Yuqiang Bai, PhD

I am a tenure-track assistant professor at USF conducting research on dry eye disease with multiple optical imaging techniques. I received my BS in Physics from Shanxi University and my MS in Optics from Shanghai Jiaotong University before pursuing my PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Texas A&M University under the supervision of Dr. Alvin Yeh.  During my PhD studies, I primarily focused on utilizing broadband, ultrashort laser pulses for complementary contrast mechanisms in multimodal microscopy. During that time, I developed a multimodal imaging platform, integrating multiphoton microscopy (MPM) with optical coherence tomography (OCT) techniques, for intravital studies of biological processes and responses within 3D living tissues. As a result of that interdisciplinary research between biomedical science and engineering, I gained significant experience in nonlinear optics, optical microscopy, cell culture, tissue engineering, and biomechanics. During my first postdoctoral training in the laboratory of Dr. Jessica C. Ramella-Roman at Florida International University, I developed the combination of polarization-sensitive OCT (PS-OCT) and Mueller matrix polarimetry to study anisotropic biological tissues. While working in my second postdoctoral fellowship and as a research staff member at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, I focused on the development of advanced optical microscopy, interferometry, and OCT to understand the dynamic tear film processes taking place in normal ocular surface health and dry eye disease under the supervision of Dr. Jason J. Nichols.
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