Brian Vohnsen

Brian Vohnsen is a professor of physics at UCD in Dublin, Ireland specializing in optics. He is head of the Advanced Optical Imaging Group which he founded in 2008. In 2021 he became a fellow of Optica for significant contributions to vision science, including photoreceptor optics and high resolution retinal imaging.

Early life and education Brian Vohnsen, born in Aarhus, Denmark, studied engineering at Aalborg University before transferring into the field of Optics. alongside Pablo Artal for 7 years (2001 - 2008). During this time he was also awarded a Ramon y Cajal fellowship. He did a postdoctoral fellowship at Universidad de Murcia funded by a Marie-Curie Fellowship where he worked on topics such as Evanescent field and directional imaging including a 2001 research paper on visualizing evanescent waves ("Direct visualization of evanescent optical waves") and imaging of retinal cone mosaic ("Directional imaging of the retinal cone mosaic").

In 2008 Vohnsen came to Ireland as a Science Foundation Ireland Stokes awardee and created a new MSc. programme in NanoBio Science while also exploring advanced optical techniques centered on high-resolution optical images. Lately, he has pioneered new exploration of the Stiles-Crawford effect in relation to vision science and myopia.

Awards and honours ARVO Fellow (Silver 2024, Gold 2026) Optica Fellow (2021) Stokes Lectureship award (2008) Ramon y Cajal Fellowship (2003 – 2008) Marie-Curie Fellowship (2001 – 2003)