 Dr. Peter Hegemann, Professor of Molecular Biophysics, Humboldt University, Berlin; Dr. Georg Nagel, Professor of Molecular Plant Physiology, Department of Botany, University of Würzburg; and Dr. Ernst Bamberg, Professor and Director of the Dept of Biophysical Chemistry, Max Planck Institute for Biophysics, Frankfurt, Germany for their discovery of channelrhodopsins, a family of light-activated ion channels.The discovery has greatly enlarged and strengthened the new field of optogenetics.Channelrhodopsins also provide a high potential for biomedical applications such as the recovery of vision and optical deep brain stimulation for treatment of Parkinson's and other diseases, instead of the more invasive electrode-based treatments.