
Professor Kopelman is a fellow of the American Physical Society and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is a Distinguished University of Michigan Professor of Chemistry, Chemical Biology, Biophysics, Physics, Biomedical Engineering and Applied Physics. He has received, among others, the American Chemical Society’s Edward Morley Award and Medal (1997), and the American Chemical Society’s Spectrochemical Analysis Award (2005). With his student, Jeff Anker, he also received the US Hall of Fame Collegiate Inventors Grand Prize (2002). Professor Kopelman received the Pittsburgh Analytical Chemistry Award (2011), in which he was recognized for his contributions in the areas of bioanalytical- and nano- chemistry. His work includes exciton transport in molecular wires, non-classical chemical reaction kinetics in confined domains, the Hoshen-Kopelman cluster identification computer algorithm, and the development of ultra-small opto-chemical sensors and actuators for biomedical use. Professor Kopelman initiated single molecule imaging and spectroscopy, invented optical nanosensors for single cell chemical and physical imaging and is the inventor of multifunctional targeted nanoplatforms for the imaging, therapy, and surgical delineation of tumors, as well as the use of photo-ablation for heart arrhythmia. He is also the inventor of the first nanoscale photon source, nanoscale voltmeter and nanoscale viscometer, and of the “cell magnetorotation” method and its application to (1) ultra-rapid antibacterial susceptibility determinations of single bacteria and to (2) the morphological and dynamical characterization and drug sensitivity determination of single circulating tumor cells. His recent research centers on in vivo molecular imaging by photoacoustic methods and on a new approach to cancer histology testing.