Prof. Mini Das, University of Houston

"Frontiers in Imaging: Optical Physics, New Technology, and Future Applications"

Abstract: Extracting the maximum information contained in every detected photon can lead to unprecedented improvements in imaging. Information may include energy and accurate time of arrival of the photon in a detector. This task, however, is particularly daunting for high energy photons such as x-rays. The physics of light transport through complex media is an exciting topic due to its wide range of applications. In this talk, I will present challenges and recent success with extracting phase changes in x-ray transport through biomedia. Key to these advances have been developments such as photon counting detectors for high energy radiation built by the MEDIPIX collaboration at CERN. Examples of effectively combining physics with evolving technologies and computational methods to solve challenging problems in imaging will be discussed. All told, these advances are expected to have significant applications in medicine, biology, materials science, defense/security and industrial imaging. I will briefly touch upon the importance of understanding the physics of image formation in image science and psychophysics for areas such as machine learning and computational observers.