL in 1979, co-organized the symposium along with David Piston and Simon Watkins, who have also served as faculty or directors of MBL imaging courses. Kumar, Oldenbourg, Watkins,  Paul Maddox (a member of MBL’s Imaging Committee), Alex Valm (former Brown University-MBL PhD student), Bonnie Howell (AQLM alumna) and one of Shribak’s collaborators, Yujin Bao, were among the presenters.

Shribak and Joerg Bewersdorf (co-director of MBL’s Optical Microscopy and Imaging in the Biological Sciences course) are currently working to combine super-resolution microscopy with their Inoué-inspired technology, OI-DIC (orientation-independent differential interference contrast microscopy). They recently published a review article on DIC microscopy and its long and impressive history of development at the MBL.

Below, MBL Senior Scientist Rudolf Oldenbourg presents at the Microscopy Society of America's Shinya Inoué Memorial Symposium on August 2.

Rudolf Oldenbourg presenting at MSA Shinya Inoue Memorial Symposium 2022