BELLINGHAM, Washington, USA — 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.
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