Professor George Barbastathis of Massachusetts Institute of Technology has been appointed Adjunct Professor by the University of Michigan- Shanghai Jiao Tong University Joint Institute (UM-SJTU JI). An appointment ceremony was held on September 28, officiated by Dean Peisen Huang and attended by Professor Xinwan Li, Associate Dean for Research, students and faculty members in the optics field, including Wenjie Wan, Jigang Wu and Sungliang Chen.
Dean Huang welcomed Professor Barbastathis back to JI after his stint as a visiting professor from 2013 to 2014, enumerating his contributions to JI in the two frontier fields of calculation imaging and artificial materials. Huang anticipated the new appointment will help elevate JI’s teaching and research level in the related fields.
Barbastathis delivered a brief greeting in Chinese. He said he has been attracted by JI since 2013 for its dynamics and youthful energy. He is pleased to have produced fruitful results through working with JI faculty and students. He was honored for the new appointment and looked forward to more collaboration with JI.
Dean Peisen Huang handing Professor Barbastathis the Certifcate of Appointment
Associate Dean Xinwan Li briefing on JI’s research areas
After the ceremony, students presented projects supervised by Professor Barbastathis and he exchanged ideas with JI faculty and students about future research collaboration.
George Barbastathis with JI faculty and students
Professor Barbastathis is JI’s first adjunct professor. He was awarded a “High-level Foreign Expert Project” while visiting JI from September 2013 to August 2014 and engaged himself in extensive research at JI. Six papers associated with JI have been published in famous international journals such as Optics Express，Optics Communications，Journal of Optical Society of America. His interactive way of teaching was well received by the students. He has mentored a couple of young JI faculty members and had invited world-class scholars to give seminars at JI.
George Barbastathis is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at MIT. His research is centered on the physics and engineering of 3D optical systems, in particular digital holography, volume holography, gradient-index media and transformation optics. He invented the use of the three-dimensional holographic imaging technology for the optional lens depth and validated this method for biological sample imaging and manipulation. This achievement was introduced in Science by D. Psaltis, a prominent optics specialist from Caltec. Barbastathis and his team succeeded in realizing large-scale optical stealth technique within a visible light band of several cubic centimeters. This work has been widely reported by media, including Laser focus world, Science news. Zhang Baili, his student who helped completed this project, was invited to demonstrate the feat on TEDx.
