Kimani Toussaint
{{Short description|American professor and academic}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name = Kimani Toussaint
| birth_name = Kimani Christopher Toussaint
| birth_place = Philadelphia
| workplaces = University of Chicago
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Brown University
| alma_mater = Boston University
University of Pennsylvania
| thesis_title = Quantum ellipsometry
| thesis_url = https://worldcat.org/en/title/174964716
| thesis_year = 2004
| awards = National Science Foundation CAREER Award (2010)
| website = {{Official URL}}
}}
Kimani Christopher Toussaint, Jr. is an American engineer who is a professor and senior associate dean in the School of Engineering at Brown University.{{EuropePMC}} His research considers the development of quantitative nonlinear optical imaging methods and advanced optical techniques for nanotechnology, and the characterization of plasmonic nanostructure.{{Google scholar id}} He is a Fellow of Optica.
Early life and education
Toussaint is from Philadelphia.{{Cite web |title=B.U. Bridge: Boston University community's weekly newspaper |url=https://www.bu.edu/bridge/archive/2001/02-23/fellowship.html |access-date=2023-01-08 |website=bu.edu}} He became interested in physics as a child.{{Cite web |title=Optica Fellow Profiles |url=https://www.optica.org/en-us/get_involved/awards_and_honors/fellow_members/fellow_profiles/kimani_c_toussaint_jr/}} Toussaint studied physics and African American Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, where he met Anthony Garito, a professor who introduced him to optics and engineering. In his physics classes, he was one of the only African American students. He moved to Boston University for his graduate research, where he specialized in electrical engineering. His doctoral research explored quantum ellipsometry of semiconductors.{{Cite journal |last1=Toussaint |first1=Kimani C. |last2=Di Giuseppe |first2=Giovanni |last3=Bycenski |first3=Kenneth J. |last4=Sergienko |first4=Alexander V. |last5=Saleh |first5=Bahaa E. A. |last6=Teich |first6=Malvin C. |date=2004-08-09 |title=Quantum ellipsometry using correlated-photon beams |url=https://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevA.70.023801 |journal=Physical Review A |volume=70 |issue=2 |pages=023801 |doi=10.1103/PhysRevA.70.023801|bibcode=2004PhRvA..70b3801T }} At Boston, he was awarded a Gates Millennium Fellowship, which supported his graduate program.
Research and career
After his PhD, Toussaint was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Chicago, where he worked on superresolution optical microscopy, optical tweezing of nanoparticles, and polarization control.{{Cite web |last=Communications |first=Grainger Engineering Office of Marketing and |title=Toussaint earns Provost's Distinguished Promotion Award |url=https://mechse.illinois.edu/news/toussaint-earns-provosts-distinguished-promotion-award |access-date=2023-01-08 |website=mechse.illinois.edu |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=Kimani Toussaint |url=http://www.nasonline.org/programs/kavli-frontiers-of-science/frontiers-alumni/alumni-directory/kimani-toussaint.html |access-date=2023-01-08 |website=nasonline.org}}
Toussaint was appointed to the faculty at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2007.{{citation needed|date=January 2023}} His research exploits various properties of light, including angular momentum, linear momentum and other polarization degrees of freedom. He is interested in the realization of bioimaging techniques to better understand biological tissue and disease.{{Cite web |last=Dame |first=Marketing Communications: Web {{!}} University of Notre |title=Kimani C. Toussaint, Jr. |url=https://nsf-fosworkshop.nd.edu/speakers/session-4---march-9/kimani-c-toussaint-jr/ |access-date=2023-01-08 |website=Future of Semiconductors and Beyond |language=en}} To this end, he developed an imaging platform that combines second-harmonic generation imaging with confocal microscopy and Mueller matrix polarimetry. Alongside bioimaging, Toussaint has developed nano antennas to exploit near-field optics.
