“Similar Phenomena in Biomedicine”

The electromagnetic spectrum is an observable phenomenon that carries the fingerprints of its interactions with matter.  Investigating the characteristic features of light is one of the primary means by which we gain an understanding of the universe of which we are a part.  This includes an improved understanding of dynamic biological systems that may be of importance to human health.  This seminar will discuss the way coherent light interacts with biological systems at all scale sizes from subcellular and cellular structures all the way to entire tissues and organs.  The talk will focus on laser speckle – based techniques and technologies that can and have been used to evaluate skin lesions, monitor cranial blood flow in animal models, quantify the viscoelastic behaviors of health and pathological tissues, track the polymerization behavior of synthetic biopolymers, and more.  Laser speckle is more than unwanted noise that degrades images.   By combining numerical simulations with experimental approaches, the spatio-temporal dynamics of scattered coherent light can be used to infer many properties of biological media.

Dr. Kirkpatrick received his doctorate from the University of Miami.  He did a Post-doctoral fellowship at The Johns Hopkins University, The Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, and The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.  He spent most of his professional career at the Oregon Health & Sciences University in Portland, OR, before moving to the Michigan Technological University where he is the Department Chair and a Professor of Biomedical Engineering.  He is the author of over 85 professional publications and is a Fellow of SPIE and a Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE).

Location
Auditorium