Dr. Aydogan Ozcan received his Ph.D. degree at Stanford University Electrical Engineering Department in 2005. After a short post-doctoral fellowship at Stanford University, he is appointed as a Research Faculty Member at Harvard Medical School, Wellman Center for Photomedicine in 2006. Dr. Ozcan joined UCLA in the summer of 2007, where he is currently an Associate Professor leading the Bio- and Nano-Photonics Laboratory at the Electrical Engineering and Bioengineering Departments.
Dr. Ozcan holds 17 issued patents and another 12 pending patent applications for his inventions in nanoscopy, wide-field imaging, lensless imaging, nonlinear optics, fiber optics, and optical coherence tomography. Dr. Ozcan is also the author of one book and the co-author of more than 200 peer reviewed research articles in major scientific journals and conferences. In addition, Dr. Ozcan is the founder and a member of the Board of Directors of Microskia Inc., and is a member of the program committee of SPIE Photonics West Conference, SPIE International Symposium on Defense, Security and Sensing, as well as the IEEE Photonics Society Annual Meeting. He also serves as a panelist and a reviewer for the National Science Foundation, NIH and for the Harvard-MIT Innovative Technology for Medicine Program. Prof. Ozcan also served as the General co-Chair of the 2010 IEEE Winter Topical Meeting on Advanced Imaging in BioPhotonics.
Prof. Ozcan received several major awards including the 2011 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), which is the highest honor bestowed by the United States government on science and engineering professionals in the early stages of their independent research careers. Dr. Ozcan received this prestigious award for developing innovative optical technologies and signal processing approaches that have the potential to make a significant impact in biological science and medicine; addressing public health needs in less developed countries; and service to the optical science community including mentoring and support for underserved minority undergraduate and graduate students. Furthermore, Dr. Ozcan also received the 2011 SPIE Early Career Achievement Award, the 2011 Army Research Office (ARO) Young Investigator Award, the 2010 NSF CAREER Award, the 2009 NIH Director’s New Innovator Award, the 2009 Office of Naval Research (ONR) Young Investigator Award, the 2009 IEEE Photonics Society (LEOS) Young Investigator Award, and the MIT’s Technology Review TR35 Award for his seminal contributions to near-field and on-chip imaging, and telemedicine based diagnostics.
Prof. Ozcan is also the recipient of the 2010 National Geographic Emerging Explorer Award, the 2010 Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Grand Challenges Award, the 2010 Popular Mechanics Breakthrough Award, the 2010 Netexplorateur Award given by the Netexplorateur Observatory & Forum in France, the 2011 Regional Health Care Innovation Challenge Award given by The von Liebig Center at UCSD, the 2010 PopTech Science and Public Leaders Fellowship, the 2010 USC’s Body Computing Slam Prize, and the 2009 Wireless Innovation Award organized by the Vodafone Americas Foundation as well as the 2008 Okawa Foundation Award, given by the Okawa Foundation in Japan.
Prof. Ozcan was also selected as one of the top 10 innovators by the U.S. Department of State, USAID, NASA, and NIKE as part of the LAUNCH: Health Forum organized in October 2010.
Dr. Ozcan is a Senior Member of IEEE and SPIE, and a member of LEOS, EMBS, OSA, and BMES.