Dr. Matjaž Humar: Living Lasers
The American Slovenian Education Foundation (ASEF) is organizing a new popular science lecture entitled Living Lasers as part of the ASEF Speaker Series. The lecture will be held by dr. Matjaž Humar.
The lecture will take place on Thursday, November 17, starting at 7 p.m. in a hybrid version, in the Prešern Hall at SAZU (Novi trg 4, 1000 Ljubljana) and via Zoom. Pre-registration for the lecture must be done by November 17 at 6 p.m. at the latest. When registering for the event, the type of participation is selected (at the location or via Zoom). All registered participants via Zoom will receive a Zoom link to their email address before the event.
ABOUT THE LECTURE
Imagine microscopic lasers that are entirely composed of biological organisms, that divide, self-organize, adapt and heal injuries, i.e. they are alive. This enables new ways of manipulation and biodetection in living organisms and human-machine interfaces previously only possible in science fiction. To achieve this goal, dr. Together with his colleagues, Matjaž Humar was the first to insert a laser into living human cells and demonstrate its use for biosensory and tracking of individual cells. The first laser inside a cell and similar new technologies open a completely new perspective on the functioning of cells and organisms. The discovery generated a lot of interest both in the profession and in the media. In the lecture, dr. Humar presented the findings of these studies in a popular way. As a two-time winner of Marie Skłodowska-Curie scholarship, ERC Starting Grant, and many other foreign and domestic projects, dr. Humar also presented his research path, which led him through postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, to the establishment of his laboratory at the Jožef Stefan Institute.
ABOUT THE LECTURER
Dr. Matjaž Humar is the head of the Laboratory for Bio-Integrated Photonics at the Jožef Stefan Institute and an assistant professor at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics of the University of Ljubljana. After his doctorate in physics, he did postdoctoral training at the Wellman Center for Photomedicine: Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. He is the winner of several research grants, including the prestigious ERC Starting Grant for the project entitled “Cell lasers – connecting optical resonances with biological processes”. He also recently received the Blinč Prize for physicists at the beginning of his career.
ASEF connects scientists and academics all over the world.
The ASEF Speaker Series project is made possible with the financial support of the Government Office for Slovenians Abroad and the Office of the Republic of Slovenia for Youth.