Peter Hegemann

Peter Hegemann (born 11 December 1954) is a German biophysicist, Hertie Senior Research Chair for Neurosciences and a professor of Experimental Biophysics at the Department of Biology, Faculty of Life Sciences, Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany. He is known for his discovery of channelrhodopsin, a type of ion channels regulated by light, thereby serving as a light sensor. This created the field of optogenetics, a technique that controls the activities of specific neurons by applying light. He has received numerous accolades, including the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, jointly awarded with Karl Deisseroth and Georg Nagel "for their discoveries concerning light-gated ion channels and optogenetics."