Jin Kang, the Jacob Suter Jammer Professor of electrical and computer engineering, is an expert in optical imaging, sensing, fiber optic devices and photonic systems. He holds a joint appointment in the Department of Dermatology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and is a member of Johns Hopkins’ Kavli Neuroscience Discovery Institute and the Laboratory for Computational Sensing and Robotics. Kang chaired the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering from 2008 to 2014.
Kang’s research is focused on developing novel optical techniques and devices for a wide range of biomedical applications. He is internationally known for work in novel sensing and imaging systems for biomedical applications; fiber optic sensors and devices including fiber lasers for a range of medical and communications applications; and research on the discovery of novel nonlinear and quantum optical efforts. Kang also has pioneered the development of endoscopic, common-path fiber optic optical coherence tomography (OCT) techniques for medical imaging and sensing; these systems have enabled the development of microsurgical and robotic tools that allow safer, more precise surgical outcomes. His group was the first to implement and demonstrate real-time, 4-D OCT systems that could allow surgeons to monitor surgical sites in 3-D video during surgery.
Kang has also been working to create a “smart” tool system to help surgeons more accurately and safely perform microsurgeries in areas like retinal surgeries, cornea transplants, vascular surgeries, and cochlear implants. He recently launched a JHU Fast Forward startup company, LIV (Live Imaging Vision) Med Tech Inc., to work on these image-guided robotic tools. Other projects involve building real-time Doppler 3-D imaging systems for intraoperative assessment of surgeries like carotid endarterectomy and cerebrovascular surgery.
A holder of more than 20 patents, Kang is a program chair of CLEO A&T and a fellow of the Optical Society of America, the International Optics Society (SPIE), and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering. He is a recipient of the ONR Young Investigator Award, the Australian Institute of Advanced Studies Fellowship, a NASA Faculty Fellowship, the Oak Ridge Institute of Science and Education fellowship, and the Brain Korea Distinguished Faculty Fellowship.
Kang was a topical editor of Optics Letters and is an editorial board member of the Journal of the Optical Society of Korea and Chinese Optics Letters.
Kang received his BS degree in physics from Western Washington University in 1992, and a master’s degree and PhD in optical science and electrical engineering from the University of Central Florida in 1993 and 1996, respectively. He worked as a research engineer for the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C., prior to joining the faculty of Whiting School of Engineering in 1998.