Atam P. Dhawan

He obtained his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, and Ph.D. from the University of Manitoba, all in Electrical Engineering. From 1985- 2000, he held faculty positions in Electrical & Computer Engineering, and Radiology departments at University of Houston, University of Cincinnati, University of Texas at Arlington, UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, and University of Toledo.  From 2000-2009, He served as the Chair of Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, and then became Associate and Interim Dean of Albert Dorman Honors College (2009-2014). Since 2014, he has been serving as the Senior Vice Provost for Research, Executive Director of Undergraduate Research and Innovation (URI).

Dr. Dhawan is an elected Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI), Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering (IEEE), Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), and Fellow of the International Academy of Medical and Biological Engineering (IAMBE) for his contributions in medical imaging and image analysis, and healthcare innovations. His research interests lie in medical imaging, medical image analysis, point-of-care technologies, pattern recognition and computer-aided-diagnosis. He has published over 216 research papers and book chapters. He has also authored and co-authored several books in medical imaging, and image analysis. He holds several patents, three of which have been commercialized or licensed.

Dr. Dhawan pioneered low-angle trans-illumination technology and first demonstrated its application in skin-cancer imaging and specifically diagnostic screening and characterization of skin-cancers in 1984. His invention, patented as Nevoscope, established the field of point-of-care (POC) in-situ diagnostic evaluation of skin-lesions, creating the field of dermatoscopy for effective early detection of skin-cancers by dermatologists in their offices. His optical imaging cornerstone technology led to 2 successful medical companies (Translite and 3GEN) for manufacturing and marketing of Veinlite and Dermlite devices, which respectively have been used in the interventional treatment of spider-vein diseases and early diagnosis of skin-cancers helping millions of patients.

Dr. Dhawan chairs the NIH Point-of-Care Technology Research Network (POCTRN) Independent Expert Board. He is a recipient of numerous awards including Martin Epstein Award (1984), NIH FIRST Award (1988), Sigma-Xi Young Investigator Award (1992), IEEE EMBS Early Career Achievement Award (1995), Doermann Distinguished Lecture Award (1999), EMBS Distinguished Lecturer award (2012-2013) and IEEE EMBS William J. Morlock Award in Excellence in Biomedical Technology (2021). He served as the Conference Chair of the IEEE 28th International Conference of Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (2006) and IEEE 42nd International Conference of Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (2020). He has organized and chaired the IEEE-EMBS International Conferences on Point- of-Care Technologies and Healthcare Innovation in Bangalore, India (2013), and in Seattle (2014), co-chaired the NIH- IEEE Strategic Conference on Point-of-Care Technologies for Precision Medicine in Bethesda (2015), co-chaired IEEE-NIH Conference on Healthcare Innovation and Point-of-Care Technologies in Cancun (2016) and co-chaired 2017 IEEE-NIH Special Topics Conference on Healthcare Innovation and Point-of-Care Technologies in Bethesda. Dr. Dhawan served as the founding Editor-In-Chief of the IEEE Journal of Translational Engineering in Health and Medicine (2012-2018), and the founding chair of the IEEE EMBS technical committee on Translational Engineering and Healthcare Innovations (2014-2018). He also served as the Senior Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, Editorial Board Member for International Journal of Pattern Recognition, and steering committee member for IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging. Dr. Dhawan has chaired numerous NIH special emphasis and review panels, and site visit & review teams for NIH BTRR P41 program (1990-present). From 2008-2011, He chaired the NIH Chartered Study Section on Biomedical Computing and Health Informatics.