KEYNOTE SPEAKERs
Dr Sabine Krabbe
Dr Sabine Krabbe studied Human Biology at the University of Marburg in Germany. She received her PhD in 2012 for her studies of the neurobiological mechanisms of circuit dysfunction in schizophrenia. In her postdoctoral work, she investigated how amygdala circuits regulate fear and anxiety at the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research in Basel (Switzerland). She went on to work at HHMI Janelia Research Campus (USA) investigating how internal states affect neural coding. Since 2020, Sabine has been an independent Group Leader at the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) in Bonn, Germany. Her research focusses on neural circuit mechanisms for state-dependent learning and decision-making in health and disease using a combination of deep-brain imaging, molecular mapping and optogenetic approaches.
Prof Kevin Eliceiri
Professor Kevin Eliceiri is an Investigator in the Morgridge Institute for Research and member of the Carbone Cancer Center and McPherson Eye Research Institute. He is director of the Center for Quantitative Cell Imaging dedicated to the development and application of optical and computational technologies for live cell studies. Eliceiri has had his own lab in computational optics since 2000 and primarily work in the area of developing new computational imaging technologies for understanding the role of the cellular microenvironment in disease onset and progression. The Eliceiri lab is the lead developer of several open-source imaging packages including Micro-Manager, FIJI and ImageJ. His instrumentation efforts involve novel forms of polarization, laser scanning and multiscale imaging. He is also co-chair for BioImaging North America (BINA), an international microscopy expertise sharing network. Eliceiri has authored more than 300 scientific papers on various aspects of optical imaging, image analysis, cancer and live cell imaging.
Prof Kishan Dholakia
Professor Kishan Dholakia is Professor and Director of Centre of Light for Life at the University of Adelaide and Professor at the University of St Andrews, Scotland. His team uses structured (shaped) light fields especially for imaging, manipulation and measurement. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Optica (USA), SPIE (USA) and the Institute of Physics (IOP, UK). He has won a number of national and international awards including the R.W. Wood Prize of Optica (2016, formerly OSA), the IOP Thomas Young Medal and Prize (2017), SPIE Dennis Gabor Award (2018) and the Australian Research Council Laureate Fellowship (2021). His work in imaging and manipulation has seen successful industry translation, with instruments used in over ten countries worldwide.
PROF Irina Kabakova
Irina Kabakova is a Professor of Physics at UTS School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences with the broad portfolio of research activities in label-free and quantum imaging techniques. She is Chief Investigator in the ARC Centres of Excellence in Quantum Biotechnology (QUBIC) and Optical Microcombs for Breakthrough Science (COMBS), advancing frontiers of speed and sensitivity of optical imaging techniques.
DR SENTHIL ARUMUGAM
Dr Senthil Arumugam received his PhD training in the lab of Prof Petra Schwille at the Max Planck Institute for Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden, Germany, focusing on self-assembly and self-organisation of proteins.
His post-doctoral work in the labs of Prof Patricia Bassereau and Prof Ludger Johannes at the Curie Institute, Paris, France, focused on protein-membrane interactions and intracellular trafficking.
Dr Arumugam joined Single Molecule Science at the University of New South Wales as an independent group leader in September 2016. In October 2019, he became an EMBL Australia Group Leader at the Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute.
Prof Sarah Ellis
Professor Sarah Ellis leads the Centre for Imaging the Tumour Environment (CITE) at the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute in Victoria, Australia. With over 35 years of expertise in optical and electron microscopy, she has held key leadership roles, including Head of Advanced Histology and Microscopy at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre (1999–2020) and founding Head of the ONJCRI Microscopy Platform since 2020. Professor Ellis is passionate about mentoring the next generation of microscopists through national and international workshops and scientific presentations.
DR Michael Carnell
Dr Michael Carnell is a Senior Lecturer at UNSW Sydney and part of the Katharina Gaus Light Microscopy Facility, where he specializes in advanced light microscopy and quantitative image analysis. With a background in molecular biology and a focus on translating imaging innovations into biological insights, he supports researchers across disciplines in the design, execution, and interpretation of imaging experiments. His current interests include deep learning for image segmentation, and improving educational approaches to microscopy.
Dr Elizabeth Hinde
Dr Elizabeth Hinde is an ARC Future Fellow in the School of Physics at the University of Melbourne, specialising in fluorescence microscopy. Her research aims to quantify nuclear architecture and develop fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIM) and fluctuation spectroscopy (FFS) methods to study chromatin dynamics and genome navigation. She completed her PhD at the University of Melbourne in 2010, followed by a postdoc at UC Irvine with Prof. Enrico Gratton. Returning to Australia in 2013, she was a UNSW Vice Chancellor’s Fellow with Prof. Katharina Gaus, later becoming an NHMRC Fellow and independent group leader at the University of Melbourne.
Dr Benjamin Liffner
Ben is a Future Making Fellow at Adelaide University’s School of Biological Sciences. Ben has recently established his own research program after having spent around 3 years as a postdoc with Sabrina Absalon at Indiana University School of Medicine where he studied mitosis and nuclear division in malaria parasites. Prior to that, Ben did Honours and a PhD at the University of Adelaide, where he studied the role of proteins involved in the malaria parasite secretory organelle the rhoptries, during host cell invasion. Ben’s work revolves around the cell biology of parasites, with a focus on understanding how parasites undergo the dramatic rearrangements required to form their daughter cells, which are specialised for host cell invasion. Ben’s work has largely been underpinned by the application and development of cutting-edge microscopy and image analysis techniques especially expansion microscopy, a technique which he has trained dozens of scientists in and given seminars on around the world.