Vadim Backman Elected an Optica Fellow
Backman is one of 116 members elected from 23 countries to the 2027 class
Northwestern Engineering’s Vadim Backman has been elected a fellow of Optica, a society dedicated to promoting the global generation, application, commercialization, archiving and dissemination of knowledge in the field of optics and photonics.
The Sachs Family Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Medicine at the McCormick School of Engineering and Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Backman is one of 116 members elected from 23 countries to the 2027 class. He was cited for inventing optical and photonic technologies that extract nanoscale biological architecture, leading to breakthroughs in genomic and biomedical research.
Optica fellows are selected based on several factors, including outstanding contributions to research, business, education, engineering, and service to Optica and its community.
Director of the Center for Physical Genomics and Engineering, Backman also leads the Center for Genome Intelligence Engineering (GENIE), a multi-institutional US National Science Foundation Science and Technology Center. GENIE brings together experts in physics, biology, engineering, AI, and medicine to understand how the genome’s three-dimensional structure helps cells establish their identities, remember past experiences, and compute responses to their environments. The goal of GENIE is to make radical advances in human health and longevity, and many of the globally unique nanoscale imaging and sensing technologies upon which the center was established were invented by Backman at Northwestern.
Backman’s research at the intersection of the physical and biological sciences seeks to understand how the human genome functions, how it is disrupted by disease, and how new nanoscale imaging and computational technologies can lead to better diagnostics and treatments. His work spans basic science, technology development, and multicenter clinical trials, and has been awarded numerous honors.