Skip to main content
Close
Vilcek Foundation
  • About
    • About

      The Vilcek Foundation raises awareness of immigrant contributions in the United States and fosters appreciation of the arts and sciences.

    • Our Mission
    • Board & Staff
    • Press Center
    • Contact
  • Prizes
    • Prizes

      The Vilcek Foundation Prizes are awarded to foreign-born individuals for extraordinary achievement in the arts and sciences.

    • About the Prizes

      Learn more about the Vilcek Foundation Prizes and the prizewinners.

    • Vilcek Prizes

      Awarded to immigrants with a legacy of major accomplishments.

    • Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise

      Awarded to young immigrant professionals who have demonstrated outstanding achievement early in their careers.

    • Vilcek Prize for Excellence

      Awarded to immigrants who have had a significant impact on American society, or to individuals who are dedicated champions of immigrant causes.

    • Prize Recipients
    • Grants for Organizations
  • Art
  • Events
  • News
Sign Up Search
Home > Prizes > Prize Recipients > Ibrahim Cissé

Ibrahim Cissé

2021 Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science

Location

Cambridge, MA

Title

Associate Professor of Physics and Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

Area(s) of Research

Super-resolution imaging, single molecule characterization

Education

North Carolina Central University (BS);
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (PhD);
Ecole Normale Superieure Paris (Postdoc)

Country of Birth

Niger

Follow Ibrahim Cissé
Twitter
Links to learn more about Ibrahim Cissé's work
  • icisse.org

Tags
biological imaging biomedical science biophysics dna imaging microscopy MIT niger physics rna
Share this page
Twitter Facebook LinkedIn

Ibrahim Cissé with a big smile, arms folded, and a black blazer.

Ibrahim Cissé grew up the son of a lawyer in Niger, daydreaming about living a life in America, based on what he knew of the country from films and television. He recalls that, as a child, seeing movies like Eddie Murphy’s The Nutty Professor provided him his first visuals of a professor and scientist in the United States.

Ibrahim pictured with his mother Nankoria Cissé (née Traoré)
Ibrahim at age 11, with his mother Nankoria Cissé (née Traoré) at an end-of-year celebration.

Now a biophysicist and associate professor with tenure in the physics and biology department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cissé is living his dream. His research with the Cissé Laboratory at MIT focuses on the development of high-resolution microscopy techniques that enable scientists to examine the behavior of single biomolecules in living cells. Cissé’s research in particular focuses on the process by which DNA gets decoded into RNA. He has developed a so-called tc-PALM technique of imaging, which has expanded previous imitations in single-molecule super-resolution imaging.

Scientific knowledge is not static. It is something that can be challenged and expanded with new discovery.

Convinced that he wanted to pursue his education and a career in the United States, Cissé studied independently to pass the national baccalaureate exam in Niger as an independent candidate at the age of 17. On completing his exams, he enrolled in an ESL program at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington; committed to continuing his education in the United States, Cissé enrolled in Durham Technical Community College, before transferring to North Carolina Central University, a historically Black college, notable for its undergraduate science and mathematics research programs.

Ibrahim writes in a notebook at a table on a rooftop deck.

Following his sophomore year, Cissé pursued a summer internship at Princeton. There, Cissé was confronted by Paul Chaikin with a question about elliptical geometry and particle density, notably featuring M & M candies; Cissé’s creative problem-solving enabled him and his fellow researchers to develop a model for observing and quantifying their results, which were published in Science magazine.

Ibrahim Cissé points to a computer to explain his research to Niger's President Mahamadou Issoufou.
Ibrahim explains his research group’s work to Niger’s President Mahamadou Issoufou at MIT. Courtesy of Bryce Vickmark.

A love of problem-solving and a passion for the development of creative solutions drive Cissé’s research. Upon being admitted to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, he reached out to Professor Taekjip Ha, who was leading research in high-resolution, single-biomolecule imaging technology. The physics employed in the imaging technology Ha was developing fascinated Cissé, and the summer before starting at Urbana-Champaign, Cissé began work in Ha’s laboratory on this research.

