Igor Meglinski is a scientist best known for his development of fundamental studies and translation research dedicated to imaging of cells and biological tissues utilising polarised light, dynamic light scattering and computational imitation of light propagation within complex tissue-like scattering medium. He is a Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Biophotnics at Aston University and holds the Professor of Opto-Electronics and Biophotonics at Oulu University.
Meglinski obtained his BSc/MSc in Laser Physics from the Saratov State University, and PhD degree in 1997, studying at the interface between Saratov State University and the University of Pennsylvania under the supervision of Professor Britton Chance, Professor Arjun Yodh and Professor Valery V. Tuchin. After a few years of postdoctoral research in the School of Physics at the University of Exeter, he became a Lecturer and Director of Biomedical Optical Diagnostics Laboratory in the School of Engineering at Cranfield University in 2001, and a Head of Bio-Photonics & Bio-Medical Optical Diagnostics in the School of Health of Cranfield University in 2007.
In 2014, Meglinski returned back to Europe, heading the Opto-Electronic and Measurement Techniques Department at the Faculty of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering (ITEE) at the University of Oulu in Finland. Since 2019 he is Professor in Biomedical Engineering and Biophotonics in Aston University, working at the interface between School of Engineering & Applied Science and School of Life & Health Sciences.
He is a board member of the Engineering & Physical Sciences Section of The Royal Microscopical Society,[1] and a member of editorial boards of Biomedical Optics Express,[2]Sustainable Materials and Technologies,[3] and Journal of Biomedical Photonics & Engineering[4]
Research
Meglinski explored the use of coherent properties of multiply scattered light, e.g. such as universal decay of temporal correlation function and enhancement of coherent back-scattering light. He pioneered the application of Diffusing Wave Spectroscopy (DWS) for non-invasive monitoring of blood flow and superficial blood microcirculation in vivo.[5]
He also investigated an opportunity to suppress the light scattering in human skin and other biological tissues by applying various osmotically active agents, thus, pioneering the enhancement of probing depth for confocal reflectance microscopy[6] and Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT).[7] This approach, known as ‘optical clearing’, has since gained widespread use[8]
Based on the collation with the procedure of iteration solution of Bethe-Salpeter equation Professor Meglinski generalised Monte Carlo method for simulation of coherent effects of multiple scattering.[9] He introduced a new concept for the development of unified computational Monte Carlo model for simulation of coherent effects of multiple scattering of light. Based on this concept, utilising a parallel computational framework, known as NVIDIA Compute Unified Device Architecture (CUDA), accelerated with the Graphics Processing Units (GPU) and cloud-based environment solutions, the first Monte Carlo-based online computational toolbox for the needs of Biophotonics has been created.[10]
Prof. Meglinski pioneered the application of circularly polarised light for cancer detection.[11] He demonstrated that the phase shift of polarised light backscattered from samples of biological tissue carries important information about the presence of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia, whereas circularly polarised light is able to distinguish the successive grades of cancer.[12]
He pioneered the study of vector laser beams propagation in turbid tissue-like scattering medium.[13]
He made significant contributions in many branches in Life Science and Biophotonic: designed and developed sensors for monitoring stress conditions experienced by aquatic organisms influenced with water pollution and climate change,;[14][15] introduced application of optical tweezers for characterisation mutual interaction of red blood cells influenced by nanoparticles[16] and by pulsed laser radiation;[17] developed sensing techniques for food quality control,[18][19] and many other.
Honours, awards and professional recognition
Professor Meglinski's research earned his a number of awards and professional recognition:
^Doronin, Alexander; Meglinski, Igor (2011). "Online Monte Carlo for biomedical optics". SPIE Newsroom. doi:10.1117/2.1201110.003879.
^Meglinski, Igor; Macdonald, Calumn; Doronin, Alexander; Eccles, Michael (2013). "Screening cancer aggressiveness by using circularly polarized light". Optics in the Life Sciences. OSA Optics in the Life Sciences. p. BM2A.4. doi:10.1364/BODA.2013.BM2A.4. ISBN978-1-55752-966-4.
^Kunnen, Britt; Macdonald, Calumn; Doronin, Alexander; Jacques, Steven; Eccles, Michael; Meglinski, Igor (2013). "Application of circularly polarized light for non-invasive diagnosis of cancerous tissues and turbid tissue-like scattering media". Journal of Biophotonics. 8 (4): 317–323. doi:10.1002/jbio.201400104. PMID25328034. S2CID5574916.
^Meglinski, Igor; Buranachai, Chitannon; Terry, Leon (2010). "Plant Photonics: Use of Optical Coherence Tomography to monitor defects and rots in onion". Laser Physics Letters. 7 (4): 307–310. doi:10.1002/lapl.200910141. S2CID54676019.
