Paras N. Prasad is SUNY Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, Physics, Electrical Engineering and Medicine and Executive Director of the Institute for Lasers, Photonics and Biophotonics. He has 750 publications and four field-defining monographs respectively in Nonlinear Optics, Biophotonics, Nanophotonics, and Nanomedicine. Some recent recognitions are SPIE’s Gold medal and IEEE‘s Pioneer in nanotechnology award. Prasad has also received Honorary Doctorates from KTH in Sweden, Aix-Marseille University in France and MEPhI in Russia. He is a Fellow of the Society and recipient of the 2017 Michael S. Feld Biophotonics Award.

Prasad’s pioneering work in biophotonics introduced novel methods of optical diagnostics and light-activated therapy. He developed nonlinear optical imaging techniques, combined with time-resolved imaging and localized microspectrocopy for multidimensional quantitative and functional imaging to probe cellular functions and transformations, whether natural, manifestations of disease, or drug induced. He advanced nanobiophotonics by developing novel concepts for the design of nanostructured linear and nonlinear optical materials for probing cellular interactions, biodistribution, and biological responses to nanoprobes.