Françisco M. Raymo received a Laurea in Chemistry from the University of Messina (Italy) in 1992 and a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Birmingham (UK) in 1996. He was a postdoctoral associate at the University of Birmingham (UK) in 1996–1997 and at the University of California, Los Angeles in 1997–1999. He was appointed Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry of the University of Miami in 2000 and promoted to Associate Professor in 2004 and Full Professor in 2009. He joined The Patricia and Philip Frost Institute for Chemistry and Molecular Science of the University of Miami in 2025. His expertise combines chemical synthesis, computational chemistry, electrochemistry, fluorescence imaging and photochemistry. His research program evolved from the identification of strategies to perform logic operations with fluorescent and photochromic molecules to the development of imaging methods and functional materials based on the unique photochemical and photophysical properties engineered into an innovative family of switchable fluorophores with support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Army Research Office (ARO). His current research efforts focus on the design of photochemical mechanisms to switch fluorescence (NSF) with the ultimate goals of developing fluorescent molecules specifically designed to probe temperature distributions ratiometrically with micrometer resolution (NASA), monitor the dynamic and structural factors governing cellular processes at the single-molecule level (NIH) and tune the spectral output of microstructured lasers (ARO).
