POSTECH: Professors Chulhong Kim and Hyung Ham Kim Win the Photoacoustics Best Paper Award 2022

POSTECH professor Chulhong Kim (Department of Convergence IT Engineering, Department of Electrical Engineering, and Department of Mechanical Engineering) and Professor Hyung Ham Kim (Department of Electrical Engineering and Department of Convergence IT Engineering) have won the Photoacoustics Best Paper Award 2022 presented at the SPIE Photonics West Conference.

Including the two professors, a POSTECH research team consisting of Ph.D. candidates Joongho Ahn and Jinwoo Baik of the Department of Convergence IT Engineering, Hyojin Kim of School of Interdisciplinary Biosciences and Bioengineering (Academic advisor: Professor Chulhong Kim), and Ph.D. candidate Yeonggeun Kim of the Department of Convergence IT Engineering (Academic advisor: Professor Hyung Ham Kim) presented the research findings on high-resolution, high-speed photoacoustic microscopy at the SPIE Photonics West Conference “Photons Plus Ultrasound: Imaging and Sensing 2022” held in San Francisco, California, U.S.

In the paper, the researchers filmed a video of the blood vessels in a finger with the high-speed photoacoustic microscopy and successfully observed reperfusion and oxygen consumption. They also integrated photoplethysmography (PPG) with photoacoustic imaging to observe the changes in the blood vessel movement according to the pulse.

Based on the research findings, the researchers proposed that the photoacoustic microscopy, which has been used in pre-clinical research, can also be used in clinical research.

SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics, was founded in 1955 and serves more than 250,000 members from 183 countries in the field of photoelectronic engineering. Photonics West is the largest annual conference in the field of optics with more than 20,000 participants attending every year.