Developing an instantaneous, non-invasive, and accurate method for the early detection of colon and cervical cancer is the impetus behind Jin U Kang’s fiber optic endoscopic 3-D imaging systems research.
Kang is a professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and head of the Whiting School’s Photonics and Optoelectronics Laboratory. The broad-spectrum fiber lasers, novel fiber devices and system his group has developed are compact, broadband, and a highly efficient—the enabling technologies necessary for endoscopic optical coherence tomography.
Kang was the first person to demonstrate the existence of several important novel effects and devices including Manakov spatial solitons and backward propagating second harmonic generation. He has received many research and publication awards, including the Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award in 2000. He has over 170 refereed journal and conference publications and has given talks and chaired sessions at numerous international conferences. Kang is a technical co-chair of the Conference on Lasers and Electro Optics Pacific Rim in 2007 and is a topical editor of “Optics Letters,” for the Optical Society of America.