Marcus Buckingham
Global Authority on Strengths & Leadership | Head of People + Performance Research, ADP Research Institute | NYT Bestselling Author
Joachim Frank
2017 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry | Father of Cryo-EM | Professor, Columbia University | Member, National Academy of Sciences
Joachim Frank invented cryo-electron microscopy — a technique that lets scientists see the machinery of life at atomic resolution — earning him the 2017 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. A Columbia professor and published novelist, he speaks on scientific breakthroughs, drug discovery, and the deep connections between science and the arts.
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Joachim Frank biography
Joachim Frank is the scientist who gave the world its most powerful tool for seeing the machinery of life — the founder of single-particle cryo-electron microscopy, a technique that allows researchers to visualize biological molecules at atomic resolution and has transformed structural biology, drug discovery, and our understanding of how living systems work. Born in Siegen, Germany in 1940, he studied physics at the University of Freiburg and the University of Munich before earning his doctorate at the Technical University of Munich in 1970. Postdoctoral work took him to NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the University of California Berkeley, and Cornell University, before he joined the Wadsworth Center in Albany — where, over more than two decades, he developed the single-particle reconstruction methods that would become the foundation of modern cryo-EM.
Nobel Prize speaker Joachim Frank has been a Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics and of Biological Sciences at Columbia University since 2008, where his lab continues to investigate ribosome structure and function using the very techniques he pioneered. From 1998 to 2017, he also served as an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Academy for Microbiology, and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Among his earlier honors, the 2014 Franklin Medal in Life Science from the Franklin Institute stands as a milestone — as does the Honorary Doctorate from the University of Siegen and the Honorary Fellowship from the Royal Microscopical Society, both received in 2018.
The 2017 Nobel Prize in Chemistry and the Cryo-EM Revolution
In 2017, Frank shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Jacques Dubochet and Richard Henderson, awarded for developing cryo-electron microscopy for the high-resolution structure determination of biomolecules in solution. The prize recognized decades of painstaking work: between 1975 and 1986, Frank developed computational methods that could take thousands of blurry two-dimensional electron microscope images of frozen biological molecules and merge them into sharp, detailed three-dimensional structures. The impact has been immense — cryo-EM is now the primary tool for determining the structures of proteins, viruses, and molecular machines, and has directly accelerated the development of drugs for cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, and infectious diseases, including the structural work that underpinned COVID-19 vaccine development.
What makes Frank singular as a science speaker is not merely his scientific standing, but the breadth of his intellectual life. A published fiction writer and poet listed in the Poets & Writers directory, he has written two novels — Aan Zee (2019) and Ierapetra, or His Sister’s Keeper (2024) — alongside dozens of short stories published in literary journals. His talks explore the nature of discovery, the role of visual intuition in science, the intersection of art and scientific thinking, and what cryo-EM means for the future of medicine and drug design. For audiences in science, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, innovation, and research leadership, Frank offers a perspective that is both technically rigorous and profoundly humanistic.
Joachim Frank Speaking Videos
Joachim Frank - Cryo-EM Workshop
Nobel Lecture: Joachim Frank, Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2017
Joachim Frank Keynote Topics
For decades, the most important molecular machines in living cells — the ribosomes, the viral proteins, the receptor complexes — could not be seen in sufficient detail to understand how they worked or how to design drugs against them. Frank tells the story of how he developed the computational methods that changed this, turning blurry electron microscope images into atomic-resolution three-dimensional structures. A compelling account of scientific persistence, visual intuition, and the transformative power of a technique that is now at the heart of modern pharmaceutical development.
Structural biology has become one of the most powerful engines of pharmaceutical innovation, and cryo-EM is its primary tool. Frank traces how the technique he developed has moved from academic curiosity to industrial workhorse — enabling the rapid identification of drug targets, the design of precision therapeutics, and the structural insights that underpinned COVID-19 vaccine development. A rigorous and forward-looking keynote for audiences in biotech, pharma, healthcare, and research strategy who want to understand where the next generation of medicines will come from.
Frank's life has run along two parallel tracks — one as the scientist who founded a field, the other as a published novelist and poet who has written and published fiction for decades. In this deeply personal keynote, he explores what scientific and artistic thinking share: the role of pattern recognition, visual intuition, the willingness to sit with uncertainty, and the discipline of building something from nothing. A rare and enriching address for any audience interested in creativity, innovation, and the full range of human intelligence.
FAQs on Booking Joachim Frank
Why Joachim Frank?
Booking Joachim Frank means bringing to your stage the scientist who invented cryo-electron microscopy — one of the most consequential advances in modern biology — and who was recognized with the 2017 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for doing so. Frank is not simply a distinguished laureate: he is a rare intellectual who combines world-class scientific authority with genuine literary sensibility, having published two novels and numerous short stories alongside more than 300 peer-reviewed scientific papers. His talks go beyond credentials — they offer audiences a front-row account of how paradigm-shifting science actually happens, what drives discovery, and why the future of medicine depends on the techniques he pioneered. For events in science, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, research, or innovation leadership, Joachim Frank is an exceptional and memorable choice. Aurum Speakers Bureau will manage all aspects of the booking to ensure a seamless experience.
What is cryo-electron microscopy and why does it matter?
Cryo-electron microscopy — cryo-EM — is a technique that enables scientists to image biological molecules such as proteins, ribosomes, and viruses at near-atomic resolution, by flash-freezing them and then bombarding them with electron beams. Joachim Frank's contribution was to develop the computational methods that take thousands of these low-quality two-dimensional images and reconstruct them into precise three-dimensional structures. Before cryo-EM, many of the most important and medically relevant molecules were too large or too flexible to be imaged by other methods such as X-ray crystallography. Today, cryo-EM is the primary structural tool in pharmaceutical drug discovery: it underpinned the development of COVID-19 vaccines, is accelerating research into Alzheimer's disease, cancer, and antibiotic resistance, and is revealing molecular machines whose structure was previously unknown.
What research does Joachim Frank continue at Columbia?
Frank's laboratory at Columbia University continues to investigate the ribosome — the molecular machine responsible for translating genetic information into proteins — using cryo-EM and single-particle reconstruction techniques. His team has pioneered time-resolved cryo-EM, a method that captures the ribosome in motion rather than in a static snapshot, providing an unprecedented view of how this fundamental biological machine actually works. Publications from the Frank Lab continue to appear in leading journals including Cell and the Journal of Molecular Biology, with recent work focusing on ribosome recycling and the mechanisms of leaderless mRNA translation.
What topics does science speaker Joachim Frank cover?
Joachim Frank speaks on the discovery and development of cryo-electron microscopy, the science and implications of structural biology, the future of drug discovery and molecular medicine, the nature of scientific breakthroughs and how paradigm shifts happen, and the relationship between scientific and artistic ways of seeing the world. His sessions are particularly powerful for audiences in science, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, healthcare, research leadership, and innovation. To book Joachim Frank, contact Aurum Speakers Bureau.
How to book Joachim Frank as a keynote speaker?
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How much is Joachim Frank speaking fee?
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How can I contact Joachim Frank?
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Can I book Joachim Frank for a virtual keynote?
Yes, Joachim Frank is available for virtual keynotes and webinars. To book Joachim Frank for a virtual event, please complete the contact form or send us an email to inquire about the special fees for virtual engagements.
