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Congratulations toÌýProf Kishan Dholakia, IPAS member from the School of Biological Sciences,Ìýfor being awarded a prestigious 2021ÌýARC Australian Laureate Fellowship, a fiercely competitive fellowship only awarded to researchers who have truly achieved international eminence in their fields of expertise.

Kishan is an exceptional research scientist, leader and mentor of true international standing. He has contributed major advances in the field of biophotonics, extending from fundamental photonics to interdisciplinary science. At the University of St Andrews, Professor Dholakia founded the area of biophotonics, establishing the now internationally renowned Centre of Biophotonics. Most recently, he was instrumental in the formation of the James Mackenzie Institute for Early Diagnosis in 2019.
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Kishan has an impressive career total of over 340 research publications, including over 20 in Nature/Science titled journals, a h-index of 91 and in excess of 33,600 citations. He has delivered over 300 invited /plenary/keynote talks at leading international and national conferences in the field.
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He has raised over $60M AUD in research funding as lead investigator, and secured over $1.8M AUD in industrial contracts from companies including Boeing USA, M Squared Lasers and Elliot Scientific Ltd. Professor Dholakia also has over 27 patent families filed, 23 of which are licensed, and an impressive track record of translating technology resulting in over $6M AUD in sales of high value light sheet microscopes (since 2017, with M Squared Life) and sales of a further trapping instrument in excess of $5.4M AUD (since 2004, with Elliot Scientific).
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In recognition of his significant achievements, Kishan has been awarded numerous international prizes and Fellowships, including the International Optics and Photonics Society (SPIE) Dennis Gabor Award (2018), the Institute of Physics Thomas Young Medal and Prize (2017), the Optical Society’s R. W. Wood Prize (2016), the Royal Society London Wolfson Merit Award (2008-2013) and the European Optics Prize (2003). His work on fundamental physics is also cited in the Guinness book of World Records in 2015 for the fastest ‘man-made’ rotation.
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Under the Laureate program, Kishan will receive $3.4m to develop and lead a high-quality research team to transform wide-field optical imaging through a new "intelligent' microscopy able to capture 3D volumetric images. Major benefits of the research range from next-generation tools for enhanced discovery of biological and physical materials, to new Australian start-ups for new imaging and microscopy devices.
With Kishan'sÌýexpertise, strategic vision andÌýextensiveÌýinternationalÌýconnections, we strongly believe that the team willÌýrapidlyÌýestablish a world-leading, globally connected activity in optical imaging at depth, Ìýpropelling Australia to the forefront of thisÌýburgeoningÌýinternational field in what is one of the hottest topic areas across science today.


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