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SFB at Acoustofluidics conferences in Uppsala and Cargèse

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.


Image on the left: Acoustofluidics 2024 conference in Uppsala.

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 talking about optical and acoustic manipulation.
Monika Ritsch-Marte and Bruce Drinkwater talk about optical and acoustic manipulation.

Attendees at the European Summer School on Physical Acoustics 2024 in Cargèse.

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Victoria Hutterer’s paper is selected as part of 2023 special IOPscience celebratory collection

We are pleased to announce that the paper A mathematical framework for nonlinear wavefront reconstruction in adaptive optics systems with Fourier-type wavefront sensing, co-authored by our SFB member, Victoria Hutterer, together with Andreas Neubauer and Julia Shatokhina, has been selected to be part of the special celebratory collections of articles published in 2023 by researchers in Austria. This achievement highlights the cutting-edge research of the subproject Tomography in Astronomy – Adaptive Optics led by prof. Ronny Ramlau.

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7th SFB Member Meeting

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.

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Science Meets Kids: The Fascinating World of Computed Tomography

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

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PhD defense: Mia Kvåle Løvmo

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!

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16th SFB Internal Meeting in Strobl

From 1 to 5 July, the 16th SFB internal meeting was held in a nice venue at Wolfgangsee lake in Strobl. The summer meeting between SFB members is an opportunity to share recent progress in the eight different projects and future research directions. We were honoured to have three internationally renowned professors as invited speakers, Markus Grasmair, John Schotland, Ivo Ihrke, Andrea Aspri and Alina Boecker along with researchers and PhD students from Austrian institutions of excellence (RICAM, University of Vienna) and Germany.

Group picture at Wolfgangsee.

During the meeting, we celebrated the 60th birthday of one of the SFB project leaders, Professor Otmar Scherzer.

Professor Otmar Scherzer is an internationally recognised mathematician known for his work in the fields of applied mathematics, particularly in inverse problems, imaging, and numerical analysis.

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Mia Kvåle Lømvo received the Best Scientific Paper Award 2024

We are pleased to announce that our SFB member, Mia Kvåle Lømvo, received the Best Scientific Paper Award 2024 of 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.

Best Scientific Paper Award 2024
Image Source: Medizinische Universität Innsbruck.
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SFB goes to the 11th IPMS 2024

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.
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New publication in Nature Communications combining acoustic trapping and OCT

The paper titled “Ultrasound-induced reorientation for multi-angle optical coherence tomography” by Mia Kvåle Løvmo, Shiyu Deng, Simon Moser, Rainer Leitgeb, Wolfgang Drexler and Monika Ritsch-Marte was recently published in Nature Communications.

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.  

Update June 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.

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International Day of Mathematics

«Playing with Math» was the theme of this year’s International Day of Mathematics on March 14th. Several scientific institutions, including the University of Vienna, the Vienna University of Technology, and the Austrian Academy of Sciences, collaborated to explore intriguing mathematical concepts in a playful manner.

Axel Kittenberger and Noemi Naujoks demonstrated how a computer tomograph works and explained the fascinating mathematics behind it. They showcased the Origami Tomograph developed by CSC, which reconstructs a transparent 3D object from light projections. A special highlight was a quiz that encouraged participants to play the role of a tomograph and guess the underlying object from projection data.