Erin O'Kane
Erin O’Kane (Chambers Scholar) is a third-year Ph.D. candidate in Biomedical Engineering. She graduated from the University of Rochester with a B.S. in optical engineering and B.A. in chemistry. During her time at the Institute of Optics, she focused on optical design, building a strong foundation for her current research in biomedical imaging. At Duke, Erin works in the BIOS Lab under the mentorship of Dr. Adam Wax, where she specializes in spectroscopic optical coherence tomography (SOCT). Her research investigates light scattering properties in normal and dysplastic tissues, with the goal of advancing real-time, objective diagnostic tools for epithelial carcinomas.
Rui (Alan) Yao
Rui (Alan) Yao (Fitzpatrick Scholar) is a third-year Ph.D. student in Biomedical Engineering at Duke University. He received his Bachelor of Science in Bioengineering from the University of Washington – Seattle in 2023. As an undergraduate, he focused on developing automated, low-cost microfluidic devices for tuberculosis diagnosis under Prof. Paul Yager. He also worked with Prof. Ramkumar Sabesan on image processing algorithms for optical coherence tomography (OCT) and adaptive optics scanning laser ophthalmoscopy (AOSLO). Under the guidance of Prof. Junjie Yao at Duke, his current research involves developing fast, three-dimensional photoacoustic and ultrasound imaging systems for liver aging monitoring.
Wan Wang
Wan Wang (Chambers Fellow) is a first-year Ph.D. student in Biomedical Engineering. He received his B.E. in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Hong Kong in 2023 and got his M.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Duke University in 2025. He works in the Biomedical Interferometry Optics & Spectroscopy lab led by Prof. Adam Wax, where he focuses on using the embedded GPU platforms to accelerate the processing of optical coherence (OCT) and quantitative phase imaging (QPI) and improve the imaging performance, aiming to build low-cost and high-performance optical imaging systems as diagnostic tools.
Fengyang Xiao
Fengyang Xiao (Chambers Fellow) is a first-year Ph.D. student in Biomedical Engineering at Duke University. She received her Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications and her Master of Science in Mathematics from Sun Yat-sen University. Advised by Prof. Long Pei and Prof. Lu Li, her master's research focused on numerical algorithms for partial differential equations and image processing, providing a strong theoretical foundation for her work in medical imaging. At Duke, Fengyang works in the VIP Lab under the mentorship of Prof. Sina Farsiu, where she integrates numerical algorithms with artificial intelligence to develop more accurate and efficient methods for medical image analysis.