Diagnostic Biomedical Optics

Prof. Murukeshan Vadakke Matham serves as the Director of the Center for Optical and Laser Engineering (COLE), Deputy Director of The Photonics Institute (TPI), and Associate Professor of School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, NTU Singapore. He leads a research group specializing in Biomedical Optics, Nanoscale Optics, Laser-based Micro and Nanoscale Fabrication, Agriphotonics, and Applied Optics for Metrology. Prof. Murukeshan has an extensive academic profile with over 28 years of professional experience, including 3 years of postdoctoral work and 25 years of teaching. He has published over 215 international journal papers and over 200 international conference proceedings/presentations, co-authored two books, and filed or awarded 26 patents and 16 innovation disclosures. He is also Associate Editor for Optical Engineering and the International Journal of Optomechatronics (IJO). He serves in international committees related to optics at different capacities. Prof. Murukeshan has received more than 25 prestigious international recognitions or awards. He is a Fellow of SPIE, Fellow of OPTICA (USA), a Fellow of the Institute of Physics (UK), and a Distinguished Fellow of the Optical Society of India.

Prof. Suchand Sandeep is an Associate Professor at the Department of Physics at Manipal Institute of Technology, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, India. Dr. Sandeep received his master's degree in physics from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) and Ph.D. degree in physics from the Raman Research Institute, Bangalore, India. He has over 10 years of postdoctoral research experience in renowned institutions including Delft University of Technology, (TU Delft, the Netherlands), University of Potsdam (Uni Potsdam, Germany), and Nanyang Technological University (NTU, Singapore). He is a recipient of various international fellowships, including two Marie Curie individual fellowships from the European union and a young researcher fellowship from the Ministry of Education, Italy. He has co-authored over 75 international journal publications, 20 conference proceedings, and is a co-inventor in 6 patent applications and had submitted 7 technology disclosures. His areas of expertise are Photonics, Renewable Energy, Biomedical Optics, Additive Manufacturing, and Ultrafast Phenomena.

Dr. Maria Merin Antony is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Center for Optical and Laser Engineering (COLE), School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, NTU Singapore. She was awarded her Ph.D. degree in optical and laser engineering from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore in 2025. She received the B.Tech. and M.Tech. degrees in electrical and electronics engineering from the Cochin University of Science and Technology, Kochi, India, in 2015 and 2019, respectively. Her current research interests include hyperspectral imaging (HSI), Agriphotonics, nonlinear optics, and high-resolution optical imaging. She has co-authored over 18 international publications and is a co-inventor in 2 patent applications and had submitted 3 technology disclosures. Her areas of expertise are Hyperspectral imaging, High-resolution imaging, Non-linear optics and Agriphotonics. She is also involved as Executive committee member at Society of Womem Engineers, NTU and the Agriphotonics Technical Group, Optica. She has been awarded the WiEST development grant focusing on development of the early career women scientists and engineers.

Prof Manojit Pramanik joined Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECpE) at Iowa State University from spring 2023 and currently holding the position of Northrop Grumman Associate Professor. He also has an appointment as a Faculty of Biomedical Engineering (BME) at Iowa State University. Prior to that, he was at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore from 2014-2022. He also served as Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, India 2012-2013. His industry experiences include two years at General Electric Global Research (GRC), Bangalore, India and one year at Philips Medical System, Bangalore, India. His research interest is in Medical Imaging Systems, Photoacoustic and Thermoacoustic Imaging, Image Reconstruction, Machine Learning, Medical Image Processing, Contrast Agents, Molecular Imaging, Monte-Carlo Simulation for light-tissue interaction, Biomedical Optics, Biomedical Device Design, Clinical Application areas such as Breast Cancer Imaging, Brain Imaging, Pancreatic Cancer, Diabetes, Treatment Monitoring etc. He has more than 250 international journal and conference publications and presentations. He serves as an Associate Editor of the Journal of Biomedical Optics, Biomedical Optics Express, and as an Editorial Board Member of Photoacoustics. He is Fellow of SPIE, Senior Member of IEEE, and life member of Optica. Professor Pramanik is also the inaugural "Biodesign Faculty Fellow" offered by the Singapore Biodesign Programme (in collaboration with Stanford Biodesign Fellowship).

Dr. Santhosh Chidangil is Professor of Physics and Coordinator of the Centre of Excellence for Biophotonics at Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), India. His research is centered on biomedical instrumentation, with a focus on optical pathology techniques and liquid biopsy approaches for the early detection of cancer, as well as diagnostics for ophthalmological and cardiovascular diseases. With over three decades of academic and research leadership, he has successfully led more than 15 funded projects and published over 230 scientific papers. Dr. Chidangil has guided 14 Ph.D. scholars, over 15 M.Tech. students, trained more than 20 Indian Academy Summer Research Fellows, and supervised over 20 IAESTE international research interns. He was instrumental in establishing a world-class Biophotonics Research Centre at MAHE. He served as Sectional President of the Indian Science Congress in 2020 and as India Chair for the BRICS Workshop on Biophotonics held during 2021-2024. Dr. Chidangil is a member of several prestigious scientific societies, including OSA, SPIE, the Indian Laser Association, the Indian Physics Association, ISRAPS, and the Indian Nuclear Society.