Brian Vohnsen is an Associate Professor of Physics at UCD [1] in Dublin, Ireland specializing in optics. He is head of the Advanced Optical Imaging Group which he founded in 2008. [2] [3] He has received recognition for his ability to connect the field of biomedical optics and nano-optics. [4] In 2021 he became a fellow of Optica for significant contributions to vision science, including photoreceptor optics and high resolution retinal imaging. [5]
Brian Vohnsen, born in Aarhus Denmark studied Engineering at Aalborg University before transferring into the field of Optics. [5] In 1994 he graduated with a Masters of Science in Optical Engineering and Laser Technology before going on to complete a PhD in Optical Physics at the same university in 1998. [1] He went on to become an Assistant Professor at Aalborg University for 3 years after completing his PhD, before moving to Spain after being awarded a Marie-Curie Fellowship [5] where he worked as a researcher in Universidad de Murcia [3] alongside Pablo Artal for 7 years (2001 - 2008). During this time he was also awarded a Ramon y Cajal fellowship. [3] In 2008 he moved to Ireland in search of further research opportunities and started working in University College Dublin where he still works today. During his travels Brian has gained Fluency / Professional Working Proficiency in Danish, English, German and Spanish. [1]
Vohnsen did his PhD in the area of nano-photonics and near-field optics at Aalborg University under Sergey I. Bozhevolnyi. [6] He did a postdoctoral fellowship at Universidad de Murcia funded by a Marie-Curie Fellowship where he worked on topics such as Evanescent field and directional imaging including a 2001 research paper on visualizing evanescent waves ("Direct visualization of evanescent optical waves") [7] and imaging of retinal cone mosaic ("Directional imaging of the retinal cone mosaic"). [8]
In 2008 Vohnsen came to Ireland as a Science Foundation Ireland Stokes awardee and created a new MSc. programme in NanoBio Science [3] [9] while also exploring advanced optical techniques centered on high-resolution optical images. [10] Lately, he has pioneered new exploration of the Stiles-Crawford effect in relation to vision science [11] and myopia. [12]
The retina is the innermost, light-sensitive layer of tissue of the eye of most vertebrates and some molluscs. The optics of the eye create a focused two-dimensional image of the visual world on the retina, which then processes that image within the retina and sends nerve impulses along the optic nerve to the visual cortex to create visual perception. The retina serves a function which is in many ways analogous to that of the film or image sensor in a camera.
Optica is a professional society of individuals and companies with an interest in optics and photonics. It publishes journals, organizes conferences and exhibitions, and carries out charitable activities.
Adaptive optics (AO) is a technique of precisely deforming a mirror in order to compensate for light distortion. It is used in astronomical telescopes and laser communication systems to remove the effects of atmospheric distortion, in microscopy, optical fabrication and in retinal imaging systems to reduce optical aberrations. Adaptive optics works by measuring the distortions in a wavefront and compensating for them with a device that corrects those errors such as a deformable mirror or a liquid crystal array.
Optical tweezers are scientific instruments that use a highly focused laser beam to hold and move microscopic and sub-microscopic objects like atoms, nanoparticles and droplets, in a manner similar to tweezers. If the object is held in air or vacuum without additional support, it can be called optical levitation.
A photoreceptor cell is a specialized type of neuroepithelial cell found in the retina that is capable of visual phototransduction. The great biological importance of photoreceptors is that they convert light into signals that can stimulate biological processes. To be more specific, photoreceptor proteins in the cell absorb photons, triggering a change in the cell's membrane potential.
The fovea centralis is a small, central pit composed of closely packed cones in the eye. It is located in the center of the macula lutea of the retina.
Philip St. John Russell, FRS, is Emeritus Director of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light in Erlangen, Germany. His area of research covers "photonics and new materials", in particular the examination of new optical materials, especially of photonic crystal fibres, and more generally the field of nano- and micro-structured photonic materials.
Nanophotonics or nano-optics is the study of the behavior of light on the nanometer scale, and of the interaction of nanometer-scale objects with light. It is a branch of optics, optical engineering, electrical engineering, and nanotechnology. It often involves dielectric structures such as nanoantennas, or metallic components, which can transport and focus light via surface plasmon polaritons.
The Stiles–Crawford effect is a property of the human eye that refers to the directional sensitivity of the cone photoreceptors.
