Barton, Rabbani Awarded SPIE President’s, Directors’ Awards

The International Society for Optics and Photonics (SPIE) has awarded Jennifer Barton the SPIE President’s Award, and Majid Rabbani the SPIE Directors’ Award.

Barton is interim director of the BIO5 Institute at the University of Arizona, which works to solve complex biology-based problems affecting humanity. She is also professor of biomedical engineering, electrical and computer engineering, optical sciences, and agricultural and bio-systems engineering at UA, and serves on the SPIE Board of Directors. Barton is known for her innovative use of optical techniques in the detection and treatment of cancer and other diseases. Her work includes the development of miniature endoscopes that combine two imaging techniques, optical coherence tomography and fluorescence spectroscopy. She also explores the application of these in detecting early cancer development in patients and preclinical models. Barton leads a two-year, $1 million project funded by the National Cancer Institute to identify imaging biomarkers of ovarian cancer, the deadliest gynecological cancer in the United States, to enable the first effective screening system for the cancer.

Rabbani, a widely recognized leader in the field of imaging and full-time visiting professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology, retired this year from Eastman Kodak Co. with the rank of Kodak Fellow. His research interests span various aspects of digital image and video processing and analysis. Rabbani is symposium chair for SPIE Commercial and Scientific Sensing and Imaging 2017 at SPIE Defense and Commercial Sensing, has served on symposium and conference committees for other events, is the chair of the SPIE Fellows Committee and was a longtime course instructor for SPIE. He has published numerous technical articles and book chapters, holds 44 U.S. patents, co-authored the SPIE Press book "Digital Image Compression Techniques," and was editor of the SPIE Milestone volume "Image Coding and Compression."

SPIE is an educational, not-for-profit organization founded in 1955 to advance light-based science, engineering and technology.