In 2014, Toussaint worked as a Martin Luther King Jr. Visiting associate professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and worked with Peter So.{{Cite web |date=2014 |title=imani C. Toussaint |url=https://mlkscholars.mit.edu/scholars/kimani-c-toussaint}} In Fall 2019, Toussaint joined the faculty at Brown University, and by 2020 he was made a Senior Associate Dean of the School of Engineering.{{Cite web |title=Toussaint, Kimani |url=https://vivo.brown.edu/display/ktoussai |access-date=2023-01-08 |website=vivo.brown.edu}}{{Cite web |title=Optica Kimani C. Toussaint Brown University |url=https://www.optica.org/en-us/events/topical_meetings/amplify_immersion/speakers/kimani_c_toussaint/}} He leads the Photonics Research of Bio/Nano Environments (PROBE) laboratory{{Cite web |title=People |url=https://sites.brown.edu/probelab/people/ |access-date=2023-01-08 |website=Welcome to PROBE lab! |language=en-US}} and is Senior Associate Dean in the School of Engineering.{{Cite web |title=Toussaint named Senior Associate Dean in the School of Engineering |url=https://engineering.brown.edu/news/2020-07-31/faculty-news |access-date=2023-01-08 |website=Engineering {{!}} Brown University |language=en}} He is part of the National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center in Cellular Metamaterials.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, it emerged that pulse oximeters were less effective on Black patients. This is because melanin absorbs light, making pulse oximeters overestimate the level of oxygen in a patient's blood.{{Cite web |last=Lanford |first=Hannah |date=2022 |title=From Nonlinear Optical Imaging to Pulse Oximeters |url=https://www.optica-opn.org/home/articles/volume_33/november_2022/departments/from_nonlinear_optical_imaging_to_pulse_oximeters/}} In response, Toussaint started to develop a new, more equitable device.{{Cite web |last=Bajaj |first=Simar |date=2022-06-05 |title=A blood-oxygen detector without racial bias - The Boston Globe |url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/07/05/opinion/blood-oxygen-detector-without-racial-bias/ |access-date=2023-01-08 |website=BostonGlobe.com |language=en-US}} In an interview with Optica, Toussaint said that the pandemic changed his perspective of where his research could have the largest societal impact.{{Cite web |last=McFarling |first=Usha Lee |date=2022-08-19 |title='A poster child' for diversity in science: Black engineers work to fix long-ignored bias in oxygen readings |url=https://www.statnews.com/2022/08/19/diversity-in-science-black-engineers-work-to-fix-long-ignored-bias-in-pulse-oximeters/ |access-date=2023-01-08 |website=STAT |language=en-US}}
= Awards and honors =
Toussaint is a Fellow of SPIE{{Cite web |title=Kimani Toussaint |url=https://spie.org/profile/Kimani.Toussaint-31193?SSO=1 |access-date=2023-01-08 |website=spie.org}} and Optica. Other awards and honors include:
- 2010 National Science Foundation CAREER Award{{Cite web |last=Communications |first=Grainger Engineering Office of Marketing and |title=Toussaint receives 2010 NSF CAREER Award |url=https://grainger.illinois.edu/news/stories/2010-02-25-toussaint-receives-2010-nsf-career-award |access-date=2023-01-08 |website=grainger.illinois.edu |language=en}}
- 2014 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Visiting Associate Professor
- 2015 Illinois Dean's Award for Excellence in Research{{Cite web |last=Communications |first=Grainger Engineering Office of Marketing and |title=Toussaint receives Dean's Award for Excellence in Research |url=https://mechse.illinois.edu/news/toussaint-receives-deans-award-excellence-research |access-date=2023-01-08 |website=mechse.illinois.edu |language=en}}
- 2017 Illinois Everitt Award for Teaching Excellence{{Cite web |last=Communications |first=Grainger Engineering Office of Marketing and |title=Toussaint wins Everitt Award for Teaching Excellence |url=https://mechse.illinois.edu/news/toussaint-wins-everitt-award-teaching-excellence |access-date=2023-01-08 |website=mechse.illinois.edu |language=en}}
- 2019 Distinguished Promotion Award{{Cite web |title=Distinguished Promotions – Office of the Provost |url=https://provost.illinois.edu/awards/campus-awards-honors/distinguished-promotions/ |access-date=2023-01-08 |website=provost.illinois.edu}}
- 2020 Elected Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences{{Cite web |title=Kimani Toussaint {{!}} The AAS |url=https://www.aasciences.africa/fellow/kimani-toussaint |access-date=2023-01-08 |website=aasciences.africa}}
- 2021 Elected Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering{{Cite web |title=Kimani C. Toussaint, Jr., Ph.D. COF-6142 - AIMBE |url=https://aimbe.org/college-of-fellows/cof-6142/ |access-date=2023-01-08 |language=en}}
= Selected publications =
His publications{{Scopus id}} include
- Application of plasmonic bowtie nanoantenna arrays for optical trapping, stacking, and sorting{{Cite Q|Q51543136}}
- The effect of keratoconus on the structural, mechanical, and optical properties of the corne{{Cite Q|Q37840761}}
- Nonlinear optical response from arrays of Au bowtie nanoantennas{{Cite Q|Q82595751}}
References
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Category:Scientists from Philadelphia
Category:21st-century American engineers
Category:Engineers from Pennsylvania
Category:Year of birth missing (living people)
Category:Boston University alumni
Category:University of Pennsylvania alumni
Category:University of Chicago fellows
Category:African-American engineers
Category:21st-century African-American scientists
Category:University of Chicago faculty