Prof. Sanathana Konugolu Venkata Sekar, a leading scientist and entrepreneur with a decade-long experience in biophotonics, is the Head of FAST-BioPhotonics, Biomedical Theme Coordinator at IPIC, and an Associate Professor (Senior Lecturer) at UCC’s School of Physics. In his role as Biomedical Theme Coordinator, he drives interdisciplinary research across a team of 9 Principal Investigators and more than 25 PhD students and postdoctoral researchers.
He is the holder of a prestigious European Research Council (ERC) grant, among several other national and international research grants. He currently co-/supervises 10 PhD students, 4 postdocs, and a research engineer, and actively mentors many more students and aspiring entrepreneurs. Prof. Konugolu is also the co-founder of BioPixS Ltd – Biophotonics Standards, a spin-off company translating his research into practical solutions for standardization in biophotonics.
The FAST-BioPhotonics@Tyndall team aims to develop new frontiers in time-of-flight tools for wearable biophotonics applications to eliminate skin color bias and develop the next generation of high-performance oximeters. His other research areas and interests include time-domain diffuse optical spectroscopy (TDDOS), UpConverting Nanoparticles (UCNPs) for deep tissue imaging and optogenetics, GASMAS (Gases in Scattering Media Absorption Spectroscopy) for infant lung vital monitoring, Raman spectroscopy, instrument development in biophotonics, imaging and non-imaging probe development, optical standards and phantoms, medical device regulatory processes, and entrepreneurial activities in the field.
He has also played multiple roles as Associate Editor for Biophotonics Discovery, guest editor, reviewer, event and workshop chair/organizer, rapporteur/moderator at international events, and research lead in numerous projects contributing to novel innovations in biophotonics. He serves as an expert member in ISO-IEC standardization working groups: IEC/TC 62/SC 62D/JWG 5 “Oximeters” and ISO/TC 121/SC 3/JWG 10 “Oximeters”. Additionally, he is a member of the Board of Meetings (BoM) at OPTICA, the world’s largest photonics society, through which he is contributing to shaping the future of the global photonics sector.
Prof. Konugolu’s academic journey includes being a Marie Curie (ITN) fellow, earning a cum laude award for his PhD in Biophotonics at Politecnico di Milano, Italy, and receiving a gold medal for his Master’s in Physics (Photonics) from SSSIHL, Puttaparthi, India. He has developed and clinically translated biophotonics tools such as TDDOS in phantom and in vivo studies, Time-Domain Diffuse Correlation Spectroscopy (TDDCS), Time-Resolved Raman Spectroscopy, and clinical translational research. One of his most notable innovations is Frequency-Offset Raman Spectroscopy (FORS), a novel technique enabling deep tissue Raman spectroscopy.
Prof. Konugolu is a team player and proactive funding seeker, actively collaborating with universities, scientific institutions, hospitals, and industries in advancing the field of biophotonics.
