Dist. Prof. Dr. Robert R. Alfano, Distinguished Professor of Science and Engineering, Departments of Physics and Electrical Engineering, Director and founder , CUNY Institute for Ultrafast Spectroscopy and Lasers (IUSL), The City College of New York, 160 Convent Ave, Room MR 201, New York, NY 10031 Robert Alfano is an Italian-American experimental physicist. He is a Distinguished Professor of Science and Engineering at the City College and Graduate School of New York of the City University of New York, where he is also the founding Director of the Institute for Ultrafast Spectroscopy and Lasers (1982). He is a pioneer in the fields of Biomedical Imaging and Spectroscopy, Ultrafast lasers and optics, tunable lasers, semiconductor materials and devices, optical materials, biophysics, nonlinear optics and photonics; he has also worked extensively in nanotechnology and coherent backscattering. His discovery of the white-light supercontinuum laser is at the root of optical coherence tomography, which is breaking barriers in ophthalmology, cardiology, and oral cancer detection (see "Better resolution with multibeam OCT," page 28) among other applications. He initiated the field known now as Optical Biopsy He recently calculated he has brought in $62 million worth of funding to CUNY during his career, averaging $1.7 million per year. He states that he has accomplished this feat by "hitting the pavement"; he developed a habit of aggressively reaching out to funding partners and getting them interested in his work. Alfano has made discoveries that have furthered biomedical optics, in addition to fields such as optical communications, solid-state physics, and metrology. Alfano has an outstanding track record for achievements regarding the development of biomedical instruments. His contributions to photonics are documented in more than 700 research articles, 102 patents, several edited volumes and conference proceedings, and well over 10,000 citations. He holds 45 patents and published over 230 articles in the biomedical optics area alone. His discovery of the white-light supercontinuum laser is at the root of optical coherence tomography, which is breaking barriers in ophthalmology, cardiology, and oral cancer detection (see "Better resolution with multibeam OCT," page 28) among other applications. Alfano has trained and mentored over 52 PhD candidates and 50 post-doctoral students. For the past ten years, he has trained innumerable high school students in hands on photonics.

Nicolas Javahiraly is an associate professor in physics at the University of Strasbourg. He did his PhD in Photonics at the same university on fiber optic sensors. After a post-doc at Harvard University on the interaction between ultra-short laser pulses and matter, he worked as a project manager and expert in the Sagem Defense group in Paris. He joined the University of Strasbourg in 2007 and is currently working on nano-optical sensors and plasmonics for various applications such as gas detection, pollutants detection and photoconversion systems for example.

Heinz Wilhelm Siesler is a Professor of Physical Chemistry at the University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany, with expertise in vibrational spectroscopy in combination with chemometric data evaluation for chemical research, analysis and process control. He has 240+ publications (4 monographs) and presented more than 300 lectures worldwide. Since 2012 he is a Fellow of the Society for Applied Spectroscopy and received several awards (1994 EAS NIR Award, 2000 Tomas Hirschfeld PITTCON NIR Award, and 2003 Buechi NIR Award). Prior to his academic position he gained industrial experience as section head in molecular spectroscopy and thermal analysis in the R&D Department of Bayer AG, Germany. He also worked as lecturer (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa) and Post-Doc (University of Cologne, Germany), after receiving his PhD in Chemistry (University of Vienna, Austria). The test and application of miniaturized handheld vibrational spectrometers is a special research focus over the last ten years.

Dr. Lingyan Shi’s pioneering work in developing and applying novel optical techniques has led to a number of significant breakthroughs in biophotonics with major implications for the fields of neuroscience and cancer research and is allowing us to visualize the mechanisms underlying everyday processes and disease. One of Dr. Shi’s most significant discoveries has been the development of a new experimental technique that combines heavy water labeling and a relatively new imaging method, stimulated Raman scattering microscopy, to probe the metabolic activities of living tissues at subcellular resolution in situ. This discovery facilitates the visualization of tumor boundaries, embryonic development, and even aging in biological tissue. Another significant scientific contribution is her discovery of the “Golden Optical Window” – a unique band of infrared wavelengths that can penetrate deeper into biological tissues than other wavelengths of light during imaging, thereby dramatically increasing the imaging depth possible in brain tissue by as much as 50%. In addition, Dr. Shi has developed an early-detection spectral technique that could provide doctors with a tool for the early-stage detection of Alzheimer’s disease.

