Plenary and invited speakers

Daniel Razansky, Professor, Faculty of Medicine, University of Zurich and the Department of Information Technologies and Electrical Engineering of ETH Zurich, Zürich, Switzerland

Dr. Daniel Razansky holds the Chair of Biomedical Imaging with double appointments at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Zurich and Department of Information Technologies and Electrical Engineering, ETH Zurich. He earned degrees in Biomedical and Electrical Engineering from the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology and did further training at the Harvard Medical School. He was previously Professor of Molecular Imaging Engineering at the Technical University of Munich and Helmholtz Center Munich in Germany. The Razansky Lab pioneered a number of bio-imaging technologies that were successfully commercialized and put into use in research labs and clinical facilities across the globe, among them the multi-spectral optoacoustic tomography (MSOT) and hybrid optoacoustic ultrasound (OPUS). His research has been recognized by the German Innovation Prize and multiple awards from the ERC, NIH, SNF, DFG and HFSP. He is also Fellow of the IEEE, SPIE and Optica Societies.

Plenary talk title: «Ultrafast optoacoustic imaging in biology and the clinics»

Elena Zagaynova, Professor, Vice director of Lopuchin Federal Research and Clinical Center of physical-chemical medicine (FMBA) and Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia

Dr. Elena Zagaynova’s research focus is on the clinical applications in endoscopy for optical coherence tomography and the methods of the latest fluorescent bioimaging from the subcellular level to the patient for the problems of regenerative medicine and oncology. Dr. Zagaynova is a Vice director of Lopuchin Federal Research and Clinical Center of physical-chemical medicine (FMBA), Moscow, Russia. She received her Ph.D. in 2000 and the Dr. Sciences in Medicine in 2007 from the Nizhny Novgorod Medical Academy, Russia. She is a corr.-member of the Russian Academy of Science. Dr. Zagaynova is a Senior Member of SPIE society. The results obtained by Elena Zagaynova have been published in more than 280 scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals.

Plenary talk title: «Optical imaging for Regenerative medicine»

Wolfgang Drexler, Professor, Head of Center for Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

Dr. Wolfgang Drexler received his MS and PhD in Electrical Engineering in 1991 and 1995, respectively, at the Technical University of Vienna, Austria. From 2006 to 2009 he was a Full Professor of Biomedical Imaging at Cardiff University, Wales, UK. Since 2010 he is an Honorary Distinguished Professor at Cardiff University, UK. Since October 2009 he is a Full Professor of Medical Physics and the Head of the Center for Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering at the Medical University of Vienna. He spent 2 years at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, USA, received amongst others the Austrian START Award from the Austrian Science Fund in 2001 and the COGAN Award from ARVO in 2007. He has published more than 240 publications in peer reviewed journals and is first, co-author or corresponding author of more than 700 conference proceedings or abstracts resulting in a h-index of 79 (Scopus). He is (Co)Editor of 12 books, including two editions of “Optical Coherence Tomography: Technology and Applications” (2008 and 2015).

Plenary talk title: «Multimodal optical endoscopy»

Laura Marcu, Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Neurological Surgery; Director NIH-NIBIB National Center for Interventional Biophotonic Technologies, University of California Davis, California, USA

Dr. Laura Marcu received her Ph.D. in biomedical engineering in 1998 from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. She is a full professor of biomedical engineering and the founding director of the recently established (2022) NIH-NIBIB P41 Center – the National Center for Interventional Biophotonic Technologies at UC Davis. Since 2007 she has served as co-director of the Comprehensive Cancer Center - Biomedical Technology Program, at the UC Davis Medical Center. Her research interest is in the area of biomedical optics, with a particular focus on research for the development of optical techniques for tissue diagnostics including applications in surgical oncology, interventional cardiology, and tissue engineering. She has published a book as well as over 250 co-authored publications. Currently, she is a member of the Editorial Board for the Journal of Biophotonics and the Translational Biophotonics, and Associate Editor for Optica. She is a Fellow of the AAAS, AIMBE, BMES, OPTICA, SPIE, and NAI.

Plenary talk title: «Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging in Clinical Interventions»

to be announced soon