Light (electromagnetic radiation in general) is indispensable for the genesis of life as either the ultimate source of energy for synthesis or for evolution as a direct agent for variation. The major research interests of the Biomedical Physics group lies in understanding biological systems by investigating their interaction with light, ultimately for medical application of the acquired information. The long-term goal is to study the pathways of energy transfer, and isolate parameters that are fundamental to the understanding of interaction mechanisms. Special research areas include:

• Surgical applications of pulsed lasers and light propagation in turbid media of biological tissue (Hu),
• Medical imaging with near-infrared light (Dinno, Hu, Li),
• Light interaction with single cells (Dinno, Hu, Li) and
• Modeling of light interaction with biological systems through large-scale calculations (Hu, Joyce, Lu).