2021 Michael S. Feld Biophotonics Award Winner

Get Involved

The Optical Society Names Arjun Yodh the 2021 Michael S. Feld Biophotonics Award Recipient

The Optical Society is pleased to announce that Arjun Yodh, University of Pennsylvania, USA, has been selected as the 2021 recipient of the Michael S. Feld Biophotonics Award . Yodh is honored for pioneering research on optical sensing in scattering media, especially diffuse optical and correlation spectroscopy and tomography, and for advancing the field of biophotonics through mentorship.

Arjun Yodh received his B.Sc. degree from Cornell University, USA, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Harvard University, USA. He completed postdoctoral research at AT&T Bell Laboratories, USA. Today, he is the James M. Skinner Professor of Science at the University of Pennsylvania. His home department is Physics and Astronomy.

Yodh is a pioneer in the field of biophotonics, recognized for his work and contributions to developing the theoretical framework and clinical translation of diffuse optical spectroscopy and tomography technologies. He and his group were one of the first to predict and experimentally demonstrate wave-like propagation properties of diffuse photon density wave and to develop the image reconstruction algorithms needed to generate 3D tomographic images based on diffuse optical and diffuse correlation measurements. His more recent work includes demonstrating and clinically translating concepts in light diffusion for noninvasive imaging and monitoring of tissue blood flow, hemodynamics, metabolic responses, and therapeutics in cancer and brain. Yodh is also a dedicated mentor, advising more than 100 Ph.D. students and postdoctoral associates.

He holds ten patents and has published over 350 journal articles. He is a Fellow of the OSA, American Association for Advancement of Science, American Physical Society, and American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering.

Established in 2012, the Feld Biophotonics Award recognizes innovative and influential contributions to the field of biophotonics, regardless of career stage. The award encompasses all areas of biophotonics including fundamental optics discoveries in biology, development of new theoretical frameworks and novel instrumentation and clinical translational research for biomedicine. It honors Michael Feld for his fundamental contributions to applications of photonics technologies to solving biomedical problems, and is endowed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Hamamatsu Photonics K.K., Coherent Inc., David Feld, Ramachandra Dasari, Adam Wax, Kyungwon An, Robert Gold, Charles Holbrow, Firooz Partovi, Manoharan Ramasamy, Rebecca Richards-Kortum and Guillermo Tearney.