SPIE Fellow Stephen Boppart has been
awarded the 2012 Hans Sigrist Prize in recognition of his outstanding research in diagnostic laser medicine.
Boppart is a professor of engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and teaches in the departments of electrical and computer engineering, bioengineering, and internal medicine.
Boppart's work at the Biophotonics Imaging Lab at the Beckman Institute focuses on developing optical biomedical diagnostic and imaging techniques that can be widely applied for clinical use. He has contributed to the development of optical coherence tomography (OCT), which has applications in cancer imaging, primary care imaging, and design of novel contrast agents.
His more recent work includes developing techniques for real-time three dimensional microscopic tissue imaging, for fields such as cancer diagnosis and minimally invasive surgery.
Boppart has authored approximately 120 SPIE journal and proceedings articles and served on numerous SPIE conference committees at events including Electronic Imaging in Science and Technology, Photonics Asia 2012, and Photonics West 2013.
In 1994, the Hans Sigrist Foundation established the award at the University of Bern to promote scientific research. Boppart will receive his award -- 100,000 Swiss francs (about $107,000) -- during a ceremony at the University of Bern in December. He will use these funds to support new research directions in his laboratory.
View Boppart's BiOS Hot Topics talk on coherence imaging of cancer with novel optical sources, presented at SPIE Photonics West 2012.
Read more about Boppart's award in the University of Illinois press release.
