Dr. Sanathana Konugolu Venkata Sekar (Team Leader, FAST-BioPhotonics@Tyndall, Senior staff researcher and Biomedical team coordinator), a leading scientist/entrepreneur with 9+ years of experience in biophotonics. As Biomedical theme coordinator, he coordinates scientific research across a multi-disciplinary team composed of 9 PIs and 25+ PhDs, postdocs at IPIC. He co-/supervises 5 PhD students, 4 postdocs and a research engineer, mentors many more students, entrepreneurs. He is also a co-founder of BioPixS Ltd-Biophotonics Standards, a spinoff of his research work.

He received his PhD (cum Laude) in Biomedical optics from Politecnico di Milano (Polimi), Milan, Italy and a recipient of Marie Curie MSCA-ITN fellowship (acronym: OILTEBIA-Optical Imaging Laser TEchniques for Biomedical Applications). He got his Master's degree in Physics (Gold Medalist) with Photonics specialization from Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning, India.

His former post-doctoral research was in Biomedical optics, in particular, time-domain diffuse optical spectroscopy (TDDOS) applied to phantom and in vivo clinical studies, Time domain diffuse correlation spectroscopy (TDDCS), Time Resolved Raman spectroscopy of diffusive media, and clinical translational research. One of his critical innovation was his invention of Frequency Offset Raman Spectroscopy (FORS), a novel technique to perform deep tissue Raman spectroscopy. A team player, actively collaborated with various institutions (universities, scientific institutions, hospitals, industries) in Biophotonics.

His current area of research and interests are UpConverting NanoParticle (UCNPs) for deep tissue imaging and optogenetics applications, GAs in Scattering Media Absorption Spectroscopy (GASMAS) for infant lung vitals monitoring, TDDOS, Raman spectroscopy, instrument development in Biophotonics, Imaging and Non-imaging probe development, entrepreneurial activities in Biophotonics, MedTech technologies.