Zohrab A. Kaprielian Fellow in Engineering and Professor in the Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering Qifa Zhou. Image/Will Taylor
Professor in the Alfred E. Mann Department of Biomedical Engineering Qifa Zhou has been appointed Zohrab A. Kaprielian Fellow in Engineering, effective July 2023.
Zhou, who holds a secondary appointment in the Department of Ophthalmology at Keck School of Medicine of USC, is a leader in the field of high-frequency ultrasound transducers and imaging. His pioneering work includes the development of wearable high-frequency ultrasound composite and single-crystal ultrasound transducers and arrays fabricated by MEMS and 3D printing technology for various biomedical imaging applications.
Zhou is one of the leading principal investigators at the NIH Resource Center on Medical Transducer Technology. His research focuses on developing piezoelectric materials for high-frequency ultrasonic transducers and arrays for vision restoration, photoacoustic imaging, OCT/US for IVUS imaging, and multimodality imaging.
USC Viterbi Dean Yannis C. Yortsos congratulated Zhou on the latest honor in recognition of his career achievements.
“This appointment recognizes Qifa’s distinctive research in the area of ultrasound imaging,” Yortsos said. “His lab is the first to have developed high sensitivity PMN-PT single crystal transducers for ultrasound and photoacoustic imaging, including intravascular imaging, cancer imaging and ophthalmic imaging.”
Zhou and his collaborators have been developing a novel imaging tool for characterizing elastic properties of retinal and corneal tissue by acoustic radiation force-induced optical coherence electrography. His lab is also investigating high-resolution ultrasonic elastographic imaging techniques using high-frequency ultrasound. Zhou is also actively exploring ultrasonic mediated therapeutic technology, including trans-sclera drug delivery, as well as ultrasound on the retinal stimulation for vision restoration in collaboration with University Professor of Ophthalmology, Biomedical Engineering, and Cell and Neurobiology, and holder of the Cornelius J. Pings Chair in Biomedical Sciences Mark Humayun.
Zhou joined the USC Viterbi faculty in 2002. He received his Ph.D. in 1993 from Xi’an Jiao Tong University and has published over 320 peer-reviewed articles in reputable journals, including Science, Nature Medicine, Nature Biomedical Engineering, Nature Communications, Nature Photonics, and Progress in Material Sciences.
He is an Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics and Frequency Control (IEEE TUFFC) and of BME Frontiers. He is a Fellow of the International Society for Optics and Photonics (SPIE, 2014), Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE, 2014), and Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE, 2018). He is also a Senior Member of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI) and a 2023 International Association of Advanced Materials Fellow.
Most recently, Zhou was conference chair of the 15th International Conference on Ultrasound Engineering for Biomedical Applications (UEBA) during July 2023, where he was also honored with the Best Paper award for “Ultrasound stimulation on the retina.” Over 150 ultrasound researchers and engineers from industry and academia attended the conference.
Zhou was also awarded a 2023 USC Research and Innovation (R&I) Collaborative Research and Planning Award, along with Dwight C. and Hildagarde E. Baum Chair in Biomedical Engineering Peter Yingxiao Wang, for their research into focused ultrasound (FUS) stimulation. With the support of this grant, Zhou will build the USC Ultrasound Translational Resource Center (UTRC).
Zhou also recently received two National Institutes of Health research project grants. One grant from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering will enable the development of a large ultrasound array for radiology clinical applications, in a collaborative project with Professor of Radiology at Stanford University, Kathy Ferrara. Another grant from the National Eye Institute will support the development of a high-resolution ultrasound vessel image for glaucoma disease, in collaboration with Professor Shigao Chen at the Mayo Clinic.
Published on August 25th, 2023
Last updated on September 19th, 2023
