Alex Vitkin, PhD

Alex Vitkin is an engineering physicist / biomedical engineer by training, with further specialization in medical physics and applications of lasers in medicine.

He is currently a professor of Medical Biophysics and Radiation Oncology at the University of Toronto, a senior scientist in the division of BioPhysics and BioImaging at the Ontario Cancer Institute of the University Health Network, and a medical physicist at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre (all in Toronto, Ontario, Canada).

His research is the field of biophotonics, with particular emphasis on structural and functional optical coherence tomography, tissue polarimetry, and optical fiber sensors.

He has published >180 papers and book chapters on diagnostic and therapeutic uses of light in biomedicine, and holds several patents in the field; his laboratory works closely with clinicians and with industry, and he is a consultant for several biophotonics companies.

He is a regular reviewer for NIH, CIHR, NSERC, CIMIT, and other granting agencies.

He lectures widely, delivering special seminars and summer school modules on biophotonics in Brazil, China, Colombia, Cyprus, Germany, India, Ireland, Mexico, New Zealand, Russia, Taiwan, USA, Ukraine, and Vietnam; he is currently an active participant in the SPIE Visiting Lecturer and OSA Travelling Lecturer programs.

Dr. Vitkin is also a board-certified medical physicist through the Canadian College of Physicists in Medicine (CCPM) and is a Fellow of the Optical Society of America (OSA) and the Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE).