Barmak Heshmat

Barmak Heshmat is a research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He leads the ‘inverse problems in light propagation’ subgroup in the Camera Culture group where they develop tools and solutions for imaging beyond conventional limitations of optics using ultrafast optics, nano optics and computational methods. Barmak has given invited talks at five TEDx events, NASA’s cross industry innovation summit, and numerous other venues and academic institutions.

Barmak received his Ph.D. (on optoelectronics and nanomaterials) at the University of Victoria in 2013 where he invented a THz receiver with an order of magnitude better sensitivity compared to the state of the art at the time. He has published 20 journal papers and filed 8 patents. Some of these papers and inventions have been featured on MIT cover page, BBC, TechCrunch and many other media outlets. Barmak is also the cofounder of the 'Imaginarium of Technology' (iMT) which is a platform for sharing engineering ideas.

See full CV here.

 

Awards & Honors:

Academic: Corresponding author of the paper “THz-time gated imaging” ranked 3rd of the 794 tracked articles of a similar age in Nature Communications (2016). Lead and corresponding author of “Optical brush” featured on MIT spotlight cover page (2016).

Fellowships and grants: National science foundation (NSF) grant awarded on ‘time resolved imaging’ (2016-present). NSF grant awarded on ‘inverse light transport’ (2013-2015). University of Victoria Ph.D. fellowship (2008-2013).

Institutional: 35 under 35 Technology review semi-finalist (2017); Awarded by president of Isfahan University as a high ranked student for four times (2004-2008). Ranked top 1 percent among 450000 participants of national entrance exam of universities in Iran. Funded Ph.D. admission offers from UBC, UVic, U Ottawa (2008). Funded postdoc position offers from U Michigan, MIT (2013).

Entrepreneurial: Founder of the Imaginarium of Technology (iMT) an online service for academic and technical illustrations. 3rd place winner at SciEx competition.

In the News:

Time-folded optics, MIT News

Reading through closed books: BBC, CBS, TechCrunch, Fox News, PBS, Engadget, Business insider, MIT news, Gizmodo, Boston magazine,  Telegraph, Futurism, live science, and other media outlets.

All photon imaging: MIT News, Yahoo News, Phys.org, Digital trends, and other media outlets.

Tyndall windows: Science daily, MIT news, Phys.org, and other media outlets.

Optical brush: MIT news, Science daily, chronicle, Engineering.com, MIT spotlight, and other media outlets.

Highlighted media:

Time-folded optics on MIT news (Nature Photonics Aug 2018). See project page

THz time-gated imaging on MIT news (Nature Communications Sep 2016). See project page

Optical brush on cover of MIT website (Sci. Rep. Feb. 2016)	Tyndall windows on MIT News (ACS photonics Jun. 2016)
"Future of imaging" on TEDxBeaconstreet (Nov. 2014)	Locating fluorescent tags behind diffusers in Nature Comm. (Apr. 20)

Other creative venues:

Director of Future Avenues.

Founder of Imaginarium of Technology

Contact: barmak@mit.edu