After completing high school, Valentina Emiliani made the last-minute decision to enrol in a physics course at the University of Rome, her hometown. This was an informed choice for the winner of the 2026 Irène Joliot-Curie Female Scientist of the Year prize, who now directs the photonics department and wavefront modulation team at the Paris-based Institut de la Vision ophtalmology research centre1. She underscores the depth and breadth of this science, which can attain the highest levels by combining disciplines, without giving up specialisation.

From quantum structures to living beings

In 1997, before taking an interest in biology, Emiliani defended her PhD thesis on quantum structures. Next came a postdoctoral stay in Berlin, and a first position at the European Laboratory for Non-Linear Spectroscopy (LENS) in Florence, where this specialist in condensed matter set up a team to study near-field microscopy techniques.

A first turning point came in 2002, when she moved to Paris, where her husband worked. “I left a permanent position for a twelve-month contract at the Jacques Monod Institute2, where amid the biophysics boom I seized an opportunity to reorient myself towards issues relating to living beings.” More specifically, she developed three-dimensional optical (or “holographic”) tweezers to manipulate living cells, and did so brilliantly, for in 2004 she was recruited by the CNRS.

Manipulating light, activating neurons

The following year, when she was teaching the fundamentals of microscopy to biologists during a thematic course in the United States, she became fascinated by new techniques that use light to study neuronal activity. Upon returning to Paris, she began discussions with Serge Charpak – the then director of the neurophysiology and new microscopies laboratory – to join his unit, where the future laureate of the CNRS Silver Medal began activity that would establish her reputation. In 2008, Emiliani showed that by acting on the wavefront modulation of light, it is possible to generate light patterns that selectively activate one or more neurons.

Initially Emiliani used light to free neurotransmitters encapsulated in photosensitive chemical compounds. However, she soon proposed applying her holographic technique to optogenetic tools, a revolutionary approach that directly renders neurons sensitive to light.

Optogenetics as Valentina Emiliani practices it can generate light patterns to selectively activate one or more neurons.

Optogenetics as Valentina Emiliani practices it can generate light patterns to selectively activate one or more neurons.

Institut de la vision / Equipe Microscopie à modulation du front d'onde

Institut de la vision / Equipe Microscopie à modulation du front d'onde

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This makes it possible to stimulate a neuronal population in a targeted manner, attaining in vivo cellular resolution, and paving the way for precise analysis of the spatiotemporal dynamics of neural circuits.

Multidisciplinary community

In the ensuing years, Emiliani and her team improved the tools they had developed, leading to multiple patents, software programs, and know-how. “It was also at that time that I became convinced of the importance of having specialists from numerous disciplines work together. Even today, during my team meetings including physicists, biologists, and engineers, what makes me most proud is my contribution to connecting this multidisciplinary community.”

In 2019, the physicist – and the team of her colleague Gilles Tessier from the Institut de la Vision – accepted José-Alain Sahel’s invitation to apply their microscopy techniques to issues directly raised by biologists. “It was quite a complex operation!”

Since then, Emiliani has pursued her research on multiple fronts: the fundamental study of vision from the retina to the cortex; the application of holography and optogenetics in treatments for restoring vision; and experimental developments for “all-optical” solutions (simulation and recording) to manipulate neural circuits.

Encouraging scientific curiosity

While her career path has the ring of a true success story, she emphasises the doubts that sometimes accompanied her eclecticism and changes of direction.

With this in mind, Emiliani sees her prize as validation for her choices, as well as encouragement for all female scientists, for whom “societal pressure still makes it more difficult ‘to make a career’ than for men.” It is also an invitation for everyone to be guided by their curiosity, and to be as broad-minded as possible.

See also

Maïmouna Bocoum: the physics of sound and light