Charles DeLisi Distinguished Lecture Award Event

Lecture Award Speaker: David A. Boas

Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Electrical and Computer Engineering; Director of Neurophotonics Center; Arthur G.B. Metcalf Endowed Chair

Lecture Title: Illuminating the Functioning Brain to Reveal the Role of Blood Flow

Lecture: 4:00 PM

Reception: 5:00 – 7:00 PM

To RSVP, please email engadmsw@bu.edu.

Lecture Abstract: The field of Biomedical Optics emerged and grew rapidly during the 1990’s. I was fortunate to do my PhD research with leaders in the field at the University of Pennsylvania. I was then doubly fortunate to start my own lab in Boston and ended up at the MGH Martinos Center which had recently done the first fMRI measurements of human brain function and they wanted me to use biomedical optics to help them better understand how the fMRI signal of hemoglobin concentration changes related to neural activity – so called neuro-vascular coupling (NVC). We advanced functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) and applied it to confirm biophysical models of the fMRI signal and to complementary applications. To further understand this NVC, we then developed novel methods for measuring blood flow and oxygen delivery first with mesoscopic and then with microscopic capillary resolution. Along the way we discovered many novel principles; one of which was the power of working across species and across disciplines. In parallel, many other novel optical methods were transforming the neurosciences and BU was primed to lead this new field of Neurophotonics. Amongst many other activities, the BU Neurophotonics Center is adapting fNIRS for neuroimaging in the everyday world and adopting it in the rehabilitative, clinical, and cognitive sciences.

The 2023 Early Career Research Excellence Award will be presented to Assistant Professor Hadi Nia (BME, MSE).

Hosted by Boston University College of Engineering

To learn more, please visit https://www.bu.edu/eng/2023/03/09/david-boas-to-deliver-annual-delisi-lecture/