Curriculum Vitae
Personal details
Martin Hof
Born 21.9.1962 in Friedberg/Germany;
Czech and German citizen
Married to Mgr. Iveta Hofova, November 25, 1995; 1 child, Maxim (born May 28, 1997)
URL for web site:https://www.biophysical-chemistry.cz/hof-fluorescence-group
Scientific education
| 2009 | Full Professor for Physical Chemistry named by the Czech President |
| 2006 | Doctor of Science (DSc.), Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (CAS) |
| 1999 | Habilitation at the Faculty for Chemistry and Pharmacy of the Julius-Maximilians-University Würzburg |
| 1990 | Dissertation in Physical Chemistry at the University Würzburg (“with excellence (1.0)”) |
| 1987 | "Diplom-Chemiker" at the University Würzburg; (“with excellence (1.0)”) |
Current positions
| 5/2017 | Director of the J. Heyrovský Institute of Physical Chemistry;CAS |
| 2001 | Lecturer and PhD advisor at Faculty of Nature Sciences of the Palacky University Olomouc (Czech Republic), Faculties of the Charles University Prague Faculties of the Czech Technical University in Prague, and Biological Faculty of the South Bohemian University Ceske Budejovice (Czech Republic) |
| 2000 | Senior Scientist at the J. Heyrovský Institute; Start-up of own scientific group |
Previous positions
| 2007-4/2017 | Vice-Director of the J. Heyrovský Institute,CAS |
| 2006-4/2017 | Head of the Department of Biophysical Chemistry at that Institute |
| 1997-1999 | Scientist at the J. Heyrovský Institute, CAS |
| 1997-1999 | Assistant Professor at the Department of Physical Chemistry, Würzburg |
| 1996 | Visiting scientist at the University of Patras, Greece (Prof. P. Lianos) |
| 1993-1995 | Liebig Fellow at the Department of Physical Chemistry/Charles University Prague (Prof. V. Fidler) |
| 1991-1993 | Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (USA) (Prof. N. L. Thompson) and University Würzburg (Prof. F. W. Schneider) |
Fellowships and awards
| 1997–99 | Habilitation Fellowship by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (University Würzburg and J. Heyrovský Institute of Physical Chemistry, CAS) |
| 1993–95 | Liebig-Fellowship for habilitation by Fonds der Deutschen Chemischen Industrie (Charles University Prague) |
| 1991–93 | Post-Doctoral Fellowship by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG; Chapel Hill, Würzburg) |
| 1987–89 | PhD Fellowship by Fonds der Deutschen Chemischen Industrie (University Würzburg) |
| 2024 | Honorary Citizen of Prague 8 |
| 2024 | Ioannes Marcus Marci Medal for achievements in fluorescence spectroscopy |
| 2022 | Medal of Emil Votocka - awarded by UCT Prague |
| 2011 | Praemium Academie award by the CAS |
| 2007 | Award of the CAS for exceptionally successful solution of program and grant projects |
| 1991 | Dissertation awarded by the “Unterfraenkische Gedenkjahresstiftung” |
Supervision of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows; teaching activities
| 2001– | Advisor or co-advisor of 15 Postdocs / 27 PhD students / 7 Master students at the J. Heyrovský Institute in cooperation with Czech Universities; teaching regular courses in spectroscopy and microscopy |
| 1993–2000 | Co-advisor of 3 PhD students (Department of Physical Chemistry, Würzburg); teaching regular courses in physical chemistry at the Faculty of Chemistry and Pharmacy, Würzburg |
Organisation of scientific meetings (listed only if M. Hof served as chairman)
| 2001–2011 | Six times Biannual Seminars on Biophysics of Lipids; Prague/Wroclaw; 50–70 participants |
| 2003 | “Methods and Applications of Fluorescence” (MAF); Prague; 300 participants |
Institutional responsibilities (listed only if M. Hof served as chairman/coordinator)
| 2007–2012 | Chairman of the Board of the J. Heyrovský Institute |
| 2006–2011 | Coordinator of the Research Centre “Advanced Fluorescence Microscopy in Biosciences” financed by the Czech Ministry of Education |
| 2004–2006 | Chairman of the Scientific Board of the J. Heyrovský Institute |
Commissions of trust and memberships of scientific societies
| 2008– | Reviewer for international grant agencies (e.g. Austrian Science Foundation, Wallenberg Foundation Sweden, German Science Foundation, Cancer Research UK, ERC) |
| 2005– | External PhD examiner at international universities (e.g. University Leuven, KTH Stockholm, Humboldt University Berlin, Universities Singapore, Limoges, Umeå, Lisbon, Freiburg, Dresden, Glasgow, Oxford, EPFL Lausanne) |
| 2009–2012 | Panel member of Czech Science Foundation (Physical Chemistry) |
| 2014–2017 | Editorial Board member of “Biophysical Chemistry” |
| 2011– | Elected Fellow of the Learned Society of the Czech Republic |
| 2011–2020 | Series Editor of the “Springer Series on Fluorescence” |
