In memoriam Gabriel Popescu

Phi Optics family is mourning the tragic passing of our founder and President, Professor Gabriel Popescu. He was a father to his family, a friend to many, a luminary scientist and mentor for the field of biophotonics and quantitative phase imaging.
Gabriel’s legacy and memory will live on with us, his energy and presence will be missed. Our condolences and support are going to his family in this time of grief.

Gabriel Popescu is the William L. Everitt Distinguished Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is the recipient of 2022 SPIE Dennis Gabor Award in Diffractive Optics. Gabriel received his Ph.D. in Optics from the School of Optics/ CREOL (now the College of Optics and Photonics), University of Central Florida. He then continued his training with the late Michael Feld at M.I.T., working as a postdoctoral associate. Gabriel then joined Univeristy of Illinois in August 2007 where he directed the Quantitative Light Imaging Laboratory (QLI Lab) at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology. In 2009 he founded Phi Optics, Inc to bring Quantitative Phase Imaging to the worldwide scientific community and push forward the frontiers of research, drug discovery, and diagnostics/treatments researchers.

Dr. Popescu served as Associate Editor of Optics Express and Biomedical Optics Express, Editorial Board Member for Journal of Biomedical Optics and Nature Scientific Reports. He is also a Fellow of OSA, SPIE, AIMBE, and Senior member of IEEE. Read more about Dr. Gabriel Popescu’s legacy on the UIUC Grainger College announcement.