Position Title
Professor
Dr. Fantini received his doctoral degree in physics from the University of Florence, Italy, in 1992. His dissertation was based on a Raman scattering study of ceramic superconductors. From 1993 to 1999, Dr. Fantini held postdoctoral and faculty appointments at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Department of Physics. In 1999, he joined Tufts University as an Assistant Professor, and has been one of the inaugural faculty members of the Department of Biomedical Engineering, created at Tufts in 2002.
Dr. Fantini's research interests are in the area of biomedical optics, specifically in diffuse near-infrared spectroscopy and imaging of biological tissues. His research laboratory has ongoing projects aimed at non-invasive functional imaging of the brain, the study of cerebral and skeletal muscle hemodynamics, and the development of novel instrumentation for optical mammography. Dr. Fantini's research has resulted in eleven patents and about two-hundred journal and conference proceedings publications. Research activities in Prof. Fantini's group include quantitative modeling of light propagation in optically turbid media, the design of optical instrumentation for medical imaging, the development of novel near-infrared spectroscopy and imaging techniques for medical diagnostics, and a number of applications on animal models and human subjects. Specific applications are aimed at functional imaging of the brain, cerebral hemodynamics assessment, diffuse optical mammography, hemoglobin concentration and saturation in skeletal muscles, and quantitative tissue oximetry.