Ji-Xin Cheng Honored by the Optical Society of America
By Liz Sheeley
Professor Ji-Xin Cheng (ECE, BME, MSE, Chemistry & Physics) has been presented with the Ellis R. Lippincott Award from the Optical Society of America (OSA). Named after a pioneer in vibrational spectroscopy, the award recognizes those who continue to advance the field in innovative and creative ways.
“It is a great honor for me to receive the Lippincott Award based on my persistent efforts in pushing the boundary of the chemical microscopy field, six years after my postdoc advisor Sunney Xie receiving this award,” says Cheng.
Cheng studied under Xie at Harvard University for three years before leaving for a professorship at Purdue University in 2003, and it was during that time he spearheaded the development of coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering microscopy, which lets researchers non-invasively image chemical bonds in live tissues and cells. During his independent career, Cheng has made a number of innovations that allowed vibrational spectroscopic imaging of living systems from a single bacterium to human patient. His research has been appreciated through the awarding of over $25 million in grants and recognized by an h-index of 72 based on Google scholar.
Cheng joined BU in 2017 as the inaugural Moustakas Chair Professor in Photonics and Optoelectronics and was elected a Fellow of the OSA in the fall of 2018, for his outstanding contributions to invention and development of label-free optical spectroscopic imaging technologies with groundbreaking applications to biology, medicine and materials science.
The award was established in 1975 and is jointly sponsored by OSA, the Coblentz Society and the Society for Applied Spectroscopy.