Prof. Vasan Venugopalan

Dr. Venugopalan earned his BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, followed by his MS and ScD in the same field from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Before joining the UC Irvine faculty in 1996, he held research positions at Harvard Medical School (Wellman Center for Photomedicine) and Princeton University.

His research focuses on the intersection of laser radiation with biological systems, specifically laser-induced thermal, mechanical, and radiative transport processes. Major thrusts of his program include:

• Biophotonics Modeling: Developing computational tools for simulation of light transport across spatial scales using electromagnetic propagation and radiative transport methods with applications in optical imaging, diagnostics and therapy in cells and tissues.

• Cellular Manipulation: Using highly focused pulsed laser microbeams for targeted cellular surgery, modification, and mechanotransduction.

• Non-invasive Diagnostics and Imaging: Utilizing optical spectroscopic and interferometric methods to monitor tissue physiological properties and morphological changes.

• Biophotonics Education: Development of novel interdisciplinary biophotonics education and training programs encompassing topics of light-tissue interactions, computational biophotonics, laser scanning microscopy, optical property determination, wide-field imaging methods (OCT, speckle, SFDI), and diffuse optics.

He has served as Department Chair of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at UC Irvine since 2014. He has also spearheaded several multidisciplinary educational initiatives, including a $3M NSF IGERT grant in 2012, a $0.75M NIH grant establishing an Annual Short Course in Computational Biophotonics in 2013, and a $2.1M NIH grant establishing a IPERT program in Multiscale Biophotonics in 2022. In 2025, he was recognized for his outstanding contributions to multidisciplinary education at UC Irvine. He was named an SPIE Fellow in 2026.