Dr. Zhongping Chen is a Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Director of the OCT Laboratory at the University of California, Irvine. He is a Co-founder and Chairman of OCT Medical Imaging Inc. Dr. Chen received his B.S. degree in Applied Physics from Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 1982, his M. S. degree in Electrical Engineering in 1987, and his Ph.D. degree in Applied Physics from Cornell University in 1993. Dr. Chen and his research group have pioneered the development of Doppler optical coherence tomography, which simultaneously provides high resolution 3-D images of tissue structure and vascular flow dynamics. These functional extensions of OCT offer contrast enhancements and provide mapping of many clinically important parameters. In addition, his group has developed a number of endoscopic and intravascular rotational and linear miniature probes for OCT and MPM imaging and translated this technology to clinical applications. He has published more than 300 peer-reviewed papers and review articles and holds a number of patents in the fields of biomaterials, biosensors, and biomedical imaging. Dr. Chen is a Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), a Fellow of SPIE, and a Fellow of the Optical Society of America.

Benedykt Michal Josef Campbell-Biezanek is 71 years old; he is happily married (but also happily separated) with four sons and ten grandchildren. The author discovered the key solution that led to what he only now calls The Gauss-Newton Quantum-Relativity at nine years of age. It was too great a burden for a nine-year-old to deal with and the author decided to leave the issue until later in his life. The author became an electrical engineer with his own company designing and manufacturing highly specialised electronic instruments for the energy industry. In 2007, the author sold his company and at the age of 57, he took up the full-time theoretical work that led, as a mere byproduct of that overall work, to the development of what he now names as The Gauss-Newton Quantum-Relativity.

Boris Gramatikov is an Associate Professor at Johns Hopkins University, Department of Ophthalmology. He obtained his Dipl.- Ing. degree in Biomedical Engineering in Germany, and his Ph.D. in Bulgaria. He has completed a number of postdoctoral studies in Germany, Italy and the United States. He joined the faculty of the Biomedical Engineering Department of Johns Hopkins in 1996, and has been working in the Laboratory of Ophthalmic Instrumentation Development at The Wilmer Eye Institute since 2000. His areas of expertise include electronics, optoelectronics, computers, computer modeling, signal/image processing, data analysis, instrumentation design, biophotonics, ophthalmic and biomedical optics, and polarization optics, all applied to the development of diagnostic methods and devices for ophthalmology and vision research. His team has developed a series of pediatric vision screeners. He has over 120 publications, 41 of which in high-impact peer- reviewed journals. He serves as a reviewer and editorial board member with a number of technical and medical journals. Boris is the Director for Continuing Education of the Baltimore Section of the IEEE.

