I am an Assistant Scientist in the Medical Devices Group at the Morgridge Institute for Research and the Laboratory for Optical and Computational Instrumentation (LOCI) at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. I obtained my PhD in Physics at the University of New Mexico designing lasers for ultra sensitive phase measurements.
I was chosen as one of the 35 top innovators under the age of 35 by MIT's Technology Review in 2012, received the Popular Mechanics Breakthrough Award in 2012, and was included in the 2013 SME innovations watchlist.
My research focuses on Applied Computational Optics and Imaging.
Creating and analyzing an image from electromagnetic waves involves at the
same time data collection and processing. In all imaging systems these tasks
are inseparably interconnected. Both the process of image formation, and the
analysis of images can be performed optically, digitally or using a
combination of both.
I develop integrated cyber-physical imaging systems combining illumination,
data collection, image formation, and image processing into one integrated
unit. This allows us to build imaging systems that detect specific application
relevant information in the huge amount of accessible optical data with the
best possible signal to noise ratio. My work spans research in photonic
devices, optical systems engineering, optimization, computer vision, and
biomedical applications.
Through their greater flexibility, Computational Imaging systems can access
information that is not accessible through traditional imaging methods. In
particular, I am developing methods to detect morphological changes in the
extracellular matrix that accompany breast cancer progression. Tracking such
changes will enable non-invasive early cancer detection, will help improve
our understanding of cancer onset and metastasis, and accelerate the
development of a cure.
I also develop remote sensing and biomedical imaging technologies that are
based on non-traditional time-of-flight based image formation methods. Being
able to create images from multiply reflected indirect light, these systems can
see around corners and into inaccessible spaces. This makes it possible to
locate and diagnose individuals in disaster areas and to image the inside of
lunar caves. It also has applications in endoscopy and robotic surgery.
Image of a zebrafish embryo. The vasculature is stained in green (GFP), the cell bodies are blue (DAPI). Red autofluorescence from the blood is also visible. The image is a reduced spectral and spacial resolution version of the data captured by our new high speed hyperspectral multipoint confocal microscope that captures images with 15 spectral channels at up to four frames per second.
Video from Nature about our recent publication. A camera that can image around a corner.
The Media Lab Labcast about our around the corner imaging system.
Video: A light pulse illuminating a tomato captured and visualized in slow motion.
Video from MIT News about our Light in Motion light capture project.
Introducing our group and my project to HRH Prince Philippe of Belgium and representatives of the Belgian government, industry and media.
US deputy secretary of defense William J. Lynn learning about our project.
recent updates
December 18, 2013
ASCB. We presented our microscope system as a product showcase at the annual meeting of the American Society for Cell Biology in New Orleans. We got some very enthusiastic feedback from biology researchers, camera manufacturers, and leadership at Bruker Corporation who will take over development of the instrument as a product from here.
September 6, 2013
Talk at Illinois Wesleyan. Illinois Wesleyan is a private undergraduate only institution in Bloomingon, IL with a great physics program. Gabe Spalding invited me there as part of our ongoing collaboration.
July 22, 2013
SIGGRAPH. Our paper of the visualization of the motion of light was well received as SIGGRAPH. I was pleased that the community is already following up our work with their own publications. Our paper also made it into the trailer video of the conference, which is a great honor.
June 10, 2013
CLEO is always a great place to be. This year I presented one talk about work on a hypersppectral microscope done on my new lab in Madison and watched Chris Barsi present a talk on a project I helped start at MIT.
April 10, 2013
The Photographic Universe. I am giving an invited talk at Parsons The New School for Design at a conference titled the Photographic Universe.
May 1, 2013
SIGGRAPH and CLEO. This summer I will present our research at SIGGRAPH and CLEO.
March 1, 2013
SME Innovation Watchlist. Our seeing around corners project was included in the 2013 Innovation Watchlist of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers.
January 17, 2013
Presentation at UW. I will be giving a presentation at the Deluca Forum at the Widconsin Institutes for Discovery in Jan 23rd at 4 pm.
October 4, 2012
Breakthrough Award. Our seeing around corners camera has been selected for the Popular Mechanics Breakthrough Award. I will be receiving the award together with mit Adviser Ramesh Raskar. It is agreat honor to receive this award along with people like Elon Musk and the Voyager team.
August 21, 2012
TR35. I have been selected among Technology Review's 35 innovators under 35. This is a great honor. I will do my best to live up to it.
July 27, 2012
SIGGRAPH 2012. I will be giving a talk at SIGGRAPH in LA this year together with Belen Masia titeled "Relativistic Ultrafast Rendering Using Time-of-Flight Imaging
". Looking forward to the conference.
May 15, 2012
CLEO 2012. Amy Fritz presented our very well attended talk at CLEO 2012. The conference was, as always, packed with interesting talks, interesting people, and lots of free pens and T-shirts.
March 20, 2012
Paper in Nature Communications. Today my main project, a camera that can look around corners was published by Nature Communications. The paper also made it to the nature.com news page and several news sources.
Press Coverage. Our light in Motion visualization project has been featured prominently in more than 100 newspapers worldwide and achieved over 4 million cumulative hits on youtube.
August 15, 2011
SIGGRAPH 11. I had a lot of fun at my first SIGGRAPH. There where several high quality papers from our group. I gave my presentation in front of a packed conference hall and got a lot of positive feedback.
July 20, 2011
OSA Imaging Science. My talk at the OSA Imaging Science conference in Toronto produced a lot of interesting feedback.
June 20, 2011
CVPR 11. Although I can not be there myself, our project is represented as a poster at CVPR in Colorado Springs this year.
June 29, 2011
Belgian Delegation. I gave a lab tour to 40 representatives of Belgian government, industry and media today. Here is a picture of me with crown prince Philippe.
April 27, 2011
Virtual Trillion Frame per Second Movies. We modified the camera we use to look around corners to capture movies of light pulses. I will present the results at SIGGRAPH in August.