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Kimani Toussaint

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Kimani Toussaint
Born
Kimani Christopher Toussaint

Philadelphia
Alma materBoston University
University of Pennsylvania
AwardsNational Science Foundation CAREER Award (2010)
Scientific career
InstitutionsUniversity of Chicago
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Brown University
ThesisQuantum ellipsometry (2004)
Websitesites.brown.edu/probelab Edit this at Wikidata

Kimani Christopher Toussaint, Jr. is an American engineer who is a professor and senior associate dean in the School of Engineering at Brown University.[1][2] His research considers the development of quantitative nonlinear optical imaging methods and advanced optical techniques for nanotechnology, and the characterization of plasmonic nanostructure.[3] He is a Fellow of Optica.

Early life and education

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Toussaint is from Philadelphia.[4] He became interested in physics as a child.[5] Toussaint studied physics and African American Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, where he met Anthony Garito, a professor who introduced him to optics and engineering.[5] In his physics classes, he was one of the only African American students.[5] He moved to Boston University for his graduate research, where he specialized in electrical engineering. His doctoral research explored quantum ellipsometry of semiconductors.[6] At Boston, he was awarded a Gates Millennium Fellowship, which supported his graduate program.[4]

Research and career

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After his PhD, Toussaint was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Chicago, where he worked on superresolution optical microscopy, optical tweezing of nanoparticles, and polarization control.[7][8]

Toussaint was appointed to the faculty at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2007.[citation needed] His research exploits various properties of light, including angular momentum, linear momentum and other polarization degrees of freedom. He is interested in the realization of bioimaging techniques to better understand biological tissue and disease.[9] To this end, he developed an imaging platform that combines second-harmonic generation imaging with confocal microscopy and Mueller matrix polarimetry.[5] Alongside bioimaging, Toussaint has developed nano antennas to exploit near-field optics.[5]

In 2014, Toussaint worked as a Martin Luther King Jr. Visiting associate professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and worked with Peter So.[10] In Fall 2019, Toussaint joined the faculty at Brown University, and by 2020 he was made a Senior Associate Dean of the School of Engineering.[11][12] He leads the Photonics Research of Bio/Nano Environments (PROBE) laboratory[13] and is Senior Associate Dean in the School of Engineering.[14] He is part of the National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center in Cellular Metamaterials.[11]

During the COVID-19 pandemic, it emerged that pulse oximeters were less effective on Black patients. This is because melanin absorbs light, making pulse oximeters overestimate the level of oxygen in a patient's blood.[15] In response, Toussaint started to develop a new, more equitable device.[16][15] In an interview with Optica, Toussaint said that the pandemic changed his perspective of where his research could have the largest societal impact.[15][17]

Awards and honors

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Toussaint is a Fellow of SPIE[18] and Optica.[5] Other awards and honors include:

Selected publications

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His publications[1][2][3] include

  • Application of plasmonic bowtie nanoantenna arrays for optical trapping, stacking, and sorting[25]
  • The effect of keratoconus on the structural, mechanical, and optical properties of the corne[26]
  • Nonlinear optical response from arrays of Au bowtie nanoantennas[27]

