SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics, has announced the winner of the postdoctoral fellowship in problem-driven biomedical optics and analytics.The annual award of 75,000 dollars supports interdisciplinary problem-driven research and provides opportunities for translating new technologies into clinical practice for improving human health. Simon Mahler, who received his PhD in nonlinear optics from the Weizmann Institute of Science in 2021, will be recognized at the SPIE BiOS Hot Topics event during Photonics West, scheduled for 27 January 2024.

Mahler’s postdoctoral research – conducted in conjunction with Changhuei Yang at Caltech’s bio­photonics lab – will focus on designing a multichannel device, using infrared laser speckle imaging, that non-invasively monitors cerebral blood flow in the human head across several locations simultane­ously. Leveraging this technology could potentially advance certain medical applications, including the diagnosis of traumatic brain injuries such as concussions. Mahler will be presenting his research at Photonics West in January.

“This opportunity prompts me to expand my horizons and immerse myself in a biomedical engineering research environ­ment. I hope to gain valuable insights in the coming years, enabling me to leverage technology and poten­tially contribute to the advance­ment of medical applications, especially in the diagnosis of traumatic brain injuries,” said Mahler.

Honoring the career of German medical laser pioneer Franz Hillenkamp who was known known for his development of the laser microprobe mass analyzer and, with Michael Karas, the matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI), the SPIE fellowship is a partnership between multiple international biomedical laboratories and the Hillenkamp family.