Ibrahim, in a red coat, stands in front of steps at MIT.

Cissé’s fascination with innovative approaches to using physics to understand the physical processes in biology led him to complete post-doctoral research in the field. His refinement of tools for studying single molecules in living cells has led him to contribute discoveries about the clustering and droplet-like behavior of RNA polymerase II during RNA transcription. In an interview with MIT News, he stated, “It’s becoming clearer that physics may be just as important as biology for understanding how cells work.”

 

Awards and Accomplishments

  • Next Einstein Forum (2019–21)
  • Science News SN10 Scientists to Watch (2018)
  • Pew Scholar in Biomedical Sciences (2017)
  • Biophysical Society Young Fluorescence Investigator Award (2017)
  • National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director’s New Innovator Award (2014)
  • Long-term Fellow, European Molecular Biology Association

Follow Ibrahim Cissé

Twitter
Tags
biological imaging biomedical science biophysics dna imaging microscopy MIT niger physics rna

Jury Members

2021 Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science

Heran Darwin

Professor, Department of Microbiology, New York University

Laurie Dempsey

Senior Editor, Nature Immunology, Nature Publishing Group

Yibin Kang

Warner-Lambert/Parke-Davis Professor of Molecular Biology, Princeton University

Harmit S. Malik

Principal Investigator, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center

Luciano A. Marraffini

Kayden Family Professor, The Rockefeller University

Leslie B. Vosshall

Robin Chemers Neustein Professor of Neurogenetics and Behavior, The Rockefeller University

Jedd D. Wolchok

Lloyd J. Old/Virginia and Daniel K. Ludwig Chair in Clinical Investigation, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
Share this page
Twitter Facebook LinkedIn

Related Prize Recipients

Silvi Rouskin

Silvi Rouskin receives the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science for developing methods to unravel the shapes of RNA molecules inside cells and aiding the potential development of RNA-based therapeutics.
Portrait of Silvi Rouskin

Hashim Al-Hashimi

Hashim Al-Hashimi receives the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Biomedical Science for using biophysical and computational methods to probe the dynamic properties of life-sustaining biomolecules such as DNA, RNA, and the proteins that interact with them, paving the way toward targeted drug discovery.
Hashim Al-Hashimi

Shixin Liu

Shixin Liu receives the Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise for applying cutting-edge biophysical tools to directly visualize, manipulate, and understand the physiological function of nanometer-scale biomolecular machines including DNA replication and transcription complexes at the single-molecule level.
Portrait of Shixin Liu.

You may also be interested in

September 29, 2021

Biophysicist Ibrahim Cissé receives prestigious MacArthur Fellowship

Vilcek Foundation Prizewinner Ibrahim Cissé (b. Republic of Niger) is the recipient of a 2021 MacArthur Fellowship from the MacArthur Foundation.
Ibrahim Cissé wearing a black blazer and shirt, smiles standing on a rooftop.
March 29, 2021

Ibrahim Cissé: The power of visibility

Growing up in Niamey, Niger, Ibrahim Cissé loved science and the thrilling possibility of discovery.
Ibrahim Cissé with a big smile, wearing a red jacket, standing in front of the steps of an MIT building.

Join our mailing list

Sign Up
Vilcek Foundation
21 East 70th Street
New York, New York 10021

Phone: 212.472.2500

Email: info@vilcek.org

  • About
    • Our Mission
    • Board and Staff
    • Press Center
    • Contact
  • Prizes
    • Vilcek Prizes
    • Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise
    • Vilcek Prize for Excellence
    • Prize Recipients
    • Grants for Organizations
  • Art
  • Events
  • News
  • Careers
Connect with us
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Youtube
  • Vimeo
  • Privacy Policy
  • Accessibility Statement
© 2023   Vilcek Foundation