Anthony J. Durkin

Associate Professor, Biomedical Engineering
Associate Professor, Surgery

Dr. Anthony Durkin is an associate professor, Biomedical Engineering and Surgery and co-director of the Wide-field Functional Imaging laboratory at UCI Beckman Laser Institute & Medical Clinic.

Dr. Durkin is a leader in the development and application of technology for quantitative, in-vivo optical spectroscopy and imaging of tissue functions and wide-field imaging techniques.  Much of his work is translational research in which seeks to develop and apply innovative methods for understanding processes such as dysplasia, malignancy and wound healing in superficial tissues, such as skin. He specializes in quantitative near-infrared spectroscopy and imaging, chemometrics, quantitative fluorescence spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy and light-tissue interaction. In 2001, he joined UCI Beckman Laser Institute & Medical Clinic as the first Beckman Fellow at the Institute.

Prior to joining UCI Beckman Laser Institute & Medical Clinic, Dr. Durkin was the director of bioscience at Candela Corporation where he worked on diagnostic and therapeutic applications of lasers to tissue. During this time, he also received training in intellectual property and competitive intelligence. Prior to this, he was selected as a National Research Council/ National Science Foundation post-doctoral Fellow and transitioned to the role of visiting scientist at the Electro-Optics branch of the Center for Devices and Radiological Health at the Food and Drug Administration.

Dr. Durkin is named in 13 issued patents, including seminal intellectual property related to spatial frequency domain imaging.  He is a co-founder of Modulim.

In 2017, he was elected to the designation “Fellow” by the International Society for Optics and Photonics (SPIE). He is a senior member of SPIE and the Optical Society of America.  Since 2003, he has been a editorial board member of the SPIE Journal of Biomedical Optics and is currently one of three topical editors. From 2009 to 2016, he was the co-editor of the Optical Society of America (OSA) Virtual Journal of Biomedical Optics. From 2003 to 2005, he served as the chair of the OSA Division of Optics in Biology and Medicine and was a member of the OSA executive council.  From 1999 to 2006, he was a topical editor for OSA Applied Optics.

Dr. Durkin earned his Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from the University of Texas, Austin; an M.S. degree in solid state physics from the University of North Texas and his B.S. in physics from Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas.

  • Education

    Ph.D., Biomedical Engineering, University of Texas, Austin, 1995
    M.S., Physics (Solid State), University of North Texas, 1987
    B.S., Physics, Lamar University, 1985

  • Phone

    949.824.3284