The phenomenon known as fluorescence is now widely used in the chemical and life sciences largely due to the development of highly sophisticated fluorescent probe chemistries and the commercial availability of these probes as well as the development of novel microscopy approaches. Introduction to Fluorescence helps readers acquire a sound understanding of basic fluorescence theory and practice. It describes general principles in a straightforward way and uses examples from a variety of disciplines to demonstrate them.

In color throughout, the book takes readers through the history of important discoveries to the most current advances. It introduces the fundamentals of the fluorescence phenomenon and gives detailed examples of fluorescence applications in the molecular life sciences, including biochemistry, biophysics, clinical chemistry and diagnostics, pharmaceutical science, and cell and molecular biology. The author presents the basic theories underlying the applications and offers in-depth information on practical aspects.

Along with a list of references in each chapter, the text incorporates more than 250 figures that clearly illustrate the concepts and gives the chemical structures of the most widely used fluorescent molecules. In addition, the appendix provides a Rogue's Gallery of the most common errors and pitfalls to avoid.

David M. Jameson is a professor in the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology at the John A. Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawaii at Manoa, having previously served there as professor and chairman of the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics. He earned his Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where his graduate thesis advisor was Professor Gregorio Weber. Prior to his move to the University of Hawaii, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the CNRS, University of Paris-South and he was an assistant professor in the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. Dr. Jameson is the co-organizer of the International Weber Symposia on Innovative Fluorescence Methodologies in Biochemistry and Medicine, which have been held every three years since 1986 (since 1995 in Hawaii). He serves on the editorial boards of The Scientific World Journal, Analytical Biochemistry, and Methods and Applications in Fluorescence. He is a member of the advisory board for the Laboratory for Fluorescence Dynamics (supported by the National Institutes of Health) at the University of California, Irvine. He was the recipient of the 2004 Gregorio Weber Award for Excellence in Fluorescence Theory/Application.