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How and Why to Ruin a Perfectly Good Microscope

Abstract: The point spread function (PSF) of an imaging system is the system's response to a point source. To encode additional information in microscopy images, we employ PSF engineering – namely, a physical modification of the standard PSF of the microscope by additional optical elements that perform wavefront shaping.  In this talk I will describe how this method enables unprecedented capabilities in localization microscopy; specific applications include dense fluorescent molecule fitting for 3D super-resolution microscopy, multicolor imaging from grayscale data, volumetric multi-particle tracking/imaging, dynamic surface profiling, and high-throughput in-flow colocalization in live cells. Recent results on additive-manufacturing of highly precise optics will be discussed as well. 

Bio: Yoav Shechtman is currently a Harrington faculty fellow in the Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, TX. He is an Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, and he holds a B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering and Physics (2007) and a Ph.D (2013), all from the Technion. During 2013-2016 he was a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford University. Yoav’s interdisciplinary group focuses on method-development mostly motivated by observing life on the nanoscale, with research topics ranging from optical design through machine learning to molecular biology. Recent awards and recognition include the 2018 Early Career Award of the International Association for Medical and Biological Engineering (IAMBE), the 2018 ERC starting grant, the 2019 Uzi and Michal Halevy Award for Innovative Applied Engineering ,the 2020 International Union for Pure and Applied Biophysics (IUPAB) Young Investigator Prize and Medal, the 2020 Morton and Beverley Rechler Prize for Excellence in Research, the 2021 Daniel Shiran Memorial Research Prize, and the 2021 Krill Prize for Excellence in Scientific Research.