Research
Our ambition is to be leading in developing novel instrumentation and imaging technologies. As such the department's profile encompasses a mix of science, engineering and design.
Our research tackles existing boundaries in terms of spatial & temporal resolution and information/data throughput. We are pioneers in developing advanced concepts of computational imaging, a marriage between cleverly designed imaging systems and sophisticated post-processing. Research topics span the entire range from curiosity-driven to application-inspired, are always academically challenging, relevant to society, and approached from a fundamental perspective. Our research is broadly applied to three research themes: Healthcare, High-tech Industry, and the Life Sciences.
Themes
Healthcare
In the Healthcare Imaging theme, we have two main topics: ultrasound imaging technologies (UST) and quantitative imaging biomarkers.
The UST research primarily targets the design and manufacturing of ultrasound (matrix) transducers and imaging concepts. Our techniques facilitate reconstruction of high-resolution images from which clinical parameters are extracted (e.g. blood velocities, heart muscle stiffness, tumour properties).
Our quantitative imaging research strives to develop new techniques to extract imaging biomarkers for disease management (prediction, diagnosis, staging, prognostics) based on innovations in non-invasive image acquisitions and image analysis. Our research lines span a broad spectrum from modelling, engineering, and post-processing of medical images, with a focus on MRI, deeply rooted in the physics of the image formation.
High-tech Industry
A large part of our research is inspired by fundamental questions in the high-tech industry. We advance imaging methods and technologies for the next phase in industry - to enable the long-term innovation potential. These innovations include new optical sensors and imaging concepts such as super-resolution methods, coherent scatterometry, and inverse scattering reconstruction for in-line optical metrology, but also instrumentation at large such as novel electron and ion sources and multi-beam electron imaging. Innovation examples on the level of components are free-form lenses, deformable mirrors, active nano-structures, meta-materials, or graded-index materials.
Life Sciences
Advances in life sciences rely heavily on novel methods and instrumentation for acquiring data. New imaging paradigms are of primary importance. We develop cutting edge instrumentation and methods for visualising structural and functional information in cells and tissues, ranging from the nanometer to the centimeter scale.
We have leading activities in integrated correlative light and electron microscopy and in computational microscopy. This includes localisation microscopy with particle averaging and structured illumination microscopy. We developed optogenetic and functional imaging technologies with applications in neuroscience, developmental biology, and cell biology, and perform leading research combining different techniques from voltage imaging and light-sheet microcopy to functional ultrasound imaging and optical coherence tomography.
Centers of Excellence and Consortia
ImPhys is co-founder of several Centers of Excellence and Consortia in which the research staff participates together with scientists of universities, medical centres, industry and the Netherlands Organisation for applied scientific research TNO.
PhD
Are you interested in a PhD project at the faculty of Applied Sciences, find more information here.
