He is credited with achieving the first optical detection and spectroscopy of a single molecule in condensed phases, along with his postdoc, Lothar Kador.

[1][2] Optical study of single molecules has subsequently become a widely used single-molecule experiment in chemistry, physics and biology.

[7] He attended Washington University in St. Louis for undergraduate studies as an Alexander S. Langsdorf Engineering Fellow, and obtained three degrees: a B.S.

[8] He then pursued graduate study, partially supported by a National Science Foundation , at Cornell University in the group of Albert J. Sievers III.

His doctoral thesis was on vibrational relaxation dynamics of an IR-laser-excited molecular impurity mode in alkali halide lattices.

[37] Moerner was born on June 24, 1953, at Parks Air Force Base in Pleasanton, California.