Our Team
Describe your team here.
Youngwan (Willis) Kim is working on development of wearable flexible optical tomographic imaging systems for various biomedical applications. His research interests include fabrication of novel optical devices and design of systems that offer reliable performance and highly comfortable patient interface, enabling a point-of-care monitoring and diagnostic tool. His work also focuses on data mining and analysis in various clinical trials.
My name is Yanting Liu, and I am a first-year master BME student. In summer 2017, I joined State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Science in China to study mice brain activity at different ages. I've been interested in optical imaging and diagnostic since my undergraduate study at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. It is my pleasure to join Prof. Hielscher's lab!
My name is Sandy. I am an undergraduate visiting student at Columbia University during 2018 fall and 2019 spring. I like drawing, singing, swimming as well as grabbing bubble tea with friends at my spare time.
Mirella is pursuing a PhD in Biomedical Engineering and her work involves using diffuse optical tomography to monitor breast cancer patients undergoing neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Mirella is from Brazil, and outside of research life, she enjoys traveling and photography.
Dr. Hyun Keol Kim is an Assistant Professor of Radiology (Physics) at Columbia University Medical Center. Dr. Kim earned his PhD. degree in Mechanical Engineering at Korea Advanced Institute of Sciences and Technology (KAIST) in 2004. During this time at KAIST, Dr. Kim studied how spectral remote sensing could be used to recover optical properties such as absorption and scattering inside the medium, via both theoretical modeling and experimental validation. In 2006, he joined Dr. Hielscher's group in Biomedical Engineering of Columbia University and has been involved in various research projects including finger joints, breast cancer, vascular disease, and small animals until 2011. Dr. Kim then joined in 2012 the Department of Radiology as a faculty member at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.
Dr. Kim has expertise in the development of mathematical and physical models of transport-related biological systems, which includes characterization of light-tissue interaction, 3D imaging of physiological parameters, 3D molecular imaging, and a modeling of chemical species transport. He has authored more than 50 peer-reviewed journal and conference proceedings papers, and also contributed chapters to 2 books on medical imaging and 6 patent applications. Dr. Kim is currently working on the projects “Optical tomographic imaging of Peripheral Arterial Disease”, which is funded by the National Institute of Health (NIH) of the U.S., and “Development and Commercialization of Low-Cost Vascular Optical Tomographic Imaging System”, a project funded by the Wallace H. Coulter Foundation.
Fay is a first year Ph.D. student in biomedical engineering. She is interested in the clinical translation of optical devices, particularly to study breast cancer. She loves reading in Central Park, trying out new restaurants, and shamelessly cheering for the Red Sox and New England Patriots.
Andreas H. Hielscher received his PhD degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Rice University, Houston, Texas, in 1995. After spending 2 years as Postdoctoral Fellow at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, he joined the faculty at the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York. In September 2001 he moved to Columbia University in New York City, where he is now the Director of the Biophotonics and Optical Radiology Laboratory. He holds joint appointments as Associate Professor in the Departments of Biomedical Engineering and Radiology.
Dr. Hielscher made pioneering contribution in the field of Biomedical Optics. His work currently focuses on the development of state-of-the-art imaging software and hardware for optical tomography. He applies this emerging technology to imaging of cancer and joint diseases and uses it in support of drug development. He has published over 120 articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals and conference proceedings. Dr. Hielscher’s work has been funded by the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS), the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLB), the National Institute for Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB), the Whitaker Foundation for Biomedical Engineering, and the New York State Office of Science, Technology and Academic Research.
Dr. Hielscher currently serves as Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions of Medical Imaging and has reviewed papers for over 30 scientific journals, including the Journal of Biomedical Optics, Optics Letters, IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, Medical Physics, Physics Review Letters, and Review of Scientific Instrumentation. He has been active in organizing conferences and meetings that promote the field of Biomedical Optics on more than 30 occasions. Among others, he was Chair of the Biomedical Optical Spectroscopy Group at the Optical Society of America (OSA) from October 2001 – 2003, and chaired symposia and sessions on optical imaging at the IEEE –EMBS conferences in 1997, 1998, 1999, and 2005. Currently he is the publication chair for the upcoming annual IEEE-EMBS conference to be held from August 30 to September 3, 2006, in New York City. His is also a member of the SPIE Medical Imaging Conference Program Committee on "Physiology, Function, and Structure from Medical Images,” and the OSA Conference Program Committee for “Advances in Optical Imaging and Photon Migration.” In addition he frequently serves on review panels for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Science Foundation (NSF) as well as several international funding agencies, such as the British Welcome Trust or Dutch Organization for Scientific Research. He is listed in Marquis Who’s is Who in America since 2005.
Dr. Alessandro Marone is a biomedical and electrical engineer and an expert in modeling physical and biological systems and in the application of reconstructing techniques for the analysis of experimental data. For the last five years, Dr. Marone has been firstly a Postdoctoral Fellow and then an Associate Research Scientist at the Biomedical Engineering Department of Columbia University in New York. Before that, he completed the Biotechnology Certificate Program of Columbia University and additional courses from the Biomedical Engineering Department, enhancing his expertise in advanced imaging techniques, human physiology, and biomedical statistics. Dr. Marone holds a B.S. and a M.S. in Electronic Engineering and a Ph.D. in Information Technology from the Polytechnic University of Milan, Italy.