Stuart Lindsay is Professor of Physics, Arizona State University (ASU). While much of his current interest is in the molecular basis of diseases, Lindsay has made long-lasting contributions to several fields in nanotechnology and biophysics over his past three decades at ASU. He was the first to develop inelastic light scattering spectroscopy to study low frequency vibration modes in DNA, which has led to a better understanding of collective motions in DNA and A–B transition in DNA. The early stages of his scientific career at ASU also included studying materials under extremely high pressure, glass transitions and the light scattering of semiconductor materials. He pioneered the scanning probe microscopy imaging of DNA and other biological molecules in water. His unusual talent in experimental physics and instrumentation led to the development of a 9-pass Fabry–Perot for high-resolution optical spectroscopy and a variety of innovative technologies for scanning probe microscopy. He co-founded the Molecular Imaging Corporation (now acquired by Agilent). In addition to biological molecules, Lindsay is one of the pioneers who applied scanning tunneling microscopy to studying fundamental phenomena at solid–liquid interfaces, including charge transport, interfacial forces, and molecular adsorption in solutions. His seminal work in single molecule electron transport provides new insights into not only the mechanism of the scanning tunneling microscopy of molecules, but also molecular electronics.