Events Archive 2015

Insights gained from Five Decades of Whitecap Studies

ABSTRACT The speaker will touch on a few insights gained from the studies of oceanic whitecaps that he and his colleagues pursued, many during his decade at NUI Galway (formerly UCG). He will focus on those insights that are proving to still be of use to current researchers on wave breaking, whitecap formation, air‐sea gas transfer, marine aerosol production, and remote sensing.

The speaker is Edward C Monahan, Emeritus Professor in Marine Sciences at the University of Connecticut. His research activities continue to centre on investigations of those physical processes involved in air‐sea exchange, with particular focus on the various bubble‐mediated air‐sea exchange mechanisms. He has an ongoing interest in, and commitment to, the wise use and conservation of the earth’s environment, and of the various resources found therein. This commitment is reflected in his activities during his 20 years as Director of the Connecticut Sea Grant Program, and now, in retirement, by his activities as a Director of the South‐eastern Connecticut Water Authority.

Location: Seminar Room 203 (formerly Moore Institute Seminar Room)    
Time: 11am

Photonics Outreach/Optical Coherence Tomography

Speakers: Professor David Sampson, University of Western Australia & Dr Paul McNamara, NUI Galway

Professor Sampson has over twenty years research experience in industry and academia in photonics, optics, and microscopy, and their applications in telecommunications, sensors, biology and medicine. His contributions span a wide area, including the disciplines of optical physics, applied optics, optical, electrical and biomedical engineering, chemistry, preclinical and clinical medicine, and physiology. His early career was focused on optical communications. Since the late 1990s, his research at the University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia, has focused on biomedical optics and biophotonics. As an early adopter of interdisciplinary engagement as the basis for a stimulating and productive research environment, he has formed effective collaborations particularly with biological and medical researchers and clinicians. He has made particular contributions to biomedical optics in holographic microscopy and in optical coherence tomography (OCT), having pioneered anatomical OCT, its application in airways, and the emerging technologies of the Microscope‐in‐a‐Needle and optical micro-elastography. More details can be found at http://obel.ee.uwa.edu.au/.

Dr Paul McNamara is a research fellow at the Tissue Optics and Microcirculation Imaging (TOMI) facility at the National University of Ireland, Galway under the direction of Prof. Martin Leahy. Paul is a graduate of the University of Limerick where he obtained an honours degree in Applied Physics in 2005 and PhD in biophotonics in 2013. In April 2014, he joined the TOMI team at NUI Galway in conjunction with Compact Imaging Ireland under the Irish Research Council’s Enterprise Partnership Scheme. His research focus includes applications for multiple reference optical coherence tomography (MR-OCT).

Location: Seminar Room 203 (formerly Moore Institute Seminar Room)    
Time: 11.00am

Fluorescence Lifetime Techniques in Clinical Interventions

This presentation overviews fluorescence lifetime spectroscopy and imaging techniques for label-free in vivo characterization of biological tissues. Emphasis is placed on recently developed devices and methods enabling real-time characterization and diagnosis of diseased tissues during clinical interventions. Studies conducted in animal models and human patients will be presented, demonstrating the ability of these techniques to provide rapid in-situ evaluation of tissue biochemistry and their potential to guide surgical and intravascular procedures. Current results demonstrate that intrinsic fluorescence can provide useful contrast for the diagnosis of vulnerable atherosclerotic plaques, intraoperative delineation of brain tumors and head and neck tumors. Finally, results from the first-in-human study that shows the potential of a multispectral fluorescence lifetime method for image-guided augmented reality in trans-oral robotic surgery (TORS) will be presented.

The speaker is Laura Marcu, Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Neurological Surgery at University of California at Davis. She received her doctorate degree in biomedical engineering from the University of Southern California in 1998. Prior of joining UC Davis in 2006 she served as the Director of the Biophotonics Research Laboratory at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and was a Research Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering Electrophysics and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Southern California. Her research interests include the development of fluorescence-based instrumentation and multimodal imaging systems which enable studies of the molecular, metabolic and morphologic changes in living systems ranging from biological cells and animal models to human patients.

Location: Seminar Room 203 (Old Moore Seminar Room)    
Time: 12.30pm

A mixing length model for the aqueous boundary layer including the effect of wave breaking

A mixing length model for air-water gas transfer is developed to include the effects of wave breaking. The model requires both the shear velocity induced by the wind and the integrated wave dissipation. Both of these can be calculated for tanks and oceans by a full spectrum wave model. The gas transfer model is calibrated, with laboratory tank measurements of carbon dioxide flux, and transported to oceanic conditions to yield air-sea transfer velocity versus wind speed.

The speaker is Prof Mark Donelan, Emeritus Professor at the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, University of Miami. His PhD in Physics and Oceanography is from the University of British Columbia, and he spent 25 years working as a research scientist at Environment Canada, before joining the academic staff of the University of Miami.  His current research interests are in the areas of Air-sea interaction, wave dynamics, boundary layer turbulence, wave modelling, remote sensing, gas transfer, storm surge modelling, wind stress modelling.

Location: Seminar Room 203 (formerly Moore Institute Seminar Room)    
Time: 13:00