K. C. Toussaint, Jr., Ph.D. is the Thomas J. Watson, Sr. Professor of Science and Senior Associate Dean for Research and Strategic Initiatives in the School of Engineering at Brown University. Prior to joining Brown, Dr. Toussaint was a Professor in the Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from 2007-2019. Dr. Toussaint directs the laboratory for Photonics Research of Bio/nano Environments (PROBE Lab), an interdisciplinary research group which focuses on both developing nonlinear optical imaging techniques for quantitative assessment of biological tissues, and novel methods for harnessing plasmonic nanostructures for light-driven control of matter. He is a recipient of a 2010 NSF CAREER Award, the 2014-2015 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Visiting Associate Professor at MIT, the 2015 Illinois Dean’s Award for Excellence in Research, the 2017 Illinois Everitt Award for Teaching Excellence, and the 2019 Distinguished Promotion Award. Dr. Toussaint is also a Fellow of the OSA, SPIE, and AIMBE, as well as a Senior Member in the IEEE.
Dr. Toussaint is also part of CELL-MET, a multi-institutional National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center in Cellular Metamaterials (EEC-1647837). CELL-MET aims to grow functional and clinically significant heart tissue while simultaneously developing a talented and diverse workforce to tackle future challenges in synthetic tissues engineering.
