Optics

Prasad to receive award during SPIE Optics + Photonics 2016 for nanomedicine work

Aug. 29, 2016

Paras Prasad, who helped to trailblaze light-based nanomedicine, will receive the SPIE 2016 Gold Medal of the Society.

Paras Prasad of the State University of New York at Buffalo (SUNY Buffalo) helped to trailblaze light-based nanomedicine technology, which involves using tiny light-activated particles for diagnosis, monitoring, and treatment of disease. His work has garnered him the SPIE 2016 Gold Medal of the Society, a high honor that will be presented at a gala awards banquet during SPIE Optics + Photonics (August 28 - September 1, 2016; San Diego, CA).

Prasad, a Distinguished Professor of Chemistry, Physics, Medicine and Electrical Engineering and the Samuel P. Capen Chair as well as Executive Director of the Institute for Lasers, Photonics and Biophotonics (ILPB) at SUNY Buffalo, will be recognized for his lab's development of Nanoclinic, a silica nanoshell containing various diagnostic and therapeutic agents, and his other pioneering contributions to nonlinear optics, nanophotonics, and biophotonics and their application to nanomedicine.

Prasad gave a symposium-wide plenary presentation the evening of August 28^th at SPIE Optics + Photonics on his latest research—photon management through in situ photon conversion with optical nanotransformers. He and his team have created nanotransformers for functional imaging of brains and for optogenetic stimulation of brain activity—an extension of the Nanoclinic technology, which is a multilevel nanoparticle containing imaging and sensing probes capable of conducting cellular, tissue-level, and whole-body imaging. It can also house a therapeutic payload, enabling doctors to release drugs inside a patient's body and monitor the effectiveness of the treatment in real time.

Prasad, a member of the society for more than 30 years, has developed and taught courses for SPIE in nonlinear optics, nanophotonics, biophotonics, and nanomedicine, chaired the Nano/Biophotonics track at BiOS at SPIE Photonics West, and presented and published papers in SPIE journals and conference proceedings.

The award will be presented along with others at an annual awards banquet on August 31^st.

For more information, please visit http://spie.org/optics-photonics.xml.

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