James Fujimoto named 2022 recipient of the IEEE Medal for Innovations in Healthcare Technology

James Fujimoto, the Elihu Thomson Professor in Electrical Engineering, has been named the 2022 recipient of the IEEE Medal for Innovations in Healthcare Technology. In the award citation, the IEEE lauded Fujimoto “for pioneering the development and commercialization of optical coherence tomography for medical imaging and diagnostics.”

Professor Fujimoto is a principal investigator in the Research Laboratory of Electronics (RLE). He received his S.B., S.M., and Ph.D. in EECS from MIT in 1979, 1981, and 1984 respectively.  He joined the MIT faculty in 1985 and is currently Elihu Thomson Professor of Electrical Engineering at MIT, Adjunct Professor of Ophthalmology at Tufts University School of Medicine, and Adjunct Professor, Medical University of Vienna (2016-present).

Fujimoto’s research involves biomedical imaging, optical coherence tomography (OCT), advanced laser technologies and applications in diverse areas including ophthalmology, endoscopy, cancer detection, surgical guidance and developmental biology. His research team was responsible for the invention and development of optical coherence tomography (OCT). now considered a standard of care in ophthalmology with several tens of millions of procedures performed per year internationally. His research group is continuing research on advanced biomedical imaging and OCT technology, including high-speed and high-resolution imaging, functional Doppler flow and angiography, as well as polarization sensitive methods.

Fujimoto has published over 500 journal articles, is editor or author of 13 books, and holds numerous U.S. patents for his discoveries. He is a fellow of the National Academy of Engineering, National Academy of Science, and American Association for the Advancement of Science. Among many other awards and honors, he has received the 1999 Discover Magazine Award for Technological Innovation; is co-recipient of the 2001 Rank Prize in Optoelectronics; received the 2011 Zeiss Research Award and the 2014 IEEE Photonics Award; and is co-recipient of the 2012 Champalimaud Vision Award, the 2017 European Inventor Award, and the 2017 National Academy of Engineering Fritz J. and Dolores H. Russ Prize.

The IEEE Medal for Innovations in Healthcare Technology was established in February 2009, and acknowledges “exceptional contributions to technologies and applications benefitting healthcare, medicine, and the health sciences.”