College of Engineering and Computer Science researcher, Dr Steve Lee, has been announced as a finalist for the 2013 Edmund Optics Higher Education Grant for his research on biomedical optics.
The research commenced in June 2013 and is being conducted in collaboration with medical researchers at the John Curtin School of Medical Research and Microscopy and Cytometry Resource Facility.
Over 800 applicants from 60 countries applied for the grant and only 45 researchers representing 21 countries were selected as finalists. Edmund Optics received a wide variety of research topics including the development of handheld optical coherence tomography (OCT) probes for non-invasive diagnostics in primary healthcare and real-time optical detectors for airborne asbestos detection.
Edmund Optics will be awarding a total of $85,000 USD worth of optical research products to the winners.
The judging panel will select three award recipients for each region, the Americas, Asia, and Europe, and each will be based on two criteria, technical merit, which is the application of optics in the program, and the innovative use of optics in a lab or research setting.
Dr Lee’s research in biomedical optics merges the field of optical sciences with biological and medical research. The aim of biomedical optics is to harness the medicinal value of light for understanding, detecting and intervening with diseases in a living subject at the smallest detail and at the earliest time.
Winners will be announced on 4 September.
For more information on the research grant visit the Edmund Optics site. To learn more about Dr Lee’s research visit his profile.