Elizabeth M. C. Hillman is a British-born academic who is Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Radiology at

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

. She was awarded the 2011

Adolph Lomb Medal The Adolph Lomb Medal, awarded by the Optical Society is a prize for young scientists (within 10 years of their highest degree) for their contributions to optics. It is named after Adolph Lomb, treasurer of the Optical Society of America from its fo ...

from

The Optical Society Optica, founded as the Optical Society of America (later the Optical Society), is a professional society of individuals and companies with an interest in optics and photonics. It publishes journals, organizes conferences and exhibitions, and ca ...

and the 2018

SPIE SPIE (formerly the Society of Photographic Instrumentation Engineers, later the Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers) is an international not-for-profit professional society for optics and photonics technology, founded in 1955. It ...

Biophotonics Technology Innovator Award.

Education

Hillman studied physics at

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

, and graduated with a combined B.Sc. and M.Sc. degree in 1998. She earned her PhD in Medical Physics and Bioengineering in 2002. After completing her thesis, supervised by Jeremy C. Hebden and

David Delpy David Thomas Delpy, (born 11 August 1948), is a British bioengineer, and Hamamatsu Professor of Medical Photonics, at University College London. Education Delpy was educated at Heaton Grammar School in Newcastle. He went on to study at Brun ...

, she joined a

biotech Biotechnology is a multidisciplinary field that involves the integration of natural sciences and engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms and parts thereof for products and services. Specialists in the field are kn ...

start-up A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship includes all new businesses including self-employment and businesses that do not intend ...

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

. During her PhD, she used

optical tomography Optical tomography is a form of computed tomography that creates a digital volumetric model of an object by reconstructing images made from light transmitted and scattered through an object. Optical tomography is used mostly in medical imaging re ...

to image

biological tissue In biology, tissue is an assembly of similar cells and their extracellular matrix from the same embryonic origin that together carry out a specific function. Tissues occupy a biological organizational level between cells and a complete or ...

Career

Hillman joined

Massachusetts General Hospital Massachusetts General Hospital (Mass General or MGH) is a teaching hospital located in the West End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. It is the original and largest clinical education and research facility of Harvard Medical School/Harvar ...

as a

postdoctoral A postdoctoral fellow, postdoctoral researcher, or simply postdoc, is a person professionally conducting research after the completion of their doctoral studies (typically a PhD). Postdocs most commonly, but not always, have a temporary acade ...

research fellow A research fellow is an academic research position at a university or a similar research institution, usually for academic staff or faculty members. A research fellow may act either as an independent investigator or under the supervision of a p ...

in 2003. She was appointed assistant professor at

in 2006. She set up the Laboratory for Functional Optical Imaging and developed new techniques for ''

in vivo Studies that are ''in vivo'' (Latin for "within the living"; often not italicized in English) are those in which the effects of various biological entities are tested on whole, living organisms or cells, usually animals, including humans, an ...

'' optical imaging. She developed an optical imaging technique that used dynamic contrast to image the anatomy of small animals. She licensed this ''Dynamic Contrast'' molecular imaging technique to CRi, now

PerkinElmer PerkinElmer, Inc., previously styled Perkin-Elmer, is an American global corporation that was founded in 1937 and originally focused on precision optics. Over the years it went into and out of several different businesses via acquisitions and di ...

. In 2008, she was awarded the Columbia Rodriguez Junior Faculty Award. She was awarded the

Optical Society of America Optica, founded as the Optical Society of America (later the Optical Society), is a professional society of individuals and companies with an interest in optics and photonics. It publishes journals, organizes conferences and exhibitions, and ca ...

’s

Adolph Lomb medal The Adolph Lomb Medal, awarded by the Optical Society is a prize for young scientists (within 10 years of their highest degree) for their contributions to optics. It is named after Adolph Lomb, treasurer of the Optical Society of America from its fo ...

in 2011. In 2010, she was awarded a

National Science Foundation CAREER Award The National Science Foundation CAREER award is the most prestigious award presented by the National Science Foundation (NSF) of the United States Federal Government to support junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through rese ...

to study ''in vivo'' Interventional Microscopy. She has explored several optical imaging techniques for biomedical research. She has received over thirty large grants to support her research. In 2017, Hillman began to work at Columbia's Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute. With Francesco Pavone, Hillman founded

Optics and the Brain Topical Meeting in 2015. She identified that the vascular

endothelium The endothelium (: endothelia) is a single layer of squamous endothelial cells that line the interior surface of blood vessels and lymphatic vessels. The endothelium forms an interface between circulating blood or lymph in the lumen and the r ...

is important in regulation of blood flow in the brain. She has written for ''

Scientific American ''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it, with more than 150 Nobel Pri ...

''. She was elected to the

American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering The American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) is a non-profit organization founded in 1991, and headquartered in Washington, D.C. It represents 50,000 medical and Biomedical engineering, biomedical engineers, and academic i ...

in 2017. She has developed tools for high speed imaging of the activity in the whole brain. Hillman pioneered Swept, Confocally-Aligned Planar Excitation (SCAPE)

microscopy Microscopy is the technical field of using microscopes to view subjects too small to be seen with the naked eye (objects that are not within the resolution range of the normal eye). There are three well-known branches of microscopy: optical mic ...

, which combines light-sheet microscopy and laser scanning

confocal microscopy Confocal microscopy, most frequently confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) or laser scanning confocal microscopy (LSCM), is an optical imaging technique for increasing optical resolution and contrast (vision), contrast of a micrograph by me ...

. The technique uses a single objective lens to excite and detect fluorescence from a sample. She has also developed laminar optical tomography and advanced applications of two-photon microscopy.

Awards and honors

* 2007, Wallace H Coulter Foundation Early Career Award *2007, Human Frontier of Science Program Young Investigator Award *2008, Columbia Rodriguez Junior Faculty Award * 2010,

National Science Foundation The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is an Independent agencies of the United States government#Examples of independent agencies, independent agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that su ...

Career award * 2011,

from

* 2015, Fellow of

* 2018,

Biophotonics Technology Innovator Award

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hillman, Elizabeth American biomedical engineers Alumni of University College London Harvard Medical School faculty Columbia University faculty British women physicists British physicists Women in optics Microscopists