Prof. Rajpal Singh Sirohi did his Masters in Physics in 1964 from Agra University, and Post M.Sc. in Applied Optics and Ph. D. in Physics both from Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi in 1965 and 1970 respectively. Prof. Sirohi was Assistant Professor in Mechanical Engineering Department at Indian Institute of Technology Madras during 1971-1979. He became Professor in the Physics Department of the same Institute in 1979. He joined IIT Delhi as Director in 2000 and superannuated in April 2005 from IIT Delhi. During 2000 - 2011, he had been deeply engaged in academic administration and research as Director IIT Delhi (December 2000 - April 2005); Vice-Chancellor, Barkatullah University, Bhopal; (April 2005 - September 2007); Vice-Chancellor, Shobhit University, Meerut (October 2007 - March 2008); Vice-Chancellor of Amity University Rajasthan, Jaipur (March 2008 - October 2009) and Vice-Chancellor, Invertis University, Bareilly (January 2011 – October 2011). He was also the Visitor to the Teerthanker Mahaveer University, Moradabad (June 2012- June 2013). He is currently serving in the Physics Department, Alabama A&M University, Huntsville, Alabama USA. Prior to this (2013 - 2016), he was the Chair Professor, Physics Department, Tezpur University, Tezpur, Assam, India. He was Distinguished Scholar in the Department of Physics and Optical Engineering, Rose Hulman Institute of Technology, Terre Haute, Indian USA during 2011 - 2013. Prof. Sirohi worked in Germany as a Humboldt Fellow at PTB, Braunschweig, and as a Humboldt Awardee at Oldenburg University. He was a Senior Research Associate at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, and Associate Professor, and Distinguished Scholar at Rose Hulman Institute of Technology, Terre Haute, Indiana. He was ICTP (International Center for Theoretical Physics, Trieste Italy) Consultant to Institute for Advanced Studies, University of Malaya, Malaysia and ICTP Visiting Scientist to the University of Namibia. He was Visiting Professor at the National University of Singapore, and EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland. Prof. Sirohi is Fellow of several important academies/ societies in India and abroad including the Indian National Academy of Engineering; National Academy of Sciences, Optical Society of America; Optical Society of India; SPIE (The International Society for Optical Engineering), Instrument Society of India and honorary fellow of ISTE and Metrology Society of India. Recently, the Optical Society of India conferred on him the distinction of Distinguished Fellow. He is member of several other scientific societies and founding member of India Laser Association. Prof. Sirohi was also the Chair for SPIE-INDIA Chapter, which he established with co-operation from SPIE in 1995 at IIT Madras. He was invited as JSPS (Japan Society for the Promotion of Science) Fellow and JITA Fellow to Japan. He was a member of the Education Committee of SPIE. Prof. Rajpal Singh Sirohi did his Masters in Physics in 1964 from Agra University, and Post M.Sc. in Applied Optics and Ph. D. in Physics both from Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi in 1965 and 1970 respectively. Prof. Sirohi was Assistant Professor in Mechanical Engineering Department at Indian Institute of Technology Madras during 1971-1979. He became Professor in the Physics Department of the same Institute in 1979. He joined IIT Delhi as Director in 2000 and superannuated in April 2005 from IIT Delhi. 2 Prof. Sirohi has received the following awards from various organizations: Humboldt Research Award (1995) by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Germany; Galileo Galilei Award of International Commission for Optics (1995); Amita De Memorial Award of the Optical Society of India (1998); 13th Khwarizmi International Award, IROST (Iranian Research Organisation for Science and Technology (2000); Albert Einstein Silver Medal, UNESCO (2000); Dr. YT Thathachari Prestigious Award for Science by Thathachari Foundation, Mysore (2001); Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru Award in Engineering & Technology for 2000, (awarded in 2002) by MP Council of Science and Technology; NRDC Technology Invention Award on May 11, 2003; Sir CV Raman Award: Physical Sciences for 2002 by UGC (University Grants Commission); Padma Shri, a national Civilian Award (2004); Sir CV Raman Birth Centenary Award (2005) by Indian Science Congress Association, Kolkata; Holo-Knight (2005), inducted into Order of Holo- Knights during the International Conference-Fringe 05-held at Stuttgart, Germany; Centenarian Seva Ratna Award (2004) by The Centenarian Trust, Chennai; Instrument Society of India Award (2007); Gabor Award (2009) by SPIE (The International Society for Optical Engineering) USA; UGC National Hari OM Ashram Trust Award - Homi J. Bhabha Award for Applied Sciences (2005) by UGC; Title ‘Freedom of the Institute’ conferred by Indian Institute of Technology Delhi in 2011; Distinguished Alumni Award (2013) by Indian Institute of Technology Delhi; Vikram Award 2014 by SPIE (The International Society for Optical Engineering) USA. According to Stanford University ranking report, he is listed with in 2% of the global scientists in Optoelectronics and Photonics. Prof. Sirohi was the President of the Optical Society of India during 1994-1996. He was also the President of Instrument Society of India for three terms (2003-06, 2007-09, 2010-12). He was on the International Advisory Board of the Journal of Modern Optics, UK and on the editorial Boards of the Journal of Optics (India), Optik, Indian Journal of Pure and Applied Physics. He was Guest Editor to the Journals “Optics and Lasers in Engineering” and “Optical Engineering”. He was Associate Editor of the International Journal “Optical Engineering”, USA during (1999-Aug.2013), and currently is its Senior Editor (since August 2013). He is the Series Editor of the Series on ‘Advances in Optics, Photonics and Optoelectronics’ published by Institute of Physics (IoP) Publishing, UK. Prof. Sirohi has 496 papers to his credit with 250 published in national and international journals, 78 papers in Proceedings of the conferences and 168 presented in conferences. He has authored/co-authored/edited thirteen books including five milestones for SPIE. He was Principal Coordinator for 26 projects sponsored by Government Funding Agencies and Industries, has supervised 25 Ph.D. theses, 7 M.S. theses and numerous B.Tech., M.Sc. and M.Tech. theses. Prof. Sirohi’s research areas are Optical Metrology, Optical Instrumentation, Laser Instrumentation, Holography and Speckle Phenomenon.

