People

Ben Vakoc, PhD, is Associate Professor of Dermatology at Harvard Medical School and affiliated faculty member at the Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology program. After participating in a venture funded start-up company that developed optical devices for the telecommunications market, he joined the Wellman Center for Photomedicine in 2002 to participate in the development and translation of optical instrumentation to the clinic and biology laboratory.

Norman Lippok is an Instructor at Harvard Medical School. He completed his dissertation research at The University of Auckland, New Zealand in 2014. His research focuses on new signatures for functional and molecular tissue contrast, high speed swept sources and stepped frequency combs, with applications in coherent imaging and ranging.

Hyun-Sang Park is a Research Fellow at Harvard Medical School and the Wellman Center for Photomedicine. He received his PhD in Mechanical Engineering at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). His current research interests are laser sources and multi-beam probes for high-speed circular-ranging OCT imaging.

Jongyoon Joo is a Research Fellow at Harvard Medical School and the Wellman Center for Photomedicine. He received his PhD in Mechanical Engineering at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) in 2022. His research focuses on the development of high-speed circular-ranging OCT systems for ultra wide-field retinal imaging.

Yong-Chul Yoon is a Research Fellow at Harvard Medical School and the Wellman Center for Photomedicine. He received his PhD in the Health Sciences and Technology program at MIT under the supervision of Benjamin J. Vakoc, and his B.S. in Physics and B.A. in Chemistry from Hope College, MI. His research focuses on developing highly sensitive intraoperative OCT systems.

Maya H. Shor Peled is a Research Fellow at Harvard Medical School and the Wellman Center for Photomedicine. She received her PhD in Electro-Optical Engineering from Ben Gurion University of the Negev, where her research focused on structured light for super-resolution imaging and nanoparticle manipulation. Her current research focuses on pCR-OCT for nerve detection and the development of optical tools for image guided surgical applications.

Jingchao Fang is a PhD student in the Quantum Science and Engineering program at Harvard University. He received his B.S. in Physics from Peking University and M.S. in Applied Physics from Harvard University. His research interest is the development of high-performance OCT systems based on Photonics Integrated Circuits (PIC), especially on Thin-Film Lithium Niobite (TFLN).

Ahhyun (Stephanie) Nam worked as a Research Fellow at Harvard Medical School and the Wellman Center for Photomedicine. She received her M.S. and PhD in Mechanical Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology under the supervision of Professor Benjamin J. Vakoc. Her research interest centered on development and translation of functional imaging based on optical coherence tomography(OCT). In particular, she focused on angiographic and polarization sensitive contrasts for clinical and preclinical applications.

Yongjoo Kim worked as a Research Fellow at Harvard Medical School and the Wellman Center for Photomedicine. He received his PhD in Mechanical Engineering at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). His research interest centered on multi-beam, high-speed circular-ranging OCT imaging.

Tae Shik Kim  worked as a Research Fellow at Harvard Medical School and the Wellman Center for Photomedicine. He received his PhD in Mechanical Engineering at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). His research focused on the development of new laser configurations for high-speed circular-ranging OCT and their applications.

Danielle J. Harper worked as a Research Fellow at Harvard Medical School and the Wellman Center for Photomedicine. She received her undergraduate degree in Physics from the University of St Andrews (UK) and completed her PhD at the Medical University of Vienna (Austria) under the supervision of Assoc. Prof. Bernhard Baumann. Her research focused on both theoretical and experimental aspects of high-resolution retinal imaging, including white light optical coherence tomography and polarization-sensitive imaging.

Herson Morales worked as a Research Engineer in the Vakoc Lab from 2023-2026. He helped design and build prototypes for OCT devices, including nerve-imaging surgical tools and an imaging cart. He received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Johns Hopkins University. He currently works as a project engineer at Helbling, a product development firm.