The candidate is a principal research engineer at the California Institute of Technology Jet Propulsion Laboratory. His specialty area is millimeter and submillimeter wave technology development and instrumentation, especially THz space sensor systems. He is interested in applying this technology, for the first time, towards medical applications, in particular to bioimaging and disease diagnosis. Medical imaging is a well developed field with perhaps the widest range of spectral coverage of any science save astrophysics. True diffraction limited imaging can be obtained at frequencies from kHz (ultrasound) to a 100 quadrillion Hz (1017 or X-Rays). However, there is at least one wavelength range with substantial biochemical absorption and potential contrast mechanisms that is still completely unexplored - the THz domain P.H. Siegel, """"""""Terahertz Technology,"""""""" Special 50th Anniversary Issue of IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, March 2002]. This task will apply state-of-the-art THz sensor technology, developed originally for NASA space science, Earth and planetary remote sensing, to biomedical problems. Targeted areas of investigation include development of measurement techniques for absorption, reflection and scattering of THz beams; algorithms for 2D and 3D tomographic imaging; cataloging of biomaterial transmission properties and identification of contrast mechanisms in body fluids, lipids, tissue and bone at THz frequencies; effects of THz energy on cell function and finally disease diagnosis and perhaps even treatment. There is now very strong evidence that THz imaging techniques can be used to distinguish normal and carcinogenic skin cells non-invasively and in-vivo [R. M. Woodward, V. P. Wallace, R. Pye, B. Cole, E. H. Linfield, D. D. Arnone and M. Pepper, """"""""Terahertz Pulse Imaging of Basal Cell Carcinoma"""""""", First International Conference on Biomedical Imaging and Sensing Applications of THz Technology (BISAT2001), Leeds, UK, Nov.29-Dec. 1, 2001], however the underlying contrast mechanisms are not yet understood. The field of THz imaging is in its early infancy and there is much to be learned before we can make a judgment on the effectiveness of this wavelength range in resolving problems of interest to the medical and biomedical communities. Since there has been so little commercial development in the THz field, this task can have a major impact in starting us down a road that will likely be both long and fruitful.