| 2013–2014 | Editorial Board member of “Methods and Applications of Fluorescence” |
| 2008–2011 | Editor-in-Chief for Europe of “Journal of Fluorescence” |
| 2017– | Editorial Board member of “European Biophysics Journal” |
Major international active collaborations (recent joint papers or grants)
Sweden: Jerker Widengren (Stockholm), Gerhard Groebner (Umea); Finland: Ilpo Vattulainen (Tampere); Austria: Thomas Juffmann (Vienna); Germany: Walter Nickel (Heidelberg) and Jörg Enderlein (Göttingen); Portugal: Manuel Prieto, Fabio Fernandes (Lisbon); Netherlands: Sense van der Molen (Leiden); France: Burkhart Bechinger (Strasbourg);
Publishing activities
Author of 234 publications in impacted Journals, 5 publications in conference proceedings, 20 chapters in books, 1 patent, editor of 7 books; WoS on 31.3.2024, selected “all data bases”: 7200 citations excluding auto citations; Highest number of citations/year: 660 (2021); H-index: 48
Since 2010: 143 publications in imp. J. including papers in Nat Chem Biol, Chem Sci, Small, Adv Func Mat; PNAS; Chemical Reviews, J. Cell Biol; two in ACS Nano and JACS, three in J Phys Chem Let, Angewandte, and eLife; 3967 citations without auto citations
Brief summary of carrier development and research accomplishments
After his PhD in Würzburg and a DFG-funded postdoc at UNC Chapel Hill, M. Hof won a prestigious “Habilitations Liebig-Stipendium” in 1993. Rather than moving to one of the leading western universities, he decided due to family reasons to transfer the award to the Charles University in Prague. He was planning to launch an ambitious research program aimed at developing new fluorescence methods to study the blood coagulation process at the molecular level. Given the lamentable state of experimental equipment and support in freshly post-communist Czechia this was an almost impossible task. However, M. Hof succeeded in part due to his true grit and in part by performing parts of his research in Chicago (with Graham Fleming) and Würzburg (here he completed his habilitation in 1999). With conditions for science gradually improving in the Czech Republic, he accepted a position of group leader at the J. Heyrovsky Institute in 2000. His remarkable success in acquiring third-party funds allowed him to gradually build up his lab for development of novel fluorescence (F-) techniques.
Development of F-techniques: Methods like the time-dependent fluorescence shift approach (TDFS) for membrane (e.g. Sykora Langmuir 2002) and enzyme (Jesenska JACS 2009) sciences, the first calibration-free Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy technique (z-scan FCS; Benda Langmuir 2003), F lifetime CS (FLCS; e.g. Benda Rev Sci Instr 2005) and F Spectral Correlation Spectroscopy (Benda Optics Express 2014) were developed/co-developed in Prague. Moreover, he succeeded in advancing the following F-techniques: Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging Microscopy and Förster Resonance Energy Transfer method combined with Monte-Carlo simulations (e.g. Sachl Biophys J 2011), fluorescence antibunching for membrane-associated aggregation phenomena (Sachl BBA-Mol Cell Res 2015) and 2-foci FCS (Stefl Optics Express 2014). Recently, the interpretation of different fluorescence leakage assays was harmonised (Braun, ACS Nano 2018) and combined with single molecule number and brightness analysis (Steringer, eLife 2017; Sachl, Analytical Chem 2020; Vandana Analytical Chem 2023)
Applications of F-techniques: Concerning biophysics, M. Hof made fundamental contribution to the influence of solid support (e.g. Przbylo Langmuir 2006), ions (e.g. Melcerova Sci Rep 2016), oxidised lipids (e.g. Volinsky Biophys J 2011) and sterols (e.g. Kulig J Phys Chem Lett 2018), and lipid composition (Vinklarek J Phys Chem Lett 2019; Cebecauer Chem Rev 2018: Sarmento Biophys J 2021; Davidovic J Phys Chem Let 2023) on the physical chemical properties of lipid bilayers. In terms of application of these F-techniques in biology, the first usage of FLCS in living cells might serve as an interesting example (Huranova J Cell Biol 2010). In the last decade, M. Hof further increased the complexity of the addressed questions. One can highlight his contributions to rational enzyme design (Sykora Nat Chem Biol 2014; Amaro JACS 2015; Kokonnen JACS 2018), applications of TDFS in DNA and protein science (Dziuba Chemical Sciences 2016; Fischermeier, Angewandte 2017), application of new molecular rotors in live cell imaging (Dziuba Angewandte 2016; Hot paper), the single-molecule studies on the membrane-mediated oligomerisations of the β-amyloid peptide (Amaro Angewandte 2016; VIP paper) or of the FGF2 protein (Steringer Elife 2017, Lolicato J Cell Biol 2022; Lolicato Elife 2024)