Michal Lipson is an American physicist known for her work on silicon photonics. A member of the National Academy of Sciences since 2019, Lipson was named a 2010 MacArthur Fellow for contributions to silicon photonics especially towards enabling GHz silicon active devices. Until 2014, she was the Given Foundation Professor of Engineering at Cornell University in the school of electrical and computer engineering and a member of the Kavli Institute for Nanoscience at Cornell. She is now the Eugene Higgins Professor of Electrical Engineering at Columbia University. In 2009 she co-founded the company PicoLuz, which develops and commercializes silicon nanophotonics technologies. In 2019, she co-founded Voyant Photonics, which develops next generation lidar technology based on silicon photonics. In 2020 Lipson was elected the 2021 vice president of Optica, and serves as the Optica president in 2023.
Visual perception is the ability to interpret the surrounding environment through photopic vision, color vision, scotopic vision, and mesopic vision, using light in the visible spectrum reflected by objects in the environment. This is different from visual acuity, which refers to how clearly a person sees. A person can have problems with visual perceptual processing even if they have 20/20 vision.
Boston Micromachines Corporation is a US company operating out of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Boston Micromachines manufactures and develops instruments based on MEMS technology to perform open and closed-loop adaptive optics. The technology is applied in astronomy, beam shaping, vision science, retinal imaging, microscopy, laser communications, and national defense. The instruments developed at Boston Micromachines include deformable mirrors, optical modulators, and retinal imaging systems, all of which utilize adaptive optics technology to enable wavefront manipulation capabilities which enhance the quality of the final image.
Benjamin John Eggleton,, is Pro Vice Chancellor (Research) at the University of Sydney. He is also Professor in the School of Physics where he leads a research group in integrated photonics, nonlinear optics and smart sensors and serves as co-director of the NSW Smart Sensing Network (NSSN).
Andrea Alù is an Italian American scientist and engineer, currently Einstein Professor of Physics at The City University of New York Graduate Center. He is known for his contributions to the fields of optics, photonics, plasmonics, and acoustics, most notably in the context of metamaterials and metasurfaces. He has co-authored over 650 journal papers and 35 book chapters, and he holds 11 U.S. patents.
The operation of a photon scanning tunneling microscope (PSTM) is analogous to the operation of an electron scanning tunneling microscope, with the primary distinction being that PSTM involves tunneling of photons instead of electrons from the sample surface to the probe tip. A beam of light is focused on a prism at an angle greater than the critical angle of the refractive medium in order to induce total internal reflection within the prism. Although the beam of light is not propagated through the surface of the refractive prism under total internal reflection, an evanescent field of light is still present at the surface.
Anurag Sharma is an Indian physicist and a professor at the department of physics of the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi. He is known for his pioneering researches on optoelectronics and optical communications and is an elected fellow of all the three major Indian science academies viz. Indian Academy of Sciences, Indian National Science Academy and National Academy of Sciences, India as well as Indian National Academy of Engineering. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards for his contributions to Engineering Sciences in 1998.
Donna Theo Strickland is a Canadian optical physicist and pioneer in the field of pulsed lasers. She was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2018, together with Gérard Mourou, for the practical implementation of chirped pulse amplification. She is a professor at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada.
Alexandra Boltasseva is Ron And Dotty Garvin Tonjes Distinguished Professor of electrical and computer engineering at Purdue University, and editor-in-chief for The Optical Society's Optical Materials Express journal. Her research focuses on plasmonic metamaterials, manmade composites of metals that use surface plasmons to achieve optical properties not seen in nature.
William Archer Hagins was an American medical researcher. He was chief of the Section of Membrane Biophysics in National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases's Laboratory of Chemical Physics upon his retirement in 2007. Hagins and colleagues made the seminal discovery of the dark current in photoreceptor cells. This finding became central to understanding how the visual cells worked and led to knowledge of the importance of reattaching a detached retina as soon as possible for continued use. As a fellow of Fulbright Program, he'd also served in the United States Navy as a Research Medical Officer. He joined NIDDK's Laboratory of Physical Biology in 1958, doing independent research in the Section of Photobiology, headed by Frederick Sumner Brackett. Hagins was a mentor to many, particularly through his work with the Brackett Foundation.
Kimani Christopher Toussaint, Jr. is an American engineer who is a professor and senior associate dean in the School of Engineering at Brown University. His research considers the development of quantitative nonlinear optical imaging methods and advanced optical techniques for nanotechnology, and the characterization of plasmonic nanostructure. He is a Fellow of Optica.
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