References

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  1. ^ a b Kimani Toussaint publications from Europe PubMed Central
  2. ^ a b Kimani Toussaint publications indexed by the Scopus bibliographic database. (subscription required)
  3. ^ a b Kimani Toussaint publications indexed by Google Scholar Edit this at Wikidata
  4. ^ a b "B.U. Bridge: Boston University community's weekly newspaper". bu.edu. Retrieved 2023-01-08.
  5. ^ a b c d e f "Optica Fellow Profiles".
  6. ^ Toussaint, Kimani C.; Di Giuseppe, Giovanni; Bycenski, Kenneth J.; Sergienko, Alexander V.; Saleh, Bahaa E. A.; Teich, Malvin C. (2004-08-09). "Quantum ellipsometry using correlated-photon beams". Physical Review A. 70 (2): 023801. Bibcode:2004PhRvA..70b3801T. doi:10.1103/PhysRevA.70.023801.
  7. ^ Communications, Grainger Engineering Office of Marketing and. "Toussaint earns Provost's Distinguished Promotion Award". mechse.illinois.edu. Retrieved 2023-01-08.
  8. ^ "Kimani Toussaint". nasonline.org. Retrieved 2023-01-08.
  9. ^ Dame, Marketing Communications: Web | University of Notre. "Kimani C. Toussaint, Jr". Future of Semiconductors and Beyond. Retrieved 2023-01-08.
  10. ^ a b "imani C. Toussaint". 2014.
  11. ^ a b "Toussaint, Kimani". vivo.brown.edu. Retrieved 2023-01-08.
  12. ^ "Optica Kimani C. Toussaint Brown University".
  13. ^ "People". Welcome to PROBE lab!. Retrieved 2023-01-08.
  14. ^ "Toussaint named Senior Associate Dean in the School of Engineering". Engineering | Brown University. Retrieved 2023-01-08.
  15. ^ a b c Lanford, Hannah (2022). "From Nonlinear Optical Imaging to Pulse Oximeters".
  16. ^ Bajaj, Simar (2022-06-05). "A blood-oxygen detector without racial bias - The Boston Globe". BostonGlobe.com. Retrieved 2023-01-08.
  17. ^ McFarling, Usha Lee (2022-08-19). "'A poster child' for diversity in science: Black engineers work to fix long-ignored bias in oxygen readings". STAT. Retrieved 2023-01-08.
  18. ^ "Kimani Toussaint". spie.org. Retrieved 2023-01-08.
  19. ^ Communications, Grainger Engineering Office of Marketing and. "Toussaint receives 2010 NSF CAREER Award". grainger.illinois.edu. Retrieved 2023-01-08.
  20. ^ Communications, Grainger Engineering Office of Marketing and. "Toussaint receives Dean's Award for Excellence in Research". mechse.illinois.edu. Retrieved 2023-01-08.
  21. ^ Communications, Grainger Engineering Office of Marketing and. "Toussaint wins Everitt Award for Teaching Excellence". mechse.illinois.edu. Retrieved 2023-01-08.
  22. ^ "Distinguished Promotions – Office of the Provost". provost.illinois.edu. Retrieved 2023-01-08.
  23. ^ "Kimani Toussaint | The AAS". aasciences.africa. Retrieved 2023-01-08.
  24. ^ "Kimani C. Toussaint, Jr., Ph.D. COF-6142 - AIMBE". Retrieved 2023-01-08.
  25. ^ Brian J Roxworthy; Kaspar D Ko; Anil Kumar; Kin Hung Fung; Edmond K C Chow; Gang Logan Liu; Nicholas X. Fang; Kimani C. Toussaint (9 January 2012). "Application of plasmonic bowtie nanoantenna arrays for optical trapping, stacking, and sorting". Nano Letters. 12 (2): 796–801. doi:10.1021/NL203811Q. ISSN 1530-6984. PMID 22208881. Wikidata Q51543136.
  26. ^ Raghu Ambekar; Kimani C. Toussaint; Amy J Wagoner Johnson (7 October 2010). "The effect of keratoconus on the structural, mechanical, and optical properties of the cornea". Journal of the Mechanical Behavior of Biomedical Materials. 4 (3): 223–236. doi:10.1016/J.JMBBM.2010.09.014. ISSN 1751-6161. PMID 21316609. Wikidata Q37840761.
  27. ^ Kaspar D Ko; Anil Kumar; Kin Hung Fung; Raghu Ambekar; Gang Logan Liu; Nicholas X. Fang; Kimani C. Toussaint (24 November 2010). "Nonlinear optical response from arrays of Au bowtie nanoantennas". Nano Letters. 11 (1): 61–65. doi:10.1021/NL102751M. ISSN 1530-6984. PMID 21105719. Wikidata Q82595751.
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