In 2016, the news that Google’s artificial intelligence (AI) robot AlphaGo, based on the principle of deep learning, won the victory over lee Sedol, the former world Go champion and the famous 9th Dan competitor of Korea, caused a sensation in both fields of AI and Go, which brought epoch-making significance to the development of deep learning. Deep learning is a complex machine learning algorithm that uses multiple layers of artificial neural networks to automatically analyze signals or data. At present, deep learning has penetrated into our daily life, such as the applications of face recognition and speech recognition. Scientists have also made many remarkable achievements based on deep learning. Professor Aydogan Ozcan from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) led his team to research deep learning algorithms, which provided new ideas for the exploring of optical computational imaging and sensing technology, and introduced image generation and reconstruction methods which brought major technological innovations to the development of related fields. Optical designs and devices are moving from being physically driven to being data-driven. We are much honored to have Aydogan Ozcan, Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors and Chancellor’s Professor of UCLA, to unscramble his latest scientific research results and foresight for the future development of related fields, and to share his journey of pursuing Optics, his indissoluble relationship with Light: Science & Applications (LSA), and his experience in talent cultivation.

Biography: Prof. Aydogan Ozcan is the Chancellor’s Professor and the Volgenau Chair for Engineering Innovation at UCLA and an HHMI Professor with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, leading the Bio- and Nano-Photonics Laboratory at UCLA School of Engineering and is also the Associate Director of the California NanoSystems Institute. Dr. Ozcan is elected Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI) and holds >45 issued/granted patents and >20 pending patent applications and is also the author of one book and the co-author of >700 peer-reviewed publications in major scientific journals and conferences. Dr. Ozcan is the founder and a member of the Board of Directors of Lucendi Inc., Hana Diagnostics, Pictor Labs, as well as Holomic/Cellmic LLC, which was named a Technology Pioneer by The World Economic Forum in 2015. Dr. Ozcan is also a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the International Photonics Society (SPIE), the Optical Society of America (OSA), the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), the American Physical Society (APS) and the Guggenheim Foundation, and has received major awards including the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, International Commission for Optics Prize, Biophotonics Technology Innovator Award, Rahmi M. Koc Science Medal, International Photonics Society Early Career Achievement Award, Army Young Investigator Award, NSF CAREER Award, NIH Director’s New Innovator Award, Navy Young Investigator Award, IEEE Photonics Society Young Investigator Award and Distinguished Lecturer Award, National Geographic Emerging Explorer Award, National Academy of Engineering The Grainger Foundation Frontiers of Engineering Award and MIT’s TR35 Award for his seminal contributions to computational imaging, sensing and diagnostics. Dr. Ozcan is also listed as a Highly Cited Researcher by Web of Science, Clarivate, and serves as the co-Editor-in-Chief of eLight.

Link to article: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41377-021-00643-1