2025 SPIE-Franz Hillenkamp Postdoctoral Fellowship awarded to Morgan Fogarty

 SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics, has announced Morgan Fogarty, who is expected to receive her PhD in Imaging Science from Washington University in St. Louis (WashU) in February, as the recipient of the 2025 SPIE-Franz Hillenkamp Postdoctoral Fellowship in Problem-Driven Biomedical Optics and Analytics. The annual award of $75,000 supports interdisciplinary problem-driven research and provides opportunities for translating new technologies into clinical practice for improving human health. Fogarty will be recognized at the Sunday evening plenary session during SPIE Photonics West, scheduled for 26 January 2025.

Fogarty’s research — conducted in conjunction with Sherwood Moore Professor of Radiology Joseph Culver at the Culver Lab and Biophotonics Research Center at WashU — will build on her doctoral work, exploring the potential of using diffuse optical tomography (DOT) for monitoring language function and recovery in post-stroke patients. Applying the same technology, she also hopes to establish the feasibility of brain-computer interfaces to restore inter-personal communication for post-stroke patients. Elements of this work will be presented at SPIE Photonics West in January.

“I am deeply honored to be awarded the SPIE-Franz Hillenkamp Fellowship for my research using diffuse optical tomography for post-stroke language mapping,” says Fogarty. “Building on my doctoral research, I am excited to translate our findings into a clinical setting with the support of this fellowship. Understanding and monitoring language recovery using brain mapping opens the door for improved speech-language therapy and the potential for augmented communication. This fellowship enables me to take the initial steps toward translating DOT into a clinical tool in post-stroke recovery, and I couldn't be happier for the opportunity to continue this research.”

“On behalf of the SPIE-Franz Hillenkamp Fellowship committee, we are very pleased to join with SPIE in supporting Morgan Fogarty this year,” noted Committee Co-Chairs Rox Anderson and Gabriela Apiou. “She was chosen from among a highly competitive group of excellent proposals with clearly promising potential for scientific, technological, and clinical impact. That combination is at the heart of biomedical optics and photonics as a field and the foundation of the SPIE-Franz Hillenkamp fellowship. We look forward to hearing more from Morgan Fogarty and seeing the outcome of this project!”

Honoring the career of medical laser pioneer Franz Hillenkamp, the SPIE-Hillenkamp Fellowship is a partnership between multiple international biomedical laboratories — the Wellman Center for Photomedicine, the Beckman Laser Institute, the Manstein Lab in the Cutaneous Biology Research Center at Massachusetts General Hospital, Medical Laser Center Lübeck, and Boston University — and the Hillenkamp family. The endowment is funded through generous donations from the biomedical optics community, with SPIE contributing matching funds up to $1.5 million.

Applications for the 2026 SPIE-Hillenkamp Fellowship will open in the Spring of 2025.

About SPIE

SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics, brings engineers, scientists, students, and business professionals together to advance light-based science and technology. The Society, founded in 1955, connects and engages with our global constituency through industry-leading conferences and exhibitions; publications of conference proceedings, books, and journals in the SPIE Digital Library; and career-building opportunities. Over the past five years, we have invested more than $25 million in the international optics community through our advocacy and support, including scholarships, educational resources, travel grants, endowed gifts, and public-policy development. www.spie.org.