Fibre-based biomedical imaging advances presented at parliament
Postgraduate research student Krzysztof Herdzik from the Optoelectronics Research Centre has showcased a fibre laser source for biomedical imaging at the STEM for Britain exhibition.
The pioneering work within Southampton's Zepler Institute for Photonics and Nanoelectronics was presented to Members of the Houses of Parliament at Westminster's Portcullis House.
STEM for Britain raises the profile of Britain's early-stage researchers through a poster competition and prizes in biosciences, chemistry, engineering, mathematics and physics.
Krzysztof appeared in the physics category, outlining his development of fibre-based broadband laser sources for nonlinear label-free bioimaging.
"I found the experience of presenting at parliament quite exhilarating," he says. "It was particularly enjoyable to meet politicians that were genuinely interested in the science in question.
"My research takes existing achievements across the multiple fields - physics, chemistry and bioimaging - and puts them together in a way that could potentially facilitate the future transfer of the technology from the laboratory into the clinical environment, for the purpose of earlier diagnostics."
Krzysztof completed his undergraduate and master's degree studies in Gdansk, Poland, at the University of Technology. After a couple of years in industry he started his PhD at the University of Southampton, with technology development based in the Optoelectronics Research Centre and applications being explored in the Institute for Life Sciences.
Krzysztof was one of eight promising Southampton researchers to exhibit at STEM for Britain 2020.
Cristina Argudin Violante represented the School of Biological Sciences, Fatumah Atuhaire and Isobel Webster exhibited for mathematics and Sam Perry presented the latest advances in chemistry, while Elaine Ho, Maria Ramos-Suarez and Ben Fletcher all featured in the Engineering category. Ben was awarded the event's IEEE Communications Society Prize for his innovative stacking of silicon chips.