Dr. Ilirjana Anna Sino Toptani Mariani is an innovator with leadership skills and experience managing research professionals in collaborative projects resulting in discoveries and funds. She is an Albanian-Italian-Canadian Scientist with a academic background; obtained her Ph.D. degree in Physics/ Atomic and Molecular Spectroscopy from the University of Florence, Department of Physics and Astronomy and LENS jointly with the University Complutense of Madrid, supported also by the Institute of Applied Physics and The University of Tirana and Vlora. She has also a MSc and BSc in Physics/Biophysics, Physics/Education from the University of Tirana. Her experience and expertise in teaching and research include Physics, Nonlinear Spectroscopy, Biophysics, Medical Physics, Imaging, Photonics, Optics, Physical Chemistry, and Quantum Biology with applications in the environmental and biomedical field, development of instruments, diagnostic and analytical Bio-Physical-Chemical methods of analysis. She has also been trained from Harvard University, and the University of British Columbia on legal topics for scientists, entrepreneurs and start-ups, Education Redesign for the 21st Century, Advanced methods in Molecular Biology. She is an activist of the Academy of Leadership sciences, Switzerland in Canada and an activist of Scientists of Albanian Diaspora. Her academic experience includes among others lecturing at the university of Tirana and Vlora, Faculty of Technical Sciences and Engineering and Faculty of Nursing and Public Health; Despite her fields of expertise she is interested in Energetic Psychology, Holistic healing, and Politics and is fluent in three languages and has professional proficiency in more then two.

Dr. Daniela Capdepon is one of our highly qualified and best expert Oncologist - Onco Hematologist with an invaluable experience of over 15 years. She is working as an expert Oncologist in Campana Cancer Center. She has completed MEDICINE for her training and expertise. Her residence is in Campana, Buenos Aires, Argentina. She fluently communicates with the patients in Spanish and English. Highly recommended.

Dr. Bing Yu received his Ph.D. from Virginia Tech in 2005 and postdoctoral training from Duke University between 2005-08. Dr. Yu is currently an Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Marquette University and Medical College of Wisconsin. His prior experience includes a Senior Research Scientist and Research Assistant Professor at Duke University and tenure-track Assistant Professor at the University of Akron. His current research focuses on light-tissue interaction, optical imaging and spectroscopy for cancer detection and treatment monitoring, and optical sensors. Dr. Yu is an ASLMS Fellow, senior member of SPIE, and member of Optica (OSA) and BMES.

Niloy Dutta is a professor of physics at the University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT. He was Director of Optoelectronic Device Research at AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ. He is a Life Fellow of the Institute of Electrical Engineers (IEEE), a Fellow of the Optical Society of America, a Fellow of the International Society of Optical Engineers (SPIE), and, a Member of the Connecticut Academy of Science and Engineering. He received the Photonics Society Distinguished Lecturer Award in 1995 and Bell Laboratories President’s Award in 1997