The Gill Research Excellence Fund supports the Gill Eminent Professorships in Science and Engineering. The deans of the Colleges of Arts & Sciences and Engineering jointly administer the program. Professors are recommended by a committee based on a nomination letter.
"Dr. Yu has established a robust research program developing innovative optical imaging technologies for noninvasive quantification of tissue blood flow and oxygenation," said Abhijit Patwardhan, interim chair of the Department of Biomedical Engineering. "Working with clinicians in the College of Medicine, his group tests these technologies in brain injuries, stroke, Alzheimer's disease, peripheral arterial diseases, and cancers with the goal of improving healthcare. Appointment as the Gill Eminent Professor in Engineering is a well-deserved recognition of Dr. Yu' s accomplishments."
Yu leads the Biomedical Optics Laboratory, where his group has invented several highly powerful functional imaging technologies, including a speckle contrast diffuse correlation tomography system for noncontact imaging of brains, burns, wounds and reconstructive tissues; a wearable fiber-free optical sensor for continuous cerebral monitoring in freely behaving humans and animals; and a time-resolved laser speckle contrast imaging system. He has been awarded one SBIR/STTR grant for the commercialization of fluorescence eye loupes to guide brain tumor removal. Moreover, this innovative wearable fluorescence imaging device was selected by The Brain Race in 2019, a global competition to advance innovation in fighting brain tumors. Over the past five years, Yu has secured approximately $6.3 million as PI.