Research areas:Frontier biomedical techniques, dominantly by using light and sound, to meet urgent biomedical needs. Current projects include, but are not limited to: 1) Optical wavefront shaping, optical phase conjugation, and adaptive optics; 2) Photoacoustic/optoacoustic imaging, Ultrasound-modulated optical tomography/ acousto-optic imaging; 3) Optogenetics; 4) Neuron/brain imaging; 5) Optical speckle and its applications; 6) Applications of AI techniques, such as deep learning and machine learning, in biomedical imaging and sensing.
These studies have thus far fueled more than 30 top journal publications (e.g., first-authored in Nature Photonics and Nature Communications), more than 60 invited or contributing talks at premium institutions, important international conferences, and winning several best paper/poster awards. Dr Lai has also been invited to give seminars in many famous universities and research institutions, and served as many conference committee members and session chairs, as well as reviewer or editor for more than 25 premium journals. Since joining BME at Hong Kong Polytechnic University in September 2015, Dr. Lai aims to continue his research on deep-tissue probing and treatment by using light and sound, which has been supported by the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, the Hong Kong Research Grants Council (RGC), the Hong Kong Innovation and Technology Commission (ITC), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), and the Shenzhen Science and Technology Innovation Commission. Dr. Puxiang Lai was the recipient of 12th National 1000 Talent Plan Youth Scholar (2016) and the Hong Kong RGC Early Career Award (2016-2017).