Prof. Christine Hendon Named a 2021 SPIE Fellow

In recognition of her groundbreaking research on biomedical optical imaging tools to guide diagnostics and treatments, particularly for the heart, Christine B. Hendon, associate professor of electrical engineering, was recently named a fellow of SPIE – International Society for Optical Engineering. This significant honor is given to engineers who have made “significant scientific and technical contributions in the multidisciplinary fields of optics, photonics, and imaging.”

Hendon directs the Structure Function Imaging Laboratory, where her group develops platform optical imaging systems to enable structure-function analysis of biological organ systems. Her goal is to guide therapeutic procedures in real time by giving surgeons important insights into the tissues on which they are operating. In collaboration with colleagues at both Engineering and the Columbia University Irving Medical Center, her team has created a host of integrative optics and therapeutic probes for more effective treatment of cardiac arrhythmias, among other disorders . She is also using her optical tools to detect breast cancer tumors.

Hendon’s election as a SPIE Fellow is the latest of many since Hendon joined the faculty in 2012. She was named to the Forbes 30 under 30 list in Science and Healthcare (2012) and to MIT Technology Review’s 35 Innovators under 35 (2013). She has received a New Innovator Award from the National Institutes of Health (2014), a Faculty Early Career Development Award from the National Science Foundation (2015), and a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (2017), the U.S. Government’s highest honor for researchers in the early stages of their careers. Last year, she was elected a fellow of the Optical Society and inducted into the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering’s (AIMBE) College of Fellows , one of the top professional distinctions accorded to medical and biological engineers.