Academic Profile : Faculty

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Assoc Prof Murukeshan Vadakke Matham
Associate Professor, School of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering
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Prof. Murukeshan Vadakke Matham obtained his M.Sc. and M.Phil. Degrees in Physics with specialization in Quantum Electronics from the Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT), India. He pursued his doctoral degree at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras and at the University of Oldenburg, Germany with the DAAD Fellowship award and was awarded Ph.D. in 1997 from IIT Madras (India). Since 1997, he has been attached to the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore where he is currently working as an Associate Professor. He has more than 25 years of professional experience (full time), which includes 3 and half years of postdoctoral experience and more than 20 years of teaching experience. He has made pioneering contributions in optical imaging and is well known for imaging from macro to micro to nanoscale. His basic background is in Physics (Optics) with strong interdisciplinary research expertise and interest in the areas of Biomedical Optics, Nanoscale optics, Interferometry, Laser assisted fabrication and 3D printing, Optics for food industry and Applied optics for metrology. His major research expertise is in the areas of Nanoscale Optics (conventional and near-field interferometric lithography; plasmonics), Biomedical Optics (specialty multi-modal and hybrid modality probes, imaging and sensing), and Applied Optics for macro, micro and nanoscale metrology. He has over 200 international journal papers, over 175 international conference proceedings papers/presentations, 1 co-authored book and 6 book chapters (3 on Biomedical Optics and 3 on Nanoscale Optics and Fabrication). He is also inventor/co-inventor of 23 patents and 12 innovation disclosures in the areas of Applied Optics, Laser Speckle and Bio-Optics for Medical and Forensic Applications. He has supervised 23 PhD students and 4 Master students till date and currently supervising 3 PhD students. He is the Associate Editor of SCI indexed impact optics journals such as Optical Engineering (OE) and International Journal of Optomechatronics (IJO). He has guest edited international optics journal issues apart from being a regular reviewer for many leading optics journals such as Optics Express, Optics Letters, Applied Optics, Journal of Biomedical Optics, Optics Communications, Optics & Lasers in Engineering, Optical Engineering, to name a few. He is also an editorial board member of Nature Scientific Reports. He has chaired and developed symposiums/tracks/sessions in international conferences and has given over 50 keynote/plenary/invited talks at international conferences/workshops held in different countries. He has served as visiting associate professor/fellow at international universities/institutes. He is an SPIE-Visiting Lecturer and has given many lectures at universities and institutes under this program. Based on his contributions to physics and science higher education, he was awarded the very prestigious Erudite Professorship with which he was in Kerala University, India in 2011. On the international front, he has collaborated or in collaboration doing interdisciplinary research projects with faculties in University of California, Davis (USA), Toyo University (Japan), James Cook University, Australia. In Singapore, he has collaborative research projects Singapore Eye Research Institute (SERI), LKC Medicine (Translational Imaging), and other Research institutes of eminence. Many of his research works have attracted wide publicity in the recent years and attracted research funding. Over the last few years, he was successful in bringing research funding through competitive research grants from various highly competitive funding agencies and multinational industries to the tune of over S$10 Million as Principal Investigator (PI) and in total more than S$12 Million (as PI/Co-PI). These projects include macro, micro and nano-metrology using optical techniques (National Research Foundation and Rolls Royce), nanoscale optics techniques for solar energy harvesting (with Ministry of Education), High-resolution optical probes for Ocular imaging (National Medical Research Council, A*STAR and BMRC), Multi-material 3D Printing (SC3DP & PFSAP) to name a few. He has received more than 20 international awards/recognitions. His students and he regularly won best paper awards at many international conferences during these years. He is currently serving as the Director of Centre for Optical & Laser Engineering (COLE), NTU and Deputy Director of The Photonics Institute (TPI), NTU. He is a Fellow of the International Society for Optics and Photonics (FSPIE), OPTICA Fellow ( Formerly OSA Fellow), Fellow of the Institute of Physics (FInstPhy) and Distinguished Fellow of the OSI.
Research:
STUDY/RESEARCH FOCUS AREAS - Imaging optics from macro to nanoscale and Instrumentation
Biomedical optics: high resolution and multi-modality imaging, Hyperspectral imaging.
Imaging at micro and nanoscale (Nanoscale Optics): Conventional and near filed interference patterning, Optical and laser speckle lithography.
Optical metrology and instrumentation: speckle metrology, Micro- and nanoscale metrology.

I am leading a research group that focuses on the innovative interdisciplinary research and development based on Applied Optical Engineering that can find potential applications in the areas of Biomedical Optics, Nanoscale Optics, and Optics for Metrology. These R&D projects integrate multi-disciplinary themes and aims to solve the challenges related to the current unmet needs of the industries.

Projects:
• Project title: High-resolution, Non-contact Ocular Imaging [COLE, Biomedical Optics]
• Project title: Large Area Dimensional Measurements [COLE, Applied Optics for Metrology]
• Project title: Multi-Material 3D Printer Using Multi-Wavelength High-Power Lasers [SC3DP, Laser-based Micro and Nanoscale Fabrication]
• Project Title: Real-time crop health monitoring and nutrient analysis system for waste reduction and productivity improvement in hydroponic cultivation [COLE, Applied Optics]
• Project Title: Magnetic field-assisted modulation of inter-plasmonic coupling for potential applications under industry 4.0 [COLE, Lasers and Applications]
• Project: HyCE: Hybrid Manufacturing of Integrated 3D Graphene Electronics for the Smart Infusion System [COLE, Applied Optics]
• Project: STANCE- Wireless Miniaturized GonioPen 2.0 for Retinal Imaging and Surgical Applications [COLE, BOIL]
• Project: STANCE- Bessel Beam Based Light Sheet Microscopy of Trabecular Meshwork of the Eye [COLE, BOIL]
• Investigation into multispectral and hyperspectral imaging and multispectral nonlinear optical properties [COLE-NLO]
• Plasmonic & Bio-inspired random lasers and their applications in sensing [COLE-Imaging and NDT]
• Aerospace Metrology -High resolution surface topography and surface roughness measurements [COLE-Optical Metrology]
• Light-matter interaction in ordered and disordered photonic media [COLE-Optical Imaging]
 
  • Breaking barriers in biomedical diagnostics using surface-enhanced LIBS with coffee ring suppression for trace element detection
  • Modular inspection system for real-time crop health and nutrient monitoring in hydroponics cultivation system
  • NAMIC Phase 2
  • NAMIC Phase 2: NTU Project 5
  • Real-time crop health monitoring and nutrient analysis system for waste reduction and productivity improvement in hydroponic cultivation
  • Sensitive detection and imaging of cancerous tissues using random lasing for in vivo biopsy
  • SERI-NTU ADVANCED OCULAR ENGINEERING (STANCE) PROGRAM
US 2017/0290508 A1: Probe For Iridocorneal Angle Imaging (2020)
Abstract: A probe for iridocorneal angle imaging of an eye, the probe comprising: a distal end having a corneal contact surface; a camera having an imaging lens at the distal end and an imaging axis orthogonal to the corneal contact surface; and at least two illumination sources, each illumination source having an illumination axis at an angle to the corneal contact surface such that the imaging axis and the illumination axes converge in the eye.