Yunfeng Nie: 2016 Awardee
Michael Kidger Memorial Scholarship
Vrije Universiteit Brussel
The 2016 winner of the Michael Kidger Memorial Scholarship award is Yunfeng Nie. Yunfeng is a Ph.D. student under the guidance of Prof. Fabian Duerr and Prof. Hugo Thienpont at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. Her research is funded by the Marie Curie Initial Training Network “ADvanced OPtical SYStem design” of the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme. Included in her continuing research is a new design algorithm for specialty freeform imaging systems. Yunfeng hopes to complete her Ph.D. in early 2018.
The 2016 Kidger Scholarship award was presented to Yunfeng on 15 September 2016 by Tina E. Kidger at UKODM 2016, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Oxfordshire, UK.
Research Highlights
Tina Kidger and Yunfeng Nie
Kidger Scholarship Award Presentation
UKODM 2016
Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
Oxfordshire, UK, 15 September 2016
Previously, Yunfeng majored in Precision Machinery and Precision Instrumentation at the University of Science and Technology of China. Subsequently, she was awarded a Master’s degree in Optical Engineering from the University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in July 2012. Yunfeng won the Excellent Graduate Student of Beijing Award in 2012, and also the graduate student’s Highest Director Award from the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
During her curent research investigations, Yunfeng has identified the lack of state-of-the-art direct design methods to incorporate an entrance pupil in the optical design process an important factor for correcting off-axis aberrations. By implementing the two-dimensional multi-fields design approach, Yunfeng has accomplished both of her envisioned goals: to include an entrance pupil and to balance image quality over the full field of view through an elegant partial coupling of a large number of fields.
Updates
YUNFENG NIE
with
Prof. Hugo Thienpont (left) and Prof. Fabian Duerr (right)
following Yunfeng’s Thesis Defense
2018
In January 2018, Yunfeng Nie, a student under the guidance of Prof. Fabian Duerr (Kidger Scholar Awardee, 2012) and Prof. Hugo Thienpont, successfully defended her Ph.D. thesis titled “Advances in freeform optical design methods for imaging applications” at Vrije Universiteit Brussel. She was awarded the degree of Doctor of Engineering Sciences with highest honours.
2020
“At present, I am a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Applied Physics and Photonics at the Free University of Brussels in Belgium. I continue algorithm development of the analytic method for freeform imaging system design with Professor Fabian Duerr. At the same time, I also work with Professor Heidi Ottevaere in the domain of biophotonics, more specifically, Laser-Induced Raman Spectroscopy, Fluorescence microscopy for Alzheimer’s early detection, and two-photon polarization (2pp) for burn wound dressing. My main work now is to develop a super-sensitive fluorescence sensor in the project of “SensApp”, funded by the European Commission (EU) H2020 FET-OPEN under grant No. 829104.
“SensApp aims at developing a super-sensor system that, pushing the sensitivity well below 1 pg/mL, will be able to detect the Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) biomarkers (Amyloid-beta, tau, P-tau) in human plasma, thus overcoming the limits of detection usually encountered by standard enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) protocols. This super-sensor will enable in the future, a faster and non-invasive early diagnosis of AD simply through a routine blood test, thus opening the route to highly efficient screening programs among the population.”