From the 3rd to the 6th of December the 17th internal SFB meeting – winter version – took place at the Obergurgl University Centre in Tyrol, Austria. We were very pleased to welcome as invited speakers Giovanni S. Alberti (University of Genoa, Italy), Bernhard Baumann (Medical University of Innsbruck, Austria), and Sebastian Kamann (Liverpool John Moores University), along with early career researchers from different EU and non-EU institutions. The meeting was a great opportunity to foster interdisciplinary communication, promote networking between researchers and experts in the field of tomography, and enjoy the beautiful landscapes of the Tyrolean Alps. The SFB members had the opportunity to present their work and welcome new members.
We look forward to the first SFB Conference of the project “Tomography across the scales”, which will take place in Strobl, Austria, in 2025. Stay tuned!
This fall, two members of our SFB team, Monika Ritsch-Marte and Mia Kvåle Løvmo from the subproject on imaging of trapped particles, had the opportunity to attend two prominent international conferences focused on acoustofluidics.
The annual Acoustofluidics 2024 conference, organized by the Acoustofluidics Society, took place in Uppsala, Sweden, from August 14 to 16.
Researchers from around the globe gathered to share insights and discuss a diverse range of topics related to acoustic trapping and microfluidics – from theoretical advancements to innovative devices and novel applications.
In September, The European Summer School on Physical Acoustics and its applications was held in Cargèse in Corsica. The summer school offered a week filled with courses on ultrasonic fundamentals and engaging ‘Hot Topic’ seminars led by experts in the field. Attendees benefited from experimental demonstrations and numerical tutorials that provided valuable hands-on experience, and young researchers also showcased their work through short talks and poster sessions.
Monika was an invited keynote speaker in Uppsala. In Cargèse, she teamed up with Bruce Drinkwater, and together, they gave a ‘Hot Topic’ seminar on the ‘Parallels, Differences and Synergies of Optical and Acoustic Manipulation’. Mia contributed presentations on her recent work on acoustofluidic devices for optical tomography.
Both Uppsala and Corsica events offered great opportunities for sharing knowledge, fostering collaborations, and discussing the latest advances in acoustic manipulation – in peaceful and beautiful surroundings.
Monika Ritsch-Marte and Bruce Drinkwater talk about optical and acoustic manipulation.Attendees at the European Summer School on Physical Acoustics 2024 in Cargèse.
From 9 to 12 September 2024, the 7th SFB member meeting took place in Bad Goisern, Austria, an intense four-day workshop, where PhD students and Postdoctoral Researchers from across our network came together to exchange ideas and discuss cutting-edge topics in science.
The program was enriched by the brilliant presentations of the participants, ranging from theoretical advancements in their field, to communication in science and third mission, to cutting-edge and intriguing topics in science.
Each session sparked lively discussions, driven by the curiosity and insight of the attendees. The setting allowed for a perfect balance of structured talks and informal conversations, fostering a collaborative spirit. Every participant contributed to the dynamic atmosphere, bringing unique perspectives and skills to the table.
During the 22nd Vienna Children’s University, young students aged 7 to 12 had the opportunity to dive into the fascinating world of computed tomography. Noemi Naujoks, Axel Kittenberger and Denise Schmutz gave an engaging lecture featuring Paula the Sloth as a fun and relatable example for the children.
The lecture was held twice to accommodate the interest, with around 180 children attending both sessions. The interactive format provided the children with not only theoretical knowledge but also practical experiences. Through experiments, a quiz, and special math exercises, the children learned how computed tomography works and the role mathematics plays in it.
For those who missed the event or want to test their knowledge, you can try our tomography quiz
We are pleased to announce that Mia Kvåle Løvmo, PhD student in the Subproject Imaging of Trapped Particles, defended her PhD thesis with the title “Rotational manipulation of trapped biological samples in acoustofluidic platforms for tomography” on 10 July 2024, and passed with distinction.
Mia’s doctoral study was supervised by Monika Ritsch-Marte, the principal investigator of the Subproject Imaging of Trapped Particles and the Director of the Institute of Biomedical Physics at the Medical University of Innsbruck. Congratulations from the SFB colleagues!
From 1 to 5 July, the 16th SFB internal meeting took place at a beautiful venue of Lake Wolfgangsee in Strobl. This annual summer meeting offers SFB members a valuable opportunity to share recent progress in the eight different projects and discuss future research directions. We were honored to host three internationally renowned professors as invited speakers – Markus Grasmair, John Schotland, and Ivo Ihrke – as well as early-career researchers Andrea Aspri and Alina Boecker. Researchers and PhD students from Austrian institutions of excellence (RICAM, University of Vienna) and Germany also participated in the meeting.
Group picture at Wolfgangsee.
Katja and Simon, on behalf of the SFB members, presenting gifts to professor Otmar Scherzer.
During the event, we celebrated the 60th birthday of the SFB Speaker, Professor Otmar Scherzer.
Professor Otmar Scherzer is an internationally recognized mathematician known for his work in applied mathematics, particularly in the fields of inverse problems, imaging, and numerical analysis. He has received numerous awards, including the Förderungspreis of the Austrian Mathematical Society in 1998 and the START-Prize from the Austria Science Fund (FWF). He will also be an invited speaker at the Applied Inverse Problems (AIP) Conference in Brazil in 2025.
We are pleased to announce that our SFB member, Mia Kvåle Lømvo, received the Best Scientific Paper Award 2024of the PhD Programme Image-Guided Diagnosis and Therapy at the Life Science PhD Meeting Innsbruck in April 2024.
This award recognizes Mia’s significant contribution to the paper “Ultrasound-induced reorientation for multi-angle optical coherence tomography” recently published in Nature Communications with Shiyu Deng, Simon Moser, Rainer Leitgeb, Wolfgang Drexler, and Monika Ritsch-Marte.
Two of our SFB members, Peter Elbau and Otmar Scherzer, together with team members from the Computational Science Center (CSC) of the University of Vienna and the Johann Radon Institute for Computational and Applied Mathematics (Ricam), Linz, attended the 11th International Conference “Inverse Problems: Modelling and Simulation” (IPMS 2024) in Malta as invited speakers to mini-symposia. The conference, one of the most prominent in the field, aims to bring together scientists working on inverse problems with different areas of expertise, such as mathematics, physics, engineering, computer science, medicine, and material science to provide a fruitful ground for discussion on the latest advances in theory and foster interdisciplinary collaboration.
IPMS 2024 group picture.Presentation by Peter Elbau and Otmar Scherzer at IPMS 2024.
The subprojects in Multi-Modal Imaging and Imaging of Trapped Particles joined forces and developed a novel strategy for acquiring multi-angle OCT by acoustic object reorientation.
Along with a model-based algorithm to fuse the multi-angle data from a priori unknown illumination angles, the strategy enables 3D reconstruction of samples such as embryos and organoids.
UpdateJune 3, 2024: We are pleased to announce that the paper published in Nature Communications was recently cited in the national newspaper Der Standard. The link to the article can be found here.
