Speakers

We are proud to have the following keynote speakers at our conference:

Prof. Ed Boyden

Title: Optogenetics and Expansion Microscopy: New Ways of Using Light to Understand Biological Systems

Ed Boyden is a professor of biological engineering and brain and cognitive sciences at the MIT Media Lab and the MIT McGovern Institute. He leads the Synthetic Neurobiology group, which develops tools for analyzing and repairing complex biological systems such as the brain, and applies them systematically to reveal ground truth principles of biological function as well as to repair these systems. These technologies, created often in interdisciplinary collaborations, include expansion microscopy, which enables complex biological systems to be imaged with nanoscale precision, optogenetic tools, which enable the activation and silencing of neural activity with light, and optical, nanofabricated, and robotic interfaces that enable recording and control of neural dynamics. He has launched an award-winning series of classes at MIT that teach principles of neuroengineering, starting with basic principles of how to control and observe neural functions, and culminating with strategies for launching companies in the nascent neurotechnology space. He also co-directs the MIT Center for Neurobiological Engineering, which aims to develop new tools to accelerate neuroscience progress.

Amongst other recognitions, he has received the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences (2016), the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award (2015), the Society for Neuroscience Young Investigator Award (2015), the Carnegie Prize in Mind and Brain Sciences (2015), the Jacob Heskel Gabbay Award (2013), the Grete Lundbeck Brain Prize (2013), the NIH Director's Pioneer Award (2013), the NIH Director's Transformative Research Award (twice, 2012 and 2013), and the Perl/UNC Neuroscience Prize (2011). He was also named to the World Economic Forum Young Scientist list (2013), the Technology Review World’s "Top 35 Innovators under Age 35" list (2006), and his work was included in Nature Methods "Method of the Year" in 2010.

His group has hosted hundreds of visitors to learn how to use new biotechnologies; he also regularly teaches summer courses and workshops in neuroscience, and delivers lectures to the broader public (such as TED in 2011, and the World Economic Forum in 2012, 2013, and 2016). Boyden received his PhD in neurosciences from Stanford University as a Hertz Fellow, where he discovered that the molecular mechanisms used to store a memory are determined by the content to be learned. Before that, he received three degrees in electrical engineering, computer science, and physics from MIT. He has contributed to over 300 peer-reviewed papers, current or pending patents, and articles, and has given over 300 invited talks on his group's work.
 

 

Prof. Theodore Moustakas

Title: Development of novel deep UV LEDs and Lasers for industrial and medical applications

Prof. Moustakas is the inaugural Distinguished Professor of Photonics and Optoelectronics at Boston University. He received his PhD from Columbia University in 1974. He held research positions at Harvard University and Exxon Corporate Research Laboratory prior to joining Boston University in 1987 as a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He is also a Professor of Physics and Associate Head of the Division of Materials Science and Engineering.

Prof. Moustakas is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, the Electrochemical Society, the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers-IEEE, and a Charter Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors. He holds an honorary doctoral degree from the Aristotle University (2003); he received the MBE Innovator Award in 2010; in 2011 he received the Distinguished Scholar Award from the BU College of Engineering and in 2013 he received the Boston University Innovator of the Year Award. Intellectual property that resulted from his work has been licensed to a number of companies, including major manufacturers and users of blue LEDs and lasers (Cree, Nichia, Philips, OSRAM, Apple, Google, Amazon, Samsung, LG, Sony etc.).

 

Dr. Peter Moulton

Title: Ultra-High-Power Lasers: Towards Boiling the Vacuum

Dr. Moulton is a member of the Senior Staff in the Laser Applications and Applications Group at the MIT Lincoln Laboratory in Lexington, MA. He received an A.B. in Physics from Harvard College in 1968 and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from MIT in 1972 and 1975 respectively. After finishing graduate school he worked in the Quantum Electronics Group Lincoln Laboratory, Lexington. In 1985 he joined a start-up company, Schwartz Electro-Optics, as Vice-President and managed the founding of the company's Research Division in Concord, Massachusetts. He became Senior Vice-President of SEO in 1997,was involved in spinning out the Research Division as a separate company, Q-Peak, in 1998, and in the sale of Q-Peak to its current parent company, Physical Sciences Inc. in 2001. He served as the Vice-President and Chief Technology Officer of Q‑Peak until 2012, when he moved to a part-time position as a Principal Research Scientist. He rejoined Lincoln Laboratory in 2015.

Moulton's technical work began in the field of bulk solid state lasers, and in recent years has extended to include nonlinear optics and fiber lasers. At Lincoln Laboratory in 1982 he invented the Ti:sapphire laser, and he has also made important advances in high-power diode-pumped solid state lasers, parametric oscillators, and long-wavelength fiber lasers.

Dr. Moulton  is a  Fellow of the Optical Society (OSA), the IEEE, SPIE and the Military Sensing Symposia. He was awarded the R.W. Wood Prize from the OSA and the William Streifer Scientific Achievement Award from IEEE/LEOS, both in 1997. In 2000 he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering and in 2013 received the IEEE Photonics Award.