Ruikang (Ricky) Wang, PhD

Ph.D., University of Glasgow, 1995
M.Sc., Tianjin University, 1990
B.Eng., Tianjin University, 1988

A UW faculty member since 2010, Dr. Ruikang (Ricky) Wang, Ph.D., was recently appointed to the George and Martina Kren Endowed Chair in Ophthalmology Research. Wang is a professor with appointments in the Departments of Bioengineering and Ophthalmology at the UW and directs the Biophotonics and Imaging Laboratory.

The Wang lab is dedicated to developing biomedical imaging techniques for early diagnosis, treatment, and management of human diseases.

His efforts have contributed to retinal findings in infants with unprecedented precision, speed, and imaging resolution. Dr. Wang is widely credited with being the inventor of optical coherence tomography (OCT) angiography, a technique in which blood flow can be measured in all blood vessels in the eye non-invasively. This technique is now a standard testing modality in ophthalmology offices worldwide.

"My laboratory is dedicated to developing novel and clinically useful biomedical imaging techniques for early diagnosis, treatment and management of human diseases."

UW Medicine Inventor of the Year, 2023
Fellow of American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE).
Fellow of Optica (formerly Optical Society of America).
Fellow of International Society of Optics and Photonics (SPIE).
Recipient of Research to Prevent Blindness Innovative Research Award.
Recipient of OHSU Technology Innovation Award.
Editor in Chief for Biomedical Optics Express.

Biophotonics/Biomedical Optics Functional optical imaging using coherence gating (OCT) and confocal gating techniques Photoacoustic imaging Laser Doppler, speckle and intrinsic optical signal imaging Optical biopsy and functional imaging in tissue engineering Light propagation in biological tissue

Biophotonics and Imaging Laboratory https://depts.washington.